John of Cicala
John of Cicala (died 1216) was the bishop of Cefalù from 1195 until his death. He owed his rise to his family's alliance with the Staufer. Although he flirted with pro-papal politics in his early years, he was generally a close ally of the Staufer kings Henry VI and Frederick II. He was entrusted with a diplomatic mission to the Ayyubid Sultanate in 1213. Family and election John was a younger son in the family of the lords of in the vicinity of Naples. His older brother was . His family supported the claims of Constance and her husband, Henry VI of Germany, to the throne of Sicily over those of Tancred of Lecce. They may have fought with the Germans at the siege of Naples in 1191. They certainly sided with Henry when he invaded the kingdom in 1194. Henry, in turn, pushed for the election of John as bishop as early as October 1194. In January 1195, following Henry's coronation as king of Sicily, John is recorded as bishop of Cefalù. He is significant as the first secular cleric in the see, whose bishops had thitherto been selected from the Augustinian canons who made up the cathedral chapter.