John David was the Armenian Catholic archbishop of Edessa from 1343. He was a member of the Order of Friars Unitors of Armenia and a monk at the famous church of Zorzor. (The exact location of Zorzor is unknown; it may be the monastery of Saint Thaddeus in present-day Iran.)James D. Ryan, "Toleration Denied: Armenia Between East and West in the Era of the Crusades", in Michael Gervers and James M. Powell, eds., Tolerance and Intolerance: Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001), p. 63 and nn.
John David's predecessor, Martin, also a Unitor, died in 1342 while visiting the Avignonese curia. Pope Clement VI appointed John David to succeed him on 30 May 1343.P. N. R. Zutshi, "Collective Indulgences from Rome and Avignon in English Collections", in Michael J. Franklin and Christopher Harper-Bill, eds., Medieval Ecclesiastical Studies: In Honour of Dorothy M. Owen, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 7 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1995), p. 291.Jean Richard, La papauté et les mission d'Orient au Moyen Âge (XIIIe-XVe siècles), Collection de l'École Française de Rome, 33 (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1977), p. 220.
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