John of Biclaro

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John of Biclaro (ca 540 - after 621) was a chronicler, a Visigoth born at Santarem, Lusitania (Portugal) who must have been from a Catholic family, to judge from his name. He was educated at Constantinople, where he devoted between seven and seventeen years to the study of Latin and Greek. When he returned, he was imprisoned for several years in Barcelona; Isidore of Seville ascribes this to his refusal to join the Arian Church of the Visigothic realm. Modern historians note that other contemporary Hispanic sources, including John's own Chronicle do not attest a Visigothic campaign of persecution of Catholics until the revolt of Hermenegild divided Visigothic loyalties. The Visigothic persecutions of dissenters and Jews may be a more recent Catholic myth, a counterpart to the "Black Legend" of Spain itself. Indeed, John wrote that, in 578, "Leovigild had peace to reside with his own people." A more likely reason for John's detention was his lengthy stay at Constantinople, with the possibility that he might be a spy for the Byzantine governors in the far south. An enforced stay in Barcelona certainly put him out of possible treasonous contact with the Byzantines. John does imply that Arians received favorable treatment under Leovigild, once, in connection with the Arian council convened by Leovigild in 580: Catholic bishops were ignored.

After Leovigild's death in 586, John was released and founded a Benedictine monastery at Biclaro, (the exact site is undetermined) where he presided as abbot and finished his Chronicle (in 590) before he was appointed Catholic Bishop of Gerona under the new episcopal government.

John took part in the synod of Saragossa (592), of Barcelona (599), and of Egara (614). His chronicle reaches to the year 590, and is a continuation (from 567) of the chronicle of Victor of Tunnuna, in Africa (Chronicon continuans Victorem Tunnunensem). It was printed as early as 1600 and has provided the most complete and reliable authority on Leovigild's stormy reign, and on the Visigothic conversion from Arianism, in an impartial narrative.

Three other chronicles cover parts of the Visigothic rule of Spain: the bishop Hydatius, bishop Isidore of Seville, both of the doctrinally unified Catholic Visigothic establishment, and the fragmentary but apparently secular Chronicle of Zaragoza.

A bishop known as "Johannes Gerundensis" ("John of Gerona") seems to have been a successor of the chronicler.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.