John, Bishop of Jerusalem

JOHN, Bishop of Jerusalem. - Born around 356, died in 417. As a young man he embraced the monastic state and in 386 succeeded St. Cyril in the see of Jerusalem. Not very learned and not always orthodox in doctrine, he was nevertheless praised and venerated by his contemporaries for his virtues and the holiness of his life.

His love for Origenist doctrines earned him the enmity of St. Epiphanius and St. Jerome, giving rise to an unedifying struggle. It began in 393 when Epiphanius preached against the Origenists in the church of the Holy Sepulchre; J. replied by accusing him of anthropomorphism. The rupture became definitive when shortly afterward St. Epiphanius ordained as priest for the monastery of Bethlehem Paulinianus, brother of St. Jerome, and together wrote a letter to the monks warning them against the Origenist bishop. J. complained about this to the Pope, and together he laid an interdict against the monks of Bethlehem. St. Jerome then, formerly a friend of J., wrote a pamphlet against him, reiterating the accusations of Origenism. The scandal was grave; in 396 the count Archelaus labored in vain to pacify the contenders, but the following year, thanks to the intervention of Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria, peace could be restored. In 415 J. received Pelagius with sympathy, whose doctrine he recognized as orthodox at the Synod of Diospolis in 416. Shortly afterward he stood by inertly during the plundering of the monastery of Bethlehem by the Pelagians, earning harsh reproaches from Pope Innocent I.

Agostino Amore