Arsenios was born around 1200 in Constantinople. He became a monk at a very young age and ascended twice the patriarchal throne, in 1254 and 1261. In 1265 he was dethroned for a second time and was exiled to the monastery of Suda in Prokonnesos, while he was excommunicated shortly later. He died exiled in Prokonnesos on September 30, 1273. Arsenios was posthumously sainted.

Patriarch of Constantinople and important scholar of the 13th century. He was born in Lapithus of Cyreneia around 1241 and moved to Constantinople after 1261 where he studied under George Acropolites. A few years later, he started teaching and took the patriarchal throne of Constantinople in 1283. As a scholar he belongs to the Palaiologan Renaissance and many works of him survive, such as letters, lives of saints and an autobiography. His work influenced many contemporary and subsequent...

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Representative of one of the most talented generations of Byzantine scholars, nomophylax and head of the imperial law School, monk and patriarch of Constantinople (1 January 1064-2 August 1075), John Xiphilinos with the course of his life – which from his birthplace of Trebizond led him to the highest ranking offices in the capital – offers a clear picture of 11th century Byzantine intellectual life: of the great cultural blossoming but also of the increasing and more effectual involvement of a...