GIOVANNI, bishop of GERUSALEMME. - Born about 356, died in 417. In his youth he embraced the monastic state, and in 386 succeeded St. Cirillo in the see of Jerusalem. Not highly 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 drew upon him the hostility of St. Epifanio and St. Girolamo, giving rise to an unedifying struggle. It began in 393, when Epifanio preached against the Origenists in the church of the Holy Sepulchre; G. replied by accusing him of anthropomorphism. The breach became definitive when, shortly afterwards, St. Epifanio ordained Pauliniano, brother of St. Girolamo, priest for the monastery of Bethlehem, and at the same time wrote a letter to the monks warning them against the Origenist bishop. G. complained of this to the Pope and, at the same time, imposed an interdict upon the monks of Bethlehem. St. Girolamo, then already a friend of G., wrote a pamphlet against him, reiterating the accusations of Origenism. The scandal was grave; in 396 Count Archelao endeavoured in vain to reconcile the disputants, but the following year, through the intervention of Bishop Teofilo of Alexandria, peace could be restored. In 415 G. received Pelagio sympathetically, whose doctrine he recognized as orthodox at the Synod of Diospoli in 416. Shortly afterwards he stood by inertly while the monastery of Bethlehem was plundered by the Pelagians, thereby earning severe rebukes from Pope Innocenzo I.