Manuel I, surnamed Karantenos/Sarantenos or Charitopoulos ( el, Μανουήλ Α΄ K/Σαραντηνός or Χαριτόπουλος), (? – May or June 1222) was

Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of th ...

from December 1216 or January 1217 to 1222. He seems to have been called "the Philosopher":

George Akropolites George Akropolites ( Latinized as Acropolites or Acropolita; el, , ''Georgios Akropolites''; 1217 or 1220 – 1282) was a Byzantine Greek historian and statesman born at Constantinople. Life In his sixteenth year he was sent by his father, the ...

says he was "a philosopher, it seems, in deed, and so named by the people." Manuel was Patriarch-in-exile as at the time his titular seat was occupied by the

Latin Patriarch of Constantinople The Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople was an office established as a result of the Fourth Crusade and its conquest of Constantinople in 1204. It was a Roman Catholic replacement for the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ...

, and he lived in

Nicaea Nicaea, also known as Nicea or Nikaia (; ; grc-gre, Νίκαια, ) was an ancient Greek city in Bithynia, where located in northwestern Anatolia and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and seve ...

. Before the sack of 1204, Manuel was a

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

and ''

hypatos ton philosophon The ''hypatos tōn philosophon'' ( gr, ὕπατος τῶν φιλοσόφων, , chief of the philosophers) was a Byzantine title given to senior scholars in the 11th–14th centuries. The title first appears in 1047, and was probably introduced ...

'' in Constantinople. This is likely the source of his epithet "the Philosopher". Under Manuel I,

Saint Sava Saint Sava ( sr, Свети Сава, Sveti Sava, ; Old Church Slavonic: ; gr, Άγιος Σάββας; 1169 or 1174 – 14 January 1236), known as the Enlightener, was a Serbian prince and Orthodox monk, the first Archbishop of the autocephalou ...

had become an archbishop and an autocephalous

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

was formed in the territory of the Serbian Kingdom of

Stefan Nemanjić Stefan Nemanja II ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Немања II, ), or Stephen the First-Crowned ( sr, / , ; – 24 September 1228), was the Grand Prince of Serbia from 1196 and the King of Serbia from 1217 until his death in 1228. He was the firs ...

. Manuel is noted for his role in a diplomatic interplay between the

Nicaean emperor The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley ...

Theodore I Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris or Lascaris ( gr, Θεόδωρος Κομνηνὸς Λάσκαρις, Theodōros Komnēnos Laskaris; 1175November 1221) was the first emperor of Nicaea—a successor state of the Byzantine Empire—from 1205 to his de ...

and the

Latin Emperor of Constantinople The Latin Emperor was the ruler of the Latin Empire, the historiographical convention for the Crusades, Crusader realm, established in Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade (1204) and lasting until the city was recovered by the Byzantine Greek ...

Robert of Courtenay Robert I, also Robert of Courtenay (died 1228), Latin Emperor of Constantinople, was a younger son of the emperor Peter II of Courtenay, and Yolanda of Flanders. When it became known in France that Peter of Courtenay was dead, his eldest son, Phil ...

, in 1222. Robert had approached Theodore for a peace treaty and the latter offered his daughter Eudokia in marriage to cement the deal. But Theodore had married

Maria of Courtenay Marie de Courtenay (c. 1204 – September 1228) was an Empress of Nicaea. She was a daughter of Peter II of Courtenay and Yolanda of Flanders. She married Theodore I of Nicaea. Marie served as regent for her younger brother Baldwin II of Courtenay ...

, Robert's sister, in 1217. Manuel is thus reported by

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 Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

as it was within the third degree of kinship.George Akropolites (Ruth Macrides, ed). ''The History''. Oxford: University Press, 2007. Editor's notes, pp. 158.

References

13th-century patriarchs of Constantinople People of the Empire of Nicaea 1222 deaths {{EasternOrthodoxy-bishop-stub