Ioannes 461 was the metropolitan bishop of Sardis appointed when Euthymios 1 was exiled during the reign of the emperor Nikephoros I (Nicephoros 8, 802-11). Bishop of Sardis, he was the addressee of two letters written by Theodoros 15 (Theodore the Stoudite) between 815 and 826: Theod. Stud., Epp. 157 (c. 815), 451 (c. 821/826) (both addressed Ἰωάννῃ Σαρδῆς ἐπισκόπῳ). During the persecution under Leo V (Leo 15) he suffered imprisonment and banishment; on one occasion he was hurled to the ground in the emperor's presence during an iconoclast synod; later, in the reign of Michael II (Michael 10, 820-829), he was in very poor health: Theod. Stud., Ep. 451, lines 11-13. He was older than Theodoros 15; he probably died in the reign of Michael II (Michael 10, 820-829). He is perhaps identical with the author of hagiographical works and of a Commentary on the Progymnasmata of Aphthonius: cf. Beck, Kirche 510, Hunger, Literatur I, pp. 78-79, and ODB 2, p. 1067. Possibly identical with Ioannes 519.

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