GIOVANNI L'ELEMOSINIERE. – In Greek: Ἐλεήμων (= “merciful”), patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt, born at Amato (Cyprus) in the second half of the sixth century, died there around 619. After his wife and children had died, 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 requested him from the Emperor as patriarch (610–611).
He fought effectively against Monophysitism and the abuses that had arisen among the clergy and the people, reviving the practices of religion; but above all he distinguished himself in his generosity toward the poor, whom he called “his masters.” As soon as he took office, he had a list of them drawn up, which reached the number of 7,500, and provided them with alms every day; he visited and assisted hospitals, hospices, and monasteries; almost all his income went to almsgiving, and God Himself intervened several times in extraordinary ways. The Persian invasion of Egypt forced him to take refuge in Amato, where he died not long afterward.
His body was taken to Constantinople; subsequently it was donated by the sultan to Giovanni Corvino, king of Hungary (1458), who had it placed in his royal chapel at Buda; in 1530 it was transferred to Tali, near Presburg, and from there, on 23 January 1632, to the cathedral of Presburg itself. Among the Greeks, his feast falls on 12 November (cf. Synax. Constantinop., cols. 215–19); in the Martyr. Romanum, 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). – Vedi tav. XLIV.