Biography
John, disciple of Gregory of Decapolis
About John, disciple of Gregory of Decapolis
John was a ninth-century Byzantine monk remembered as a disciple of Gregory of Decapolis. Gregory admitted him to monastic life, and John lived with his teacher in Thessalonica and accompanied him to Constantinople during Gregory’s final illness. John is also named among the people who supplied information for Gregory’s biography.
The surviving account of John is brief and comes through the lives of Gregory and Joseph the Hymnographer rather than a preserved biography devoted to him. The Orthodox Encyclopedia describes John and Joseph returning to the church of Saint Antipas after Gregory’s death. There they shared a life of prayer and withdrawal from public affairs.
Joseph remembered John as someone whose manner of life closely resembled their teacher’s. The account praises his eloquence as well as his discipline in fasting and keeping vigil. Such details belong to the devotional portrait preserved by the community; they offer a glimpse of how his companions understood him.
John died after Gregory, but the year cannot be fixed securely. Scholars have proposed about 845 or about 850. He was buried near his teacher, and Joseph later transferred both men’s remains to a monastery he had founded.
One version sends John to the monastery of Saint Chariton in Palestine after Gregory’s death. The critical prosopography rejects this as a confusion with John of the Old Lavra, a different saint.
The Orthodox Church in America commemorates John on April 18 and also lists him on April 11. Its account emphasizes his faithfulness to Gregory and his defense of icon veneration.
Its chronology, however, places Gregory’s death around 820, considerably earlier than the chronology used in the scholarly accounts.
The Orthodox Encyclopedia places John’s death in the middle of the ninth century and leaves the competing proposed years unresolved.
Wondering how to weigh the stories and sources? Learn how to read a saint biography.