JOHN XIV CALECAS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

Flourished 1334 to 1347; b. Apros, Asia Minor, c. 1283; d. Constantinople, Dec. 29, 1347. Of a modest family, Calecas entered the Constantinopolitan clergy and was favored by the Grand Domesticus, later Emperor john vi cantacuzenus, who selected him for patriarch in 1334 despite the fact that Calecas was married and the father of a family. In 1341 he held a synod that censured barlaam of calabria, and forbade further discussion of the Hesychast question on the light that appeared on Mt. Thabor during the Transfiguration. On the death of andronicus iii (1341), Anne of Savoy became regent for John V Palaeologus. Calecas supported her, and broke with Cantacuzenus, who encouraged the Hesychast monks and Gregory palamas to disobey the orders of the synod of 1341. Calecas held a second synod (1342) that condemned Palamas and imprisoned him. Anne of Savoy attempted to reconcile Calecas and Palamas and, on failing, had Calecas deposed by a synod in February 1347. On taking power in March, Cantacuzenus confirmed the deposition. Calecas was imprisoned and exiled to Didymotichus, but returned to die in Constantinople at the end of the year.

Of John's writings, besides his polemical treatises and encyclical condemning Barlaam (1341), the collection of his disciplinary, dogmatic, and canonical decisions is an important source for the history of the period. The collection of Sunday sermons attributed to him is rather the Homilary of Constantinople begun by Patriarch John IX Agapetus (1111–34) and used by succeeding patriarchs. Accounts of his life by his enemies John Cantacuzenus and Nicephorus Gregoras are prejudicial.

Bibliography: Patrologia Graeca, ed. j. p. migne, 161 v. (Paris 1857–66) 150:891–903; 152:1215–84. Acta et diplomata graeca medii aevi, eds. f. miklosich and j. mÖller, 6 v. (Vienna 1860–90) 2:168–243. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 728–729. j. m. hoeck, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 5:1047–48. j. gouillard, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912—) 11:378–380. m. jugie, Catholicisme 2:377–378.

[f. chiovaro]