John of Apamea

Iohannes Apameus

Biography

A famous spiritual author in his day, he exerted a great influence on Syriac theology. Little is known about his life (he is sometimes confused with John of Lycopolis). He predates Philoxenus of Mabboug († 523), but seems to have lived in the second half of the fourth century or the first half of the fifth, and to have studied in Alexandria (he was interested in the biological and medical sciences). His Christology allows us to place his literary activity between the years 430 and 450 and to see him as a "pre-Chalcedonian sympathetic to the pro-Cyrillian current which was then developing in the School of Edessa (De Halleux)".

Cf. C. Mondésert – J.-N. Guinot, Lire les pères de l’Église, dans la collection « Sources chrétiennes », Cerf, Paris 2010², p. 104-105.