Michael II of Constantinople (''Kourkouas'' or ''Oxeites''

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Μιχαὴλ Κουρκούας (Ὀξείτης); died after 1146) was an

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople () is the List of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople, archbishop of Constantinople and (first among equals) among the heads of the several autocephalous churches that comprise the Eastern Orthodox ...

of July 1143 to March 1146. In early 1143, Patriarch Leo of Constantinople and Emperor

John II Komnenos John II Komnenos or Comnenus (; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (), he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexio ...

died within a few months of each other, bringing a period of turbulence to the Byzantine Church. John's appointed successor, his son Emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history o ...

arrived in Constantinople on 27 June 1143, from

Cilicia Cilicia () is a geographical region in southern Anatolia, extending inland from the northeastern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. Cilicia has a population ranging over six million, concentrated mostly at the Cilician plain (). The region inclu ...

where his father had died. In order to fully assure his position as emperor, Manuel I needed to arrange his coronation. However, to do this he first needed to appoint a patriarch. His choice fell on the abbot of the monastery of

Oxeia Oxeia () is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. , it had no resident population. It is the chief island in the southern group (the Ouniades) of the Echinades, part of the Ionian Islands. Oxeia possesses the highest point in the Echinades, . It ...

, Michael Kourkouas. The coronation did not take place until 28 November 1143, because Michael II threatened to resign for unknown reasons. During his reign, Michael II had to deal with the highly political trial of a monk called Niphon. On 22 February 1144, Michael II condemned Niphon for supporting two

Cappadocian The Cappadocian Greeks (; ), or simply Cappadocians, are an ethnic Greek community native to the geographical region of Cappadocia in central-eastern Anatolia; roughly the Nevşehir and Kayseri provinces and their surroundings in modern-day Turk ...

bishops who were accused of heresy and later found guilty of

Bogomil Bogomilism (; ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", bogumilstvo, богумилство) was a Christian neo-Gnostic, dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Peter I in the 10th century. I ...

practices. This forbade orthodox believers from associating with him. Michael II resigned in March 1146 to return to the monastery of Oxeia, most likely because of disillusion with the emperor.

Notes and references

12th-century patriarchs of Constantinople Kourkouas family Byzantine people of Armenian descent Officials of Manuel I Komnenos {{EasternOrthodoxy-bishop-stub