Saint John I, Pope and Martyr

John, a Tuscan, was elected pope in 523, an old and sick man. Italy was then ruled by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, an Arian Christian. When the emperor Justin I began to close the churches of the Arians in the East, Theodoric forced John to go to Constantinople to plead for them. He was the first pope to visit the city, and was received with great honor; he celebrated the Easter liturgy in Hagia Sophia in 526.

His mission only partly succeeded. On his return, the king, already suspecting a plot of Roman senators with the emperor, had him held at Ravenna, where he died a few days later, on 18 May 526, worn out by his treatment. The philosopher Boethius had been executed by Theodoric shortly before.