May 18, 2022
St. John I was a sixth-century pope and martyr. John was born in the Italian province of Tuscany, and was elected Bishop of Rome (that is, pope) in 523. The Mediterranean world was, by this time, divided into the Eastern and Western Empires, each having a separate emperor.
Christianity was also divided (though not in a geographic sense) by the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. King Theodoric, the German chieftain who was in effect the…