Pope Saint John I and John Paul II

Pope Saint John I

Little is known of Pope Saint John I’s life before he took office, except that he was born in Tuscany and that his father was Constantius. He was elected a week after the death of his predecessor Hormisdas. Thanks to the recent reunification of the Eastern and Western Churches under Hormisdas, relations were very good with the Byzantine empire, but for the same reason they were strained with Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths. The Byzantine emper…

Pope Saint John I and John Paul II

We celebrate today, Pope John Saint I (+526). One might wonder why it took five centuries for a Pope to be chosen with this very biblical and apostolic name. But, then again, up until the time of Pope John, Popes kept their baptismal names, and it was not until 533, when a certain Mercurius was elected, who thought his pagan name unfitting for the head of the Catholic Church, took the name of his predecessor, John II. It is also curious that the…