Education
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 deceased" He dates this banquet to the end of "my third age", and alludes to the fact both his parents were alive, which leads January Olof Rosenqvist to conclude Lazaropoulos was about 21 years old.
Career
He was later made a sacristan (skeuophylax), married, and had two sons by 1340. 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 Saint Eugenios appeared to him in a dream and assured Lazaropoulos he would have a safe journey.
On 27 October 1363, Niphon, the Metropolitan of Trebizond, was arrested for his complicity with an attempt on the life of Emperor Alexios not long before, and was confined to Soumela Monastery.
When Niphon died on 18 March in the following year, John was appointed his successor and proceeded to Constantinople for consecration by Patriarch Philotheos not long after Philotheos" enthronement on 8 October. John was back in Trebizond by Easter Sunday, 13 April 1365.
According to Michael Panaretos, John resigned his office on 15 November 1367, retiring to the monastery of Panagia Eleousa, close to the Daphnous harbor, next to Leonkastron. He was succeeded by a monk from Mount Athos, Theodosios of Thessalonica.
The next year on 19 July he fled to Constantinople on account of piratical raids made on the Araniotai, which includes Ares Island (modern Giresun Island).
William Miller considers these seaborne raids to be the acts of the Ottoman Turks, the future conquerors of Trebizond, although Anthony Bryer thinks that this raid "at this date is more likely to represent Sinopitan or local Turkmen corsairs." 1.
Politics
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 party arrived in Trebizond 22 December.
