John Lazaropoulos

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John Lazaropoulos (c.1310 [1] - 1369) was the Metropolitan of Trebizond (as Joseph) from 1364 to November 1367 and a religious writer.

Contents

Life

The first recorded event in John Lazaropoulos' life is a banquet at the Monastery of Saint Eugenios he attended, in celebration of the Transfiguration of Christ (6 August); amongst the guests was the protovestiarios Constantine Loukites, whom Lazaropoulos describes as "a great man in word and deed." [2] He dates this banquet to the end of "my third age", and alludes to the fact both his parents were alive, which leads Jan Olof Rosenqvist to conclude Lazaropoulos was about 21 years old. [3]

He was later made a sacristan ( skeuophylax ), married, and had two sons by 1340. Not long after the Emperor of Trebizond, Basil, died that same year, Lazaropoulos left Trebizond when Basil's wife Irene and her two sons were sent into exile at Constantinople. [4] Lazaropoulos was accompanied by his son Constantine to Constantinople, where he arranged for his education. While in Constantinople his other son Theophanes died, and his wife joined them in the city. [5]

When news had reached the Byzantine emperor John VI Kantakouzenos in 1349 that the Emperor of Trebizond Michael was both unpopular and (in the words of Lazaropoulos) "blunt and frivolous as well as old and childless", Kantakouzenos decided to intervene in Trapezuntine politics by sending the young John Komnenos (who would be crowned Alexios III Megas Komnenos) to Trebizond to replace Michael. The Byzantine emperor asked John Lazaropoulos to escort the boy and his entourage to Trebizond. [6] They were to leave late in the year, when the weather on the Black Sea was known to be treacherous, and Lazaropoulos hesitated to sail until St. Eugenios appeared to him in a dream and assured Lazaropoulos he would have a safe journey. [7] The party arrived in Trebizond 22 December. [8]

On 27 October 1363, Niphon, the Metropolitan of Trebizond, was arrested for his complicity with an attempt on the life of Emperor Alexios not long before, and was confined to Soumela Monastery. [9] When Niphon died on 18 March in the following year, John was appointed his successor and proceeded to Constantinople for consecration by Patriarch Philotheos not long after Philotheos' enthronement on 8 October. John was back in Trebizond by Easter Sunday, 13 April 1365.

According to Michael Panaretos, John resigned his office on 15 November 1367, retiring to the monastery of Panagia Eleousa, close to the Daphnous harbor, next to Leonkastron; he was succeeded by a monk from Mount Athos, Theodosios of Thessalonica. The next year on 19 July he fled to Constantinople on account of piratical raids made on the Araniotai, which includes Ares Island (modern Giresun Island). [10] William Miller considers these seaborne raids to be the acts of the Ottoman Turks, the future conquerors of Trebizond, although Anthony Bryer thinks that this raid "at this date is more likely to represent Sinopitan or local Turkmen corsairs." [11]

Writings

Lazaropoulos wrote two pieces on St. Eugenios of Trebizond: a Logos which covers the saint's life and death; and a Synopsis containing 33 miracles of the saint, which include two that involved Lazaropoulos but most notably the saint's reported participation in the 1224 siege of Trebizond. Both were edited by A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, in his Fontes Historiae Imperii Trapezuntini, vol. 1. (No more volumes published.) They have been translated with facing Greek text in Jan Olof Rosenqvist, The Hagiographic Dossier of St Eugenios of Trebizond in Codex Athous Dionysiou 154 (Uppsala 1996).

Related Research Articles

Michael Panaretos was an official of the Trapezuntine empire and a Greek historian. His sole surviving work is a chronicle of the Trapezuntine empire of Alexios I Komnenos and his successors. This chronicle not only provides a chronological framework for this medieval empire, it also contains much valuable material on the early history of the Ottoman Turks from a Byzantine perspective, however it was almost unknown until Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer discovered it in the nineteenth century among the manuscripts of the Biblioteca Marciana of Venice. "Owing to this drab but truthful chronicle," writes the Russian Byzantist Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev, "it has become possible to a certain extent to restore the chronological sequence of the most important events in the history of Trebizond. This Chronicle covers the period from 1204 to 1426 and gives several names of emperors formerly unknown."

