Cardinal Isidore of Kiev

Biography

Cardinal Isidore of Kiev was the Pope's personal representative to Constantinople — the man sent to implement the Union of Florence (1439), which had theoretically reunited the Eastern and Western churches and which Constantine XI had accepted in exchange for promised military aid. He arrived in December 1452 with about 200 archers — pitifully insufficient, but all the Pope had sent — and presided over a solemn mass at the Hagia Sophia uniting the two rites. The Byzantine population was furious. Grand Duke Notaras reportedly said he would rather see Turks in Constantinople than Latin priests. Isidore helped organize the defense and fought at the walls during the siege. When the city fell, he escaped by the most remarkable means: he dressed a dead body in his cardinal's robes, placed it where the Ottomans would find it, and escaped disguised as a slave. Sold into slavery in the chaos of the sack, he was bought by a sympathetic buyer and eventually ransomed. He returned to Rome, reported the fall to the Pope, and spent the remaining decade of his life lobbying for a Crusade to retake Constantinople — a Crusade that never came. He was appointed Latin Patriarch of Constantinople in absentia — a title with no territory — and died in 1463, ten years after the fall, still waiting.

Key Battles