PARASTRON (BARASTRON), GIOVANNI. — A Franciscan, Greek citizen of Constantinople, born c. the mid-13th century, died in Constantinople in 1275. Well-versed in theology and in the Latin and Greek languages, he rendered eminent service to the cause of Union before, during, and after the Second Council of Lyon.
Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus had already sent P. to Pope Gregory X in 1272 to negotiate the Union; he arrived in Italy after 1 April 1272, as is evident from the Pope’s letter to the Emperor dated 24 October 1272. After 29 October 1272 (the date of another papal letter to the nuncios destined for the Emperor), P. returned to Constantinople in the company of the Pope’s nuncios, Jerome of Ascoli and companions. P. went again to the West, specifically to Lyon, as a companion of the Franciscan nuncios and the Greek legates, arriving in that city before the fourth session of the Council (24 June 1274). At the proclamation of the Union on 29 June 1274, the Greek legates sang the Constantinopolitan Creed with the Filioque during the solemn Mass of the Pope in Greek, together with P. and the Dominican William of Moerbeke.
After the Council, the Pope entrusted P. with returning to Constantinople, emphasizing that P. had long and successfully labored in the cause of Union (from 17 to 18 October). The Union was proclaimed in Constantinople in 1275, and the Catholic patriarch of the Greek rite, John Bekkos, was elected on 26 May 1275. In the same year, the zealous apostle of the Union died.