User:Nskin5/John of Ephesus

Born at Amida (modern Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey) about 507, he was there ordained as a deacon in 529 by John of Tella at Zuqnin Monastery, In Amida, he lived the monastic lifestyle. In 534 we find him in Palestine, and in 535 he passed to Constantinople. He returned to the east in later years of the 530s, where he witnessed the devastations of the great plague first hand. He travelled the region, going so far as Egypt, in order to collect stories for his collection of saints' lives, which he compiled in a book (containing 58 such lives) around the year 565. He was back in Amida at the start of the furious persecution directed against the Monophysites by Ephrem, Melkite Patriarch of Antioch, and Abraham, bishop of Amida c. 520-541. Around 540 he returned to Constantinople and made it his residence.