The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - Biographical Dictionary

The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

Biographical Dictionary
John I (523-526)
526 (I)

Birth. (No date found), Rome (?). Of the noble Colonna family.

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Presbyter cardinalis of an unknown title in 526 (1).

Episcopate. He may have been bishop of an unknown see near Gaeta, which at that time was not a diocese.

Death. 533, (no place found). Buried in the cathedral of Gaeta, with a long epitaph in verse (2).

Bibliography. Cardella, Lorenzo. Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Stamperia Pagliarini, 1792, I, pt. 1, 6-7; Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX P. O. M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ord. Praed. & aliorum opera descriptæ : cum uberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino, Soc. Jesu recognitae, et ad quatuor tomos ingenti ubique rerum accessione productae. Additis Pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & Cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque aeneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Romæ : P. et A. De Rubeis, 1677, I, col. 366; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. 265; "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926. Paris : Maison de la Bonne Presse, 1927, p. 140, no. 1.

(1) This is according to "Essai de liste générale des cardinaux. Les cardinaux des 10 premiers siècles". Annuaire Pontifical Catholique 1926, p. 140, no. 1. Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, I, pt. 1, 6, says that he may have been named by Pope Symachus. Chacón, Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium, I, col. 366, says that he may have been named in 501.
(2) According to Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa, I, pt. 1, 6, this was reported by Cardinal Cesare Baronio in his Annales ecclesiastici a Christo nato ad annum 1198, vol. X, year 585, p. 382, no. 15. This is the text of the epitaph:

Pande tuas, paradise, fores, sedemque beatam,
Andrea meritum suscipe pontificis :
Cultor justitiffi, doctrins et pacis amator :
Quem vocat ad summura vila beala bonum.
Plenus amore Dei nescivit vivere mundo :
At famulo Christi gloria Christus erat.
Quffi meditata fides et credita semper inhssit,
HiTC te usque ad calos et super astra tulit.
Nunquam de manibus tibi lex divina recessit :
Eloquium Dominivixit in ore tuo.
Romanamque prius decoravit presbyter urbem :
Culniinis auctus honor bic dedit esse patrem.
Districtus subjurepio et moderamine certo,
Utque bonus pastor texit ab hoste gregem.
Hospilibus gratus, seipsum donavit egenis;
nios eloquio, hos satiabat ope.
Prffisule sub tanto florens Ecclesia maler,
Crevit muueribus, crevit et officiis.

VIXIT AISN. PM. LXX. PRESB. ROMANIS VII.
ET IN EP. ANN. XXVII. M. X. D. XX.
REQCIEVIT IN PACE XIIII. KAL. NOV.
CONS. DECI. JUN.

After the epitaph, Baronius adds:
In tabula ubi ejusmodi inscriptio legitur, apposita
visuntur insignia nobilis familia; Columnensium.