John Lazaropoulos

John Lazaropoulos (c.1310 - 1369) was the Metropolitan of Trebizond (as Joseph) from 1364 to November 1367 and a religious writer.

The first recorded event in John Lazaropoulos' life is a banquet at the Monastery of Saint Eugenios he attended, in celebration of the Transfiguration of Christ (6 August); amongst the guests was the protovestiarios Constantine Loukites, whom Lazaropoulos describes as "a great man in word and deed." He dates this banquet to the end of "my third age", and alludes to the fact both his parents were alive, which leads Jan Olof Rosenqvist to conclude Lazaropoulos was about 21 years old.

He was later made a sacristan (skeuophylax), married, and had two sons by 1340. Not long after the Emperor of Trebizond, Basil, died that same year, Lazaropoulos left Trebizond when Basil's wife Irene and her two sons were sent into exile at Constantinople. Lazaropoulos was accompanied by his son Constantine to Constantinople, where he arranged for his education. While in Constantinople his other son Theophanes died, and his wife joined them in the city.

When news had reached the Byzantine emperor John VI Kantakouzenos in 1349 that the Emperor of Trebizond Michael was both unpopular and (in the words of Lazaropoulos) "blunt and frivolous as well as old and childless", Kantakouzenos decided to intervene in Trapezuntine politics by sending the young John Komnenos (who would be crowned Alexios III Megas Komnenos) to Trebizond to replace Michael. The Byzantine emperor asked John Lazaropoulos to escort the boy and his entourage to Trebizond. They were to leave late in the year, when the weather on the Black Sea was known to be treacherous, and Lazaropoulos hesitated to sail until St. Eugenios appeared to him in a dream and assured Lazaropoulos he would have a safe journey. The party arrived in Trebizond 22 December.

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