John the Almoner

GIOVANNI L'ELEMOSINIERE

Feast day: 23 January

JOHN THE ALMONER. - In Greek: Ἐλεήμων (= "merciful"), patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt, b. at Amathus (Cyprus) in the second half of the 6th century, d. there ca. 619. After the death of his wife and children, he distributed his considerable wealth to the poor and devoted himself to a life of perfection. The fame of his goodness had spread so widely that the clergy and people of Alexandria asked the Emperor for him as patriarch (610-611).

He struggled effectively against Monophysitism and the abuses that had crept in among the clergy and the people, causing the practices of religion to flourish again; but above all he distinguished himself by his generosity toward the poor, whom he called "his masters." As soon as he arrived in his see, he had a list drawn up, which reached the number of 7,500, and he provided them with alms every day; he visited and assisted the hospitals, the hospices and the monasteries; almost all his revenues went to alms, and God himself intervened several times in an extraordinary manner. The invasion of the Persians in Egypt forced him to take refuge at Amathus, where he died not long afterward.

His body was taken to Constantinople; then given by the sultan to John Corvinus, king of Hungary (1458), who had it placed in his royal chapel at Buda; in 1530 it passed to Tali, near Pressburg, and from there, on 23 Jan. 1632, to the cathedral of Pressburg itself. Among the Greeks, his feast falls on 12 Nov. (cf. Synax. Constantinop., coll. 215-19); in the Martyr. Romanum on 23 Jan.

G. composed a Life of the patriarch St. Tychon of Alexandria, but only a few portions of it remain (edited by H. Usener, Der hl. Tychon, Leipzig 1907). - See plate XLIV.

Plate XLIV (el. Fiorentini) ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER Painting by Titian (a. 1533) - Venice, church of S. Giovanni Elemosiniere.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: Lives: the one written by his two friends and co-workers, Sophronius and Moschus, has been lost (cf. nevertheless H. Delchaye, Une vie inédite de St Jean l'Aumônier, in Anal. Boll., 45 (1927), pp. 5-74); in it one would like to see more or less the text of Sophronius and Moschus; another was written by Leontius of Neapolis (Cyprus), Vita i Ioannis Elemosynarii, to fill the gaps of the first (Greek text in PG 93, 1613-68; Latin trans. by Anastasius the Librarian in PL 73, 337-92); a third is found in Symeon Metaphrastes, Vita et conversatio, 1. Patris nostri Ioannis Alexandriae episc., (PG 114, 895-903), quite dependent on Leontius. Studies: Acta SS. Ioannii, II, Paris 1863, pp. 111-31; H. Gelzer, Leonios von Neapolis Leben des hl. Joh., Erzbischof von Alex., Freiburg im Br. 1893 (it gives the Greek text and the German trans.); H.F.F. Duckworth, St. John the Almugiver, patr. v. Alex., London 1901.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec6_giovanni_l_elemosiniere, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Giovanni L'Elemosiniere}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {556--557}, 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-l-elemosiniere} }

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