JOHN, bishop of Jerusalem. — Born c. 356, died in 417. In his youth 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 attachment to the doctrines of the Origenists drew upon him the hostility of St. Epiphanius and St. Jerome, giving rise to an unedifying controversy. 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 breach became definitive when shortly afterwards St. Epiphanius ordained Paulinianus, brother of St. Jerome, as priest for the monastery of Bethlehem and together they wrote a letter warning the monks against the Origenist bishop. J. complained to the Pope and together they laid an interdict on the monks of Bethlehem. St. Jerome, who had previously been a friend of J., then wrote a pamphlet against him, reiterating the charges of Origenism. The scandal was grave; in 396 Count Archelaus vainly endeavoured to reconcile the contenders, but the following year, thanks to the intervention of Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria, peace was restored. In 415 J. received Pelagius sympathetically and at the Synod of Diospolis in 416 acknowledged his doctrine as orthodox. Soon afterwards he stood by inertly while the monastery of Bethlehem was sacked by the Pelagians, thereby incurring sharp reproaches from Pope Innocent I.