Manuel Holobolos ( el, Μανουὴλ Ὁλόβολος; ca. 1245 – 1310/14) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

orator and monk, who was a leading opponent of the Union of the Churches in the reign of

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire ...

(r. 1259–1282). Born ca. 1245, Holobolos entered the service of Michael VIII as a ''grammatikos'' in his teens, and composed several orations for the early years of Michael's reign that are an important primary source. In 1261, however, when Michael ordered the blinding and imprisonment of the legitimate emperor,

John IV Laskaris John IV Doukas Laskaris (or Ducas Lascaris) ( el, Ἰωάννης Δούκας Λάσκαρις, ''Iōannēs Doukas Laskaris'') (December 25, 1250 – c. 1305) was emperor of Nicaea from August 16, 1258, to December 25, 1261. This empire was one ...

(r. 1258–1261), Holobolos expressed public grief, and his lips and nose were mutilated as punishment. Holobolos then retired from public service and became a monk at the Prodromos Monastery in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth ( Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

, with the

monastic name A religious name is a type of given name bestowed for a religious purposes, and which is generally used in such contexts. Christianity Catholic Church Baptismal name In baptism, Catholics are given a Christian name, which should not be "foreign ...

Maximos. In 1265/66, through the intervention of Patriarch Germanus III, Holobolos was able to get a post as a teacher, possibly at the orphanage of the Church of St. Paul. Because of his fervent anti-Unionism, he was exiled to the Megalou Agrou monastery on the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara,; grc, Προποντίς, Προποντίδα, Propontís, Propontída also known as the Marmara Sea, is an inland sea located entirely within the borders of Turkey. It connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea via the ...

in 1273, and was not allowed to return to the capital until after Michael's death, when his son and successor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328) repudiated the Union. Thus Holobolos participated in the Council of Blachernae in 1285, which formally condemned the Union, and was restored to imperial favour: he received the title of ''

rhetor Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the Trivium, three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motiv ...

'' and became ''

protosynkellos A protosyncellus or protosynkellos ( el, πρωτοσύγκελλος) is the principal deputy of the bishop of an eparchy for the exercise of administrative authority in an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church. The equivalent position in t ...

'' by 1299. According to one of his students,

George Galesiotes George Galesiotes (Greek: Γεώργιος Γαλησιώτης, c. 1275/1280−1357) was a high-ranking Byzantine official of the Patriarchate of Constantinople who studied under the tutelage of Manuel Holobolos. Upon becoming an official of the Pa ...

, he continued teaching until his death, sometime between 1310 and 1314.

Sources

* 1240s births 1310s deaths 13th-century Byzantine monks Byzantine prisoners and detainees 13th-century Byzantine writers 13th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians {{Byzantine-bio-stub