Editing John III Doukas Vatatzes (section)

==Legacy==
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix = [[Saint]]
|name          = John Vatatzes the Merciful, Emperor of the Romans

|death_date    =
|feast_day     = 4 November
|venerated_in  = [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
|image         = St. John Vatatze the Merciful.jpg
|imagesize     =
|caption       = St. John Vatatzes the Merciful King, Emperor of Nicaea and "the Father of the Greeks."
|birth_place   =
|death_place   =
|titles        = Emperor
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes    = Imperial Vestment
|patronage     =
|major_shrine  = [[Didymoteicho]], [[Western Thrace]] and [[Nymphaion (Ionia)]] modern-day [[Kemalpaşa]], [[Turkey]]
|issues=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}
John III Doukas Vatatzes was a successful ruler who laid the groundwork for Nicaea's recovery of Constantinople. He was successful in maintaining generally peaceful relations with his most powerful neighbors, Bulgaria and the [[Sultanate of Rum]], and his network of diplomatic relations extended to the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and the [[Papacy]]. Among the armed forces he used were the large [[Cumans|Cuman]] communities he had settled to guard Western Anatolia against invasions by [[Oghuz Turks|Oghuz]]-[[Turkmens]].<ref>{{Cite book |last= |title=Konstantinopolis'te Türkler (11.-15. Yüzyıllar) |pages=http://books.openedition.org/ifeagd/1706}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=İznik İmparatorluğu (Nicaea) Tarihi |date=22 May 2020 |url=https://ozhanozturk.com/2020/05/22/iznik-imparatorlugu-nicaea-tarihi/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=11 October 2022 |title=BATI ANADOLU'DAKİ TÜRK YAYILIŞINA KARŞI BİZANS İMPARATORLUĞU'NUN KUMAN-ALAN TOPLULUKLARINI BALKANLARDAN ANADOLU'YA NAKLETMESİ |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1267764 |journal=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yalvar |first=Cihan |date=25 October 2022 |title=ANADOLU'DA SON TÜRK İSKÂNI: İZNİK İMPARATORLUĞU'NDA KUMAN-KIPÇAKLAR VE YALOVA KAZIMİYE (YORTAN) İLE ELMALIK (SARUHANLI) KÖYLERİNDEKİ VARLIKLARI |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/tda/issue/60394/798906 |journal=Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları|volume=127 |issue=250 |pages=11–36 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Korobeinikov |first=Dimitri |date=25 October 2022 |title=İznik İmparatorluğun'da Kumanlar |trans-title=The Cumans in the Empire of Nicaea |url=https://www.academia.edu/5826298 |journal=}}</ref>

John III effected Nicaean expansion into Europe, where by the end of his reign he had annexed his former rival Thessalonica and had expanded at the expense of Bulgaria and Epirus. He also expanded Nicaean control over much of the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] and annexed the important island of [[Rhodes]],{{sfn|Treadgold|1997|pp=729–730}} while he supported initiatives to free [[Crete]] from Venetian occupation aiming toward its re-unification with the Byzantine empire of Nicaea.<ref>Agelarakis, P. A. (2012), "Cretans in Byzantine foreign policy and military affairs following the Fourth Crusade", ''Cretika Chronika'', '''32''', 41–78.</ref>

Styling himself the true inheritor of the Roman Empire, John III encouraged justice and charity, and provided active leadership in both peace and war despite his [[epilepsy]]. He carefully developed the internal prosperity and commerce of his realm, which became known for bountiful harvest festivals reportedly drawing on traditions from the Felicitas feast days described in the missing 11th book of [[Ovid]]'s Book of Days.<ref>Lars Brownworth, Lost to the West: the Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization. Broadway Books, 2010, p 254</ref>

