He had two brothers – ispáns Stephen I and Paul III – and two sisters, Helena, who married John Alsáni, Ban of Macsó, and an unidentified one, wife of Egyed Bakócai.

[1] Paul I actively participated in the unification war against the oligarchs, thus received large-scale land donations from the king, and elevated into the upper nobility.

[2] Contradicting earlier historiographical reviews, his biographer Tünde Árvai demonstrated that Garai is not identical with that John, who was provost of Szepes (today Spišská Kapitula in Spišské Podhradie, Slovakia) from 1322 until c. 1348.

[7] Nevertheless, domestic royal charters referred to the bishopric as vacant throughout 1346, because of the slow spread of information and Garai's extended stay at the papal court.

[7] It was difficult for him to pay the so-called servitium commune, one-off tax on his appointment, making up a third of the annual revenues of the See, therefore he asked for a reduction in the amount.

[7] When Louis sent small expeditions one after one to Italy at the beginning of his war against Joanna I of Naples, Nicholas Kont and John Garai jointly commanded an army, which seized L'Aquila in May 1347, after a negotiation with Obizzo III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara.

Returning home for a brief time, Garai joined the Hungarian royal army, which entered the Kingdom of Naples on 24 December near L'Aquila, which had yielded to Louis.