Daily Mass - memorial day of the martyr pope Saint John I

Mass was offered this morning for the repose of the soul of Christine Burgess (+), may she rest in the peace of the Risen Christ.

Today, the Church remembers the fifty-third pope, a martyr, the Holy Father Saint John I. As at various times in our history, the freedom of the Church is challenged by secular rulers, who seek to control her and use her for their own ends. The Tuscan archdeacon was elected to the See of Rome on the death of the fifty-second pope, Hormisdas in AD 523. Italy was under the thrall of Theodoric the Goth and though a Christian, he was a heretic of the Arian persuasion. Theodoric had been friendly to Catholics at first, but he was angered by correspondence that was being carried out between Rome and the Byzantine court in Constantinople, where the Catholic emperor Justin I had taken stern measures against Arianism. Theodoric threatened war on Justin, but decided to negotiate through a delegation, headed by the Holy Father John I. The pope managed to convince Justin to soften his reaction to Arianism and brought reconciliation between the Church of the West and of the East, which had been torn apart since AD 482. Theodoric, waiting for his delegation to return to Italy, suspected that it had begun to plot with the Byzantine emperor against him. When the delegation returned to Ravenna, the Holy Father was imprisoned and died shortly in prison.

Thus our Saint of the day. May he pray for us today, may he pray for his successor in Rome and for all Christians suffering injustice for the Faith.