Manuel I of Constantinople

{{Short description|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1217 to 1222}} {{About|the patriarch|the emperor|Manuel I Komnenos}} {{More citations needed|date=December 2009}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox Christian leader | name = Manuel I of Constantinople | image = | caption = | church = Church of Constantinople | title = Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople | term = May 1217 – May/June 1222 | predecessor = Maximus II of Constantinople | successor = Germanus II of Constantinople | birth_name = Manuel Sarantenos or Karantenos or Charitopoulos | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = May or June 1222 | death_place = | denomination = Eastern Orthodoxy }}

'''Manuel I Sarantenos''' or '''Karantenos''' or '''Charitopoulos''' ({{langx|el|Μανουὴλ Σαραντηνός/Καραντηνός or Χαριτόπουλος}}; died May or June 1222) was the Patriarch of Constantinople from May 1217 to May/June 1222.

== Biography == He seems to have been called "the Philosopher", George Akropolites says he was "a philosopher, it seems, in deed, and so named by the people". Manuel I was Patriarch-in-exile as at the time his titular seat was occupied by the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople, and he lived in Nicaea. Before the sack of 1204, Manuel was a deacon and ''hypatos ton philosophon'' in Constantinople. This is likely the source of his epithet "the Philosopher".<ref>George Akropolites (Ruth Macrides, ''The History'', Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 159-160.</ref>

Under Manuel I, Saint Sava had become an archbishop and an autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church was formed in the territory of the Serbian Kingdom of Stefan the First-Crowned.

Manuel I is noted for his role in a diplomatic interplay between the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris and Robert I, Latin Emperor, in 1222. Robert I had approached Theodore I for a peace treaty and the latter offered his daughter Eudokia in marriage to cement the deal. But Theodore I had married Maria of Courtenay, Robert I's sister, in 1217. Manuel I is thus reported by George Akropolites to have blocked the betrothal, twice negotiated, on religious-legal grounds: Robert, Theodore's brother-in-law, could not also become his son-in-law as this was an "illegal union" and constituted incest as it was within the third degree of kinship.<ref>George Akropolites (Ruth Macrides), ''The History'', Oxford University Press, 2007, Editor's notes, p. 158.</ref>

== Notes and references == {{Reflist}}

{{S-start}} {{s-rel|eo}} {{Succession box | before = Maximus II | title = Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople<br /><small>In exile at Nicaea</small> | years = 1217 – 1222 | after = Germanus II }} {{S-end}}

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Manuel 01 Of Constantinople}} Category:13th-century patriarchs of Constantinople Category:People from the Empire of Nicaea Category:1222 deaths