JOHN THE ALMSGIVER. — In Greek: Ἐλεγμέων (= merciful), Patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt, born in Amato (Cyprus) in the second half of the 6th century, died there c. 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. His reputation for goodness had spread so widely that the clergy and people of Alexandria petitioned the Emperor to appoint him patriarch (610-611).
He effectively opposed Monophysitism and the abuses introduced among the clergy and people, reviving religious practices; but above all he distinguished himself by his generosity toward the poor, whom he called “my masters.” As soon as he took office, he had a list drawn up of the poor, which reached the number of 7,500, and he provided them with daily alms. He visited and aided hospitals, hospices, and monasteries; almost all his income went to alms, and God Himself often intervened in extraordinary ways. The Persian invasion of Egypt forced him to flee to Amato, where he died not long afterward.
His body was taken to Constantinople; then, donated by the Sultan to John Hunyadi, King of Hungary (1458), it was placed in his royal chapel in Buda; in 1530 it was moved to Tall near Pressburg, and from there, on 23 January 1632, to the very cathedral of Pressburg. Among the Greeks, his feast is celebrated on 12 November (cf. Synax. Constantinop., cols. 215-19); in the Roman Martyrology on 23 January.
G. composed a Life of the Patriarch St. Tychon of Alexandria, but only a few fragments remain (published by H. Usener, *Der hl. Tychon*, Leipzig 1907).
St. John of God — Portrait by D. V. Díaz (17th c.). Fresco in the church of “Dulce Nombre de María” — Valladolid.
— See plate XLIV.