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John II Megas Komnenos was Emperor of Trebizond from 1280 to 1297. He was the youngest son of Emperor Manuel I and his third wife, Irene Syrikaina, a Trapezuntine noblewoman. John succeeded to the throne after his full-brother George was betrayed by his archons on the mountain of Taurezion. It was during his reign that the style of the rulers of Trebizond changed; until then, they claimed the traditional title of the Byzantine emperors, "Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans", but from John II on they changed it to "Emperor and Autocrat of all the East, the Iberians, and the Transmarine Provinces", although Iberia had been lost in the reign of Andronikos I Gidos.

Saint Eugenios or Eugene was martyred under Diocletian and a cult devoted to him developed in Trebizond. His feast day is 21 January. Eugenios along with the martyrs Candidus, Valerian and Aquila was persecuted during the reign of Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian (305-311). The four hid in the mountains above Trebizond, but were eventually found and brought before the regimental commander Lycius. They were flogged, tortured with fire and eventually beheaded. Eugenios is credited with the destruction of the image on the "gray hill" overlooking the city, later known as the Mithratis.

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Alexios III of Trebizond 14th-century Emperor of Trebizond

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David Komnenos was one of the founders of the Empire of Trebizond and its joint ruler together with his brother Alexios until his death. At least two lead seals and an inscription found on a tower in Heraclea Pontica attest that he was the first of his family to use the style Megas Komnenos. Ηe was the son of Manuel Komnenos and grandson of the Emperor Andronikos I.

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Irene of Trebizond was an Empress consort of Trebizond as the bigamous wife of Basil of Trebizond. She had an important position in the regency of her son Alexios III of Trebizond in 1341-1352.

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Niketas Scholares, was a Byzantine Greek aristocrat and one of the leading officials of the Empire of Trebizond, eventually becoming megas doux. Niketas was a leader of the Scholarioi faction in Trebizond during the civil wars of the mid-14th century.

Anna Megale Komnene, was a Trapezuntine Queen consort of Georgia as the second wife of King Bagrat V. She was the mother of his youngest son, Constantine I of Georgia, who would later in 1407 succeed his half-brother, King George VII and reign as king.

Eudokia Megale Komnene, was a Trapezuntine noblewoman and a member of the powerful Byzantine Komnenos dynasty as a daughter of Emperor Alexios III of Trebizond.

New Friday Mosque

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The siege of Trebizond in 1222–1223 was an unsuccessful siege of Trebizond, the capital of the namesake empire, by the Seljuq Turks under a certain Melik. According to the late 14th-century Synopsis of Saint Eugenius of John Lazaropoulos, the city was close to being captured, but was saved by an unusually severe storm. The Seljuq assaults were repulsed, and their army was annihilated on its retreat through the attacks of the Matzoukaites, fierce mountain tribes under Trebizond's rule, and Melik was captured.

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References

  1. ↑ Jan Olof Rosenqvist's date. Rosenqvist, The Hagiographic Dossier of St. Eugenios of Trebizond in Codex Athous Dionysiou 154 (Uppsala: Acta Universitatis, 1996), p. 30
  2. ↑ Lazaropoulos, Synopsis, ll. 1626-1629; translated in Rosenqvist, Hagiographic Dossier, p. 337
  3. ↑ Rosenqvist, Hagiographic Dossier, pp. 457, commentary on line 1610.
  4. ↑ Lazaropoulos, Synopsis, ll. 1664-1672; translated in Rosenqvist, Hagiographic Dossier, p. 339
  5. ↑ Lazaropoulos, Synopsis, ll. 1673-1664; translated in Rosenqvist, Hagiographic Dossier, p. 339
  6. ↑ Lazaropoulos, Synopsis, ll. 1690f; translated in Rosenqvist, Hagiographic Dossier, p. 341
  7. ↑ Lazaropoulos, Synopsis, ll. 1699ff; translated in Rosenqvist, Hagiographic Dossier, p. 341
  8. ↑ Panaretos, Chronicle, 15. Greek text in Original-Fragmente, Chroniken, Inschiften und anderes Materiale zur Geschichte des Kaiserthums Trapezunt, part 2; in Abhandlungen der historischen Classe der königlich bayerischen Akademie 4 (1844), abth. 1, p. 23; German translation, p. 52
  9. ↑ Panaretos, Chronicle, 34. Greek text in Original-Fragmente, p. 34; German translation, p. 59
  10. ↑ Panaretos, Chronicle, 40. Greek text in Original-Fragmente, p. 31; German translation, pp. 61f, English translation in Anthony Bryer, "Greeks and Türkmens: The Pontic Exception", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 29 (1975), p. 146
  11. ↑ Bryer, "Greeks and Türkmens", p. 146 n. 127
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