Editing Michael Choniates

{{short description|12th/13th-century Byzantine Greek writer and cleric}}
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{{Infobox saint
|name          = Saint Michael Choniates, Metropolitan of Athens

|death_date    =
|feast_day     = 4 July
|venerated_in  = [[Eastern Orthodoxy]]
|image         = Seal of Michael, Metropolitan of Athens.png
|imagesize     =
|caption       = Lead seal of Michael Choniates as Metropolitan of Athens
|birth_place   = 1138, [[Colossae]], [[Asia Minor]]
|death_place   = 1222, Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner, [[Vodonitsa]], [[Thermopylae]]
|titles        = Metropolitan
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
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|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
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|attributes    = Bishops vestments
|patronage     = City of [[Athens]]
|major_shrine  =
|issues=
|prayer=
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}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}
'''Saint Michael Choniates''' (or '''Acominatus'''; {{langx|el|{{lang|grc|Μιχαὴλ Χωνιάτης or Ἀκομινάτος}}}}; c. 1140 – 1220) was a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[Greeks|Greek]] writer and [[cleric]], born at [[Chonae]] (the ancient [[Colossae]]). At an early age he studied at [[Constantinople]] and was the pupil of [[Eustathius of Thessalonica]]. In 1182 he was appointed [[archbishop of Athens]], a position which he retained until 1204.<ref>Kenneth M. Setton,  [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2851321?uid=3739832&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103820577341 "A Note on Michael Choniates, Archbishop of Athens (1182-1204)"], ''Speculum'', '''21''' (1946), pp. 234-236</ref> In 1204, he defended the [[Acropolis of Athens]] from attack by [[Leo Sgouros]], holding out until the arrival of the [[Fourth Crusade|Crusaders]] in 1205, to whom he surrendered the city.<ref>N.G. Wilson, ''Scholars of Byzantium'' 1983:204-06.</ref> After the establishment of [[Latin Empire|Latin]] control, he retired to the island of [[Ceos]]. Around 1217 he moved again to the [[monastery]] of [[Vodonitsa]] near [[Thermopylae]], where he died on 4 July.<ref>A. Dmitrievskii, Описание литургических рукописей, хранящихся в библиотеках православного Востока. Vol. 3. Petrograd 1917, [https://archive.org/details/Dmitrievskii3/page/131/mode/1up 131].</ref>

Though he is known to [[classical scholar]]s as the last possessor of complete versions of [[Callimachus]]' ''[[Hecale (poem)|Hecale]]'' and ''[[Aetia (Callimachus)|Aitia]]'',<ref>A.S. Hollis, "A New Fragment on Niobe and the Text of Propertius 2.20.8". ''The Classical Quarterly'', New Series, '''47'''.2 (1997:578-582).</ref> he was a versatile writer, and composed homilies, speeches and poems, which, with his correspondence, throw considerable light upon the condition of [[Attica, Greece|Attica]] and Athens at the time. His memorial to [[Alexios III Angelos]] on the abuses of Byzantine administration, the poetical lament over the degeneracy of Athens and the [[Monody|monodies]] on his brother [[Nicetas Choniates|Nicetas]] and [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]], [[archbishop of Thessalonica]], deserve special mention.

It is believed that his daughter Constantina tutored, in Greek and science, [[John of Basingstoke]], [[List of Archdeacons of Leicester|Archdeacon of Leicester]] known for his fluency in and advocacy of the [[Greek language]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Basing, John|volume=3|first=Thomas Andrew|last=Archer}}</ref> Michael's pupil [[George Bardanes]], who had accompanied him during his exile on Ceos, became a distinguished bishop in subsequent years.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last = Macrides |first = R. J. |title = Bardanes, George |editor-last=Kazhdan |editor-first=Alexander |editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan |year=1991 |encyclopedia =[[The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]]|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 |pages=254–255}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*Edition of his works by [[Spyridon Lambros]] (1879-1880)
*[[Jacques Paul Migne|Migne]], ''[[Patrologia Graeca]]'', cxL.
*[[Adolf Ellissen]], ''Michael Akominatos'' (1846), containing several pieces with German translation
*[[Ferdinand Gregorovius]], ''Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter'', i, (1889)
*[[George Finlay]], ''History of Greece'', iv. pp.&nbsp;133–134 (1877).
* Thallon, C. ''A Medieval Humanist: Michael Akominatos'' (New Haven, 1923) (reprint New York, 1973).
* Stadtmüller, G. "Michael Choniates, Metropolit von Athen," ''Orientalia Christiana'', 33,2 (1934), 125–325.
* Setton, K. M. "Athens in the Later Twelfth Century," Speculum, XIX (1944), 179–207.
* Anthony Kaldellis, "Michael Choniates: a classicist-bishop and his cathedral (1182–1205 AD)," in Idem, ''The Christian Parthenon: Classicism and Pilgrimage in Byzantine Athens'' (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009), 145–162.
*Nario Gallina, "La reazione antiromana nell'epistolario di Michele Coniata Metropolita d'Atene" in Gherardo Ortalli, Giorgio Ravegnani, Peter Schreiner, eds. ''Quarta Crociata'' (Venice, 2006. {{ISBN|88-88143-74-2}}) vol. 1 pp.&nbsp;423–446
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Acominatus, Michael|volume=1|pages=150–151}}
*[[Athanasios Angelou]], «Rhetoric and History: The case of Nicetas Choniates», στο History as Literature in Byzantium, ed. Ruth Macrides, Farnham, Ashgate 2010, σ. 289–305.

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|eo}}
{{s-bef|before=George IV}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Metropolitan bishop]] of [[See of Athens|Athens]]|years=1182–1220<br/>(in exile after 1205)}}
{{s-vac|next=Meletius I}}
{{s-end}}

{{Bishops of Athens}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choniates, Michael}}
[[Category:1140s births]]
[[Category:1220 deaths]]
[[Category:12th-century Byzantine bishops]]
[[Category:13th-century Byzantine bishops]]
[[Category:12th-century Byzantine writers]]
[[Category:13th-century Byzantine writers]]
[[Category:Bishops of Athens]]
[[Category:Book and manuscript collectors]]
[[Category:Byzantine Anatolians]]
[[Category:Byzantine Athenians]]
[[Category:Christians of the Fourth Crusade]]
[[Category:Kea (island)]]
[[Category:People from Colossae]]