JOHN THE DEACON, called Hymonides. - B. c. 825, d. before 882. A monk of Monte Cassino, a friend of Anastasius Bibliothecarius, he had great influence at the court of Pope John VIII (872-82). Commissioned by him to write the biography of St. Gregory the Great, he composed the most copious life of the great Roman Pope, which remains the best among the ancient biographies, written with good historical sense, in thematic form, according to the four books of the Regula pastoralis, rather than chronologically.

His literary authorship of other works is not fully established. According to the Latin sources, at the request of Gauderic of Velletri he began a life of St. Clement of Rome, and turned into 575 verses the apocryphal Convivium (Symposion), commonly called the Caena Cypriani (v.) of St. Cyprian. His collaboration on the Liber Pontificalis is probable.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: PL. 75, 59-242; Manitius, I, pp. 689-95; A. Lapôtre, Le souper de Jean Diacre, in Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist., 21 (1901), pp. 319-48; cf. also the entry CORONOLIA.

Lucchesio Spalding

@incollection{ec6_giovanni_diacono_detto_hymonid, author = {Spätling, Lucchesio}, title = {Giovanni Diacono, detto hymonides}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {553}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/giovanni-diacono-detto-hymonides} }

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John the Deacon, called Hymonides

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