St. John I

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. John I. St. John I was born during the year 470 AD in Tuscany, Italy and he had lived a life filled with many different difficulties.

St. Pope John I had to inherit all the the Arian heresy, which had denied the divinity of Christ. For over 30 years Italy had been ruled by an awful emperor who adopted all the bad heresy, even while he treated the empire’s Catholics with toleration he still taught the heresy. However, the emperors policy had changed after the young John was elected pope.

During St. John I’s life the eastern emperor began implementing severe measures on the Arians who lived in that area. Due to what was occurring the western emperor decided to force St. John I to manage an assignment to the East with the hopes of softening the damage the heretics had done.

We currently are not fully aware of what occurred or what the outcomes of the negotiations were. However it is known that these negotiations were created to secure and continue the toleration of Catholics in the Western parts.

When St. John I was making his way home, St. John I was taken into custody and he was imprisoned in Ravenna. However, after some time the emperor started to think that St. John I’s friendship and relationship with his eastern rival might start to cause a lot of conspiracy to occur against his throne.

Therefore shortly after St. John I’s imprisonment St. John I had died. St. John I died on May 18, 526 and we believe that he died due to the poor and rough treatment he had endured while he was spending his time in prison.

St. John I’s body was later transported to Rome, Italy and he was later buried in the Basilica of St. Peter.

Prayer to St. John I

St. John I you died because you stayed true to the truth, St. John during all of the difficulties and hard times we may encounter, pray that we may stay strong in our beliefs and help us to teach others about the truth. St. John help us to strengthen our devotion with Christ so that we may continue to have the wisdom and peace we need to trust him and guide others to him.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord and Mary Our Mother in Heaven

Amen

St. John I pray for us

St. Joseph pray for us

May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.

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Works Cited

Information (read from, not taken):

Franciscan Media. "Saint John I. ”Saint John I | Franciscan Media. Accessed 18, May 2021.

Images:

St. John I. May 18, 2021. st. john i - Google Search.