John (Italian Giovanni) was born around 1209 at Parma to the noble Buralli family of Parma. Educated at the University of Paris, he became Master of Theology and entered the Franciscan Order around 1233.
He served as Franciscan lector (theology-teacher) at the Franciscan houses of Bologna, Naples, and Rome — one of the principal early-Franciscan theological teachers.
In 1247, at the Franciscan general chapter of Lyon, John was elected seventh Minister General of the Franciscan Order (succeeding Crescentius of Iesi) — taking up the governance of the rapidly-expanding Order at the hour of the Franciscan-institutional crisis over the interpretation of St. Francis's Rule and the Testament.
John's ten-year mastership (1247–1257) was devoted to the Franciscan-Spiritual reform of the Order — attempting to restore the strict observance of the original Franciscan poverty and the primitive Franciscan life, against the rising Conventual party that advocated institutional accommodation.
John undertook extensive personal visitation of the Franciscan Provinces, including the journey to Constantinople in 1249–1250 to the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople — seeking the reunion of the Latin-Catholic Western Church with the Greek-Byzantine Eastern Church (pre-figuring the Second Council of Lyon of 1274).
John's deep sympathy with the Joachimite eschatological writings of Abbot Joachim of Fiore (1135–1202) — the Calabrian Cistercian mystic whose apocalyptic-prophetic writings had been influential in the Spiritual Franciscan circles — produced his political fall in 1257: at the Franciscan general chapter of Rome in February 1257, John was compelled by Pope Alexander IV (aligned with the Conventual party) to resign the mastership. He designated St. Bonaventure as his successor.
John spent the final 32 years of his life (1257–1289) in retirement at the Franciscan house at Greccio, undertaking the late-life journey to Camerino en route to the Greek Franciscan missions in 1289. He died at Camerino on March 20, 1289 at the age of approximately 80.