Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/554

 JOHN

486

JOHN

by which Zeno and Acacius hoped to conciliate the

Monophysites (see Henoticon). Peter Mongus ac- cepted it at once, whereas Talaia rejected it. Zeno then wrote to the pope (Simplicius, 463-483), saying that Talaia was unworthy of the See of Alexandria, being a perjurer and friend of Dioscorus, that Mongus was the right man to be patriarch. A result of this letter was that the Holy See did not at once acknowl- edge Talaia. But the pope answered the emperor, refusing to admit Mongus as patriarch in any case. Zeno, however, ordered the governor (dux) of Egypt to expel Talaia and establish Mongus in his place. Mongus then sent notice of his succession to Rome, Antioch, and Constantinople. Acacius acknowledged him and inserted his name in the Byzantine diptychs. Talaia, expelled from Alexandria, fled to Rome in 483. He there explained the whole situation to the pope and persuaded him to write two letters to Acacius de- nouncing Mongus. So also he was the adviser of the next pope, Felix JI (or 111,483^92), in the great con- troversy about Mongus and the "Henoticon " that led to the Acaciau schism. Mongus from this time be- came the great subject of dispute. Communion with him meant Jlonophysitism. John Talaia practically disappeared from the field. He stayed at Rome under the pope's protection (always of course opposed to Mongus and the "Henoticon ") helping the papal court with his advice and knowledge of Eastern affairs. Liberatus thinks he became Bishop of Nolana in the Campagna; Lequien thinks this unlikely (Oriens Christ., II, 419). Under Gelasius I (492-496) Ta- laia's name still occurs as that of a counsellor whose advice the pope willingly followed. He was never able to go back to his own see and died at Rome at a date unknown.

It may be of interest to note that Paul Drews (" Zur Entstehungs<5eschichte des Kanons in der rom. Messe", Tubingen, 1902) attributes the present ar- rangement of the Canon of the Mass in some measure to John Talaia of Alexandria. His thesis is this: Originally the order of the Canon corresponded to the Antiochene Anaphora. It was re-arranged in the fifth century to make it conform more or less to the Alexandrine Liturgy, most probably by Gelasius I by the advice of his influential guest (op. cit., p. 38).

Lequien. Oriens Ckristianus, II (P.iris, 1740), 417-419. AH the histories of Monophysitism and the Acacian schism contain some account of Talaia. Liberatus, Breviarium causae Nes- torianorum et Eutychianorum in P. L., LXVIII. 963-1052; EvA- GRlus, Historia ecclesiasti^a. III, xii sqq., in P. O., LXXXVI; Hefele-Leclercq, Hifstoire des Conciles, II (Paris, 190S), 916- 930; Hergevrother, Handbuch der allgem. Kirchengeschichte, I (4th ed., Freiburg, 1902), 687-589.

Adrian Fortescue.

John the Almsgiver (Joannes Eleemosynahius; Joannes Misericors), Saint, Patriarch of Alexan- dria (606-16), b. at Amathus in Cyprus about 550; d. there, 616. He was the son of one Epiphanius, governor of Cyprus, and was of noble descent; in early life he was married and had children, but they and his wife soon died, whereupon he entered the religious life.

On the death of the Patriarch Theodorus, the Alexandrians besought Emperor Phocas to appoint John his successor, which was accordingly done. In his youth John had had a vision of a beauti- ful maiden with a garland of olives on her head, who said that she was Compassion, the eldest daughter of the Great King. This had evidently made a deep im- pression on John's mind, and, now that he had the opportunity of exercising benevolence on a large scale, he soon became widely known all over the East for his munificent liberality towards the poor. One of the first stops he took was to make a list of several thou- sand needy persons, whom he took under his especial care. He always referred to th(! poor as his "lords and masters ", becau.se of their mighty influence at the Court of the Most High. He assisted people of every

class who were in need. A shipwrecked merchant was thus helped three times, on the first two occasions apparently without doing him much good; the third time however, John fitted him out with a ship and a cargo of wheat, and by favourable winds he was taken as far as Britain, where, as there was a shortage of wheat, he obtained his own price. Another person, who was not really in need, applied for alms and was detected by the officers of the palace; but John merely said "Give unto him; he may be Our Lord in dis- guise." He visited the hospitals three times every week, and he freed a great many sla\-es. He was a reformer who attacked simony, and fought heresy by means of improvements in religious education. He also reorganized the system of weights and measures for the sake of the poor, and put a stop to corruption among the officials. He increased the number of churches in Alexandria from seven to seventy.

John is said to have devoted the entire revenues of his see to the alleviation of those in need. A rich man presented him -nith a magnificent bed covering; he accepted it for one night, but then sold it, and dis- posed of the money in alms. The rich man " bought in " the article, and again present clI it to John, with the same result. This was repeated several times; but John drily remarked: "We will see who tires first." It was not John. Another instance of his piety was that he caused his own grave to be dug, but only partly so, and appointed a servant to come before him on all state occasions and say " My Lord, j'our tomb is unfinished; pray give onlers for its completion, for you know not the hour when death may seize you." When the Persians sacked Jerusalem in 614, John sent large suppUes of fooil, wine, and money to the fleeing Christians. But eventually the Persians occupied Alexandria, and John himself in his old age was forced to flee to his native country, where he died.

His body was brought to Constantinople, thence to Of en by King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary; thence in 1530 to Toll near Presburg, and finally in 1632 to Presburg cathedral. He was the original patron saint of the Hospitallers, and was commem- orated by the Greeks on 12 Nov. His life, written by Leontius of Neapolis, in Cyprus, was translated into Latin by Anastasius the Librarian in the ninth century and was referred to at the Seventh General Council.

ScHRODL in Kirchenlex., s. v. Johannes, der Almosengeber; Butler. Lives of the Saints; Acta SS., II Jan., 495 sqq. ; David- son in Diet. Christ, Biog,, s. v. Joannes (15); Migne, P, G., XCIII, CXVII; Lequien, Oriens Christ,, II, 445; Palafox y Mendoza, Vida de S, Juan (Madrid, 1762).

C. F. Wemyss Brown.

John the Baptist, S.^i.vt. — The principal sources of information concerning the life and ministry of St. John the Baptist are the canonical Gospels. Of these St. Luke is the most complete, giving as he does the wonderful circumstances accompanying the birth of the Precursor and items on his ministry and death. St. Matthew's Gospel stands in close relation with that of St. Luke, as far as John's public ministry is concerned, but contains nothing in reference to his early life. From St. Mark, whose account of the Precursor's life is very meagre, no new detail can be gathered. Finally, the fovirth Gospel has this spe- cial feature, that it gives the testimony of St. John after the Saviour's baptism. Besides the indications supplied by these writings, passing allusions occur in such passages as Acts, xiii, 24; xix, 1-6; but these are few and bear on the subject only indirectly. To the above should be added what Josephus relates in his Jewish Antiquities (XVIII, v, 2), but it should be remembprod that he is woefully erratic in his dates, mistidvcn in projjcr names, and seems to ar- range facts .-iccording to his own political views; however, his judgment of John, also what he tells