John Mauropous: "On the Holy Birth of Christ"
"On the Holy Birth of Christ" By John Mauropous (c. 1000 - 1070s) Introduction John Mauropous was born in the region of Paphlagonia (in north-central Turkey), before moving to Constantinople, where he became a poet and scholar. While acting as court orator for Constantine IX Monomachos (r. 1042-1055), Byzantine Emperor, he was also a teacher, whose most famous pupil was the many-faceted Byzantine writer Michael Psellos (1017 - c. 1078). Around 1050, though, John fell from favor, and became Metropolitan of Euchaita (modern Avhat, Turkey), which he considered as exile. After prodding his friends, particularly Psellos, he returned to Constantinople near the end of his life, spending his last years in the Monastery of Agia Petra. John's writings include a number of poems of various sorts (including autobiographical poems and funeral orations in verse) as well as letters, sermons, and canons (a style of Byzantine liturgical poetry). He seems to have prepared hi...