A half-century after his death, John III was canonized as a saint, under the name John Vatatzes the Merciful{{Efn|Not to be confused with [[John the Merciful]]}} and is commemorated annually on [[4 November (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)|4 November]].<ref>Great [[Synaxarium|Synaxaristes]]: {{in lang|el}} ''[http://www.synaxarion.gr/gr/sid/1092/sxsaintinfo.aspx Ὁ Ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Βατατζὴς ὁ ἐλεήμονας βασιλιὰς].'' 4 Νοεμβρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.</ref><ref>[[George Ostrogorsky|Ostrogorsky, George]]. ''History of the Byzantine State''. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 1969, p. 444.</ref> [[George Akropolites]] mentions that the people saw to the construction of a temple in his honour in [[Kemalpaşa|Nymphaeum]], and that his cult as a saint quickly spread to the people of western Asia Minor.<ref>Banev Guentcho. "[http://asiaminor.ehw.gr/forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=9275 John III Vatatzes]". Transl. Koutras, Nikolaos. ''Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor (EHW).'' 16 December 2002.</ref> On the same day, since 2010, the ''Vatatzeia'' festival is organized at [[Didymoteicho]] by the local [[metropolitan bishop]].<ref>Lorenzo M. Ciolfi, From Byzantium to the Web: the Endurance of John III Doukas Vatazes’ Legacy. EHESS paris, 2017, p. 64</ref> Alice Gardiner remarked on the persistence of John's cult among the Ionian Greeks as late as the early 20th century, and on the contrast she witnessed where "the clergy and people of [[Magnesia ad Sipylum|Magnesia]] and the neighbourhood revere his memory every fourth of November. But those who ramble and play about his ruined palace seldom connect it even with his name."<ref>Gardiner, ''The Lascarids of Nicaea: The Story of an Empire in Exile'', 1912, (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1964), p. 196</ref>

His feast day is formally an Eastern Orthodox holiday, although it is not commemorated with any special liturgy; there are two known historical ''[[akolouthia]]i'' for him, including an 1874 copy of an older Magnesian ''[[menaion]]'' for the month of November, which shows that in the 15th and 16th century, he was venerated as "the holy glorious equal of the Apostles and emperor John Vatatzes, the new almsgiver in Magnesia."<ref>Polemis Demetrios, "Remains of an acoluthia for the emperor John Ducas Vatatzes" in C. Mango & O. Pritsak (eds.), Okeanos. Essays Presented to Ihor Sevcenko on His Sixtieth Birthday by His Colleagues and Students. Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, 1983</ref> The relevant hymns are preserved in only one known manuscript in the library of the Leimonos monastery on Lesbos, Greece, and include references to the feast day for the almsgiver John Vatatzes.<ref>Polemis, p.584</ref> John III Vatatzes' feast day has largely fallen out of favor other than in the church dedicated to him in his birth city of [[Didymoteicho]].<ref>Lorenzo M. Ciolfi, "John III Vatazes, Byzantine imperial saint?" BULLETIN OF BRITISH BYZANTINE STUDIES, 2014</ref>

The generations after John Vatatzes looked back upon him as "the Father of the Greeks."<ref>[[Alexander Vasiliev (historian)|A. A. Vasiliev]]. ''History of the Byzantine Empire''. Vol. 2. University of Wisconsin Press, 1971. pp. 531–534.</ref>{{efn|"[[Apostolos Vakalopoulos|Apostolos Vacalopoulos]] notes that John III Ducas Vatatzes was prepared to use the words 'nation' (''genos''), 'Hellene' and 'Hellas' together in his correspondence with the Pope. John acknowledged that he was Greek, although bearing the title Emperor of the Romans: ''"the Greeks are the only heirs and successors of Constantine"'', he wrote. In similar fashion John’s son Theodore II, acc. 1254, who took some interest in the physical heritage of Antiquity, was prepared to refer to his whole Euro-Asian realm as "Hellas" and a "Hellenic dominion". (What Vacalopoulos does not examine is whether, like the Latins, they also called their Aegean world 'Roman-ia')."<ref>Michael O'Rourke. ''[https://www.scribd.com/doc/30421469/Byzantium-1220-to-1330 Byzantium: From Recovery to Ruin, A Detailed Chronology: AD 1220–1331]''. Comp. by Michael O'Rourke. Canberra, Australia, April 2010.</ref>}}