Иоанн Милостивый

John the Merciful (Ἐ᾿λεήμων), St. Patriarch of Alexandria, son of a dignitary on the island. Cyprus. Having lost his wife and children, at the end of 610 or at the beginning of 611 (according to Gelzer, and according to Gutschmidt, p. 472, on July 13, 611), he, according to the wishes of the Alexandrians, was directly appointed emperor from among the laity. Heraclius to the post of Patriarch of Alexandria. As a strict zealot of Orthodoxy, I. M. successfully continued the fight against heretical parties, begun by his predecessor Eulogius (see Enz. V, 199 - 200) - and, according to Metaphrastus, the number of Orthodox Christians under him increased tenfold. Relying on his friend, an important imperial official Nikita, I. M. energetically fought the policies of Heraclius and the court patriarch Sergius, aimed at uniting the Orthodox and Monophysites, which, in addition to the biographers of John, is also accidentally mentioned by Maximus the Confessor in “Discourse against Pyrrhus” (in Min ser. dr. XCI, 332). Most of all, I.M. became famous for his boundless charity, inexhaustible funds for which - in addition to his own property and private donations - were given to him by the patriarchal treasury, which, according to I. himself, extended. M., up to an amount of more than 3 1/2 million rubles. Biographers report many touching examples of his generosity, which completely forgot about himself and often did not follow the advice of his son Sirach (Sir.12:1). When the Persians, having invaded Egypt, threatened Alexandria, John went to Constantinople to petition for the sending of troops to defend the city, but on the way, stopping at his homeland in the city of Amafunta, he died, probably in 619. His relics were first transported to Constantinople, from where the Hungarian king Matthias Guniad took them to Ofen, and in 1632 they were placed in the cathedral of Pressburg. The Orthodox Church celebrates his memory on November 12, the Catholic Church on January 23, the day of the transfer of the relics. The Life of John was compiled by his fellow countryman Leonty, bishop. of Naples in Cyprus, according to oral histories, and mainly on the basis of a lost life compiled by John Moschus and Sophronius, Patr. Jerusalem Another life, attributed to Symeon Metaphrastus, is compiled according to the first, but in the initial chapters it makes many valuable additions from the life compiled by Sophronius and Moschus.