A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

28. CAPPADOX, or the CAPPADOCIAN (2), patriarch of Constantinople, known by the surname NESTEUJTA (νηστεύτης), or JEJUNATOR, the FASTER. He is Joannes IV. in the list of the patriarchs of Constantinople. He was a deacon of the great church at Constantinople, and succeeded Eutychius [EUTYCHIUS] in the patriarchate A. D. 582, in the reign of the emperor Tiberius II. In a council held at Constantinople A. D. 589, for the examination of certain charges against Gregory, patriarch of Antioch [GREGORIUS, ecclesiastical and literary, No. 5; EVAGRIUS, No. 3], John assumed the title of universal patriarch (οἰκουμενικὸς πατριάρχης), or perhaps resumed it after it had fallen into disuse. [See above, No. 27.] Upon the intelligence of this reaching the pope, Pelagius II., he protested against it most loudly, and annulled the acts of the council as informal. A letter written in the most vehement manner by Pelagius to the Eastern bishops who had been present in the council, appears among his Epistolae in the Concilia (Ep. viii. vol. v. col. 948, ed. Labbe, vol. ix. col. 900, ed. Mansi); but some doubt has been cast on its genuineness. Gregory I., or the Great, who (in A. D. 590) succeeded Pelagius, was equally earnest in his opposition, and wrote to the emperor Maurice and to the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, and to John himself, to protest against it. (Gregorius Papa, Epistolae, lib. iv. ep. 32, 36, 38, 39, apud Concilia, vol. v. col. 1181, &c., ed. Labbe, vol. x. col. 1206, &c., ed. Mansi.) John, however, retained the title probably till his death (about A. D. 596); and far from being odious to the Greek Christians, was and is reverenced by them as a saint.