Saint John of Gaza

Overview

Saint John of Gaza is identified in the Coptic Encyclopedia as a bishop of Gaza whose feast day is 11 Baramudah. The encyclopedia’s index gives the explicit entry “John of Gaza, Saint” and refers to page 2084, where the episcopal title and commemoration date appear.¹²

The direct evidence is therefore a brief commemorative notice rather than a narrative biography: it supplies his name, his episcopal association with Gaza, and his feast day, without an account of his life or ministry.¹²

Sources and historical identification

The index and the commemorative listing serve complementary purposes. The index supplies the designation “Saint John of Gaza,” while the listing identifies the office associated with that name: “bishop of Gaza.” Read together, they support identifying the subject as a bishop commemorated as a saint, rather than assigning him the biography of another John on the basis of a shared name.¹²

The listing places him among several saints named John, including John, bishop of Armant, commemorated on 7 Kiyahk, and two bishops of Jerusalem named John, commemorated on 13 Ba’unah and 3 Baramudah respectively. Its use of episcopal locations and separate feast dates provides important distinctions between these entries.¹

Liturgical commemoration

The specific liturgical information supplied for John of Gaza is his feast on 11 Baramudah. Unlike some neighboring entries, his notice gives neither a historical period nor an explanatory description beyond his episcopal title; it also contains no hymn text or instructions for the observance.¹

Distinguishing other Johns associated with Gaza

John, the fellow hermit of Barsanuphius

The encyclopedia’s account of Barsanuphius describes another John in a monastic setting near Gaza. Called “the other Old Man” and Barsanuphius’s “alter ego,” this John lived as a hermit in a neighboring cell. Seridos transmitted requests and recorded replies in Greek at the dictation of Barsanuphius or John.³

That account presents John through his role in spiritual correspondence, whereas the commemorative notice presents John of Gaza as a bishop. Neither passage explicitly connects the two descriptions, so the correspondence cannot securely be attributed to the bishop commemorated on 11 Baramudah from this evidence alone.¹³

John of Mayuma, also called John Rufus

John of Mayuma is another potentially confusing name. The encyclopedia identifies him as a sixth-century monk from the Monastery of Bayt Rufina, also known as John Rufus, who succeeded Peter the Iberian as bishop of Mayuma near Gaza. It attributes to him the collection of miraculous narratives known as the Plerophoriae, composed around 515.⁴

The index lists “John of Mayuma, Bishop” separately from “John of Gaza, Saint.” This separate indexing does not by itself resolve every possible historical relationship, but the supplied passages do not authorize transferring John of Mayuma’s dates, episcopal succession, or writings to Saint John of Gaza.²⁴⁵