Kariye Camii - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 297

Tomb H , in the north wall of the inner narthex, is that of the
Despot Demetrius Doukas Angelus Palaeologus, and has an
inscription to the following efect: “Thou art the Fount of Life,
Mother of God the Word and I Demetrius am thy slave in
love.”
Before we leave Kariye Camii, we might pause for a moment before
the portrait of Theodore Metochites, the man to whom we owe this
church and its magnificent works of art. Seeing him there over the
door leading into the nave of his church, proud and at the very peak
of his career, we are saddened to learn that Theodore fell from royal
favour in his later years. After Andronicus III usurped the throne
in 1328, Theodore was stripped of his power and possessions and
thrown into prison, along with many other officials of the old regime.
Only when his life was drawing to a close was he freed and allowed
to retire to the monastery of St. Saviour in Chora. He died there on
13 March 1331 and was buried in the parecclesion of his beloved
church. In those last sad days of his life, Theodore was comforted
by his friend, the great scholar Nicephorus Gregoras, who was also
confined to the monastery. When Nicephorus later recorded the
history of those times, he wote this afectionate tribute to Theodore:
“From morning to evening he was most wholly and eagerly devoted
to public afairs as if scholarship was absolutely indiferent to him;
but later in the evening, having left the palace, he became absorbed
in science to such a degree as if he were a scholar with absolutely no
connection with any other afairs.” Theodore was the greatest man
of his time, a diplomat and high government official, theologian,
philosopher, historian, astronomer, poet and patron of the arts, the
leader of the artistic and intellectual renaissance of late Byzantium.
But among all his accomplishments, Theodore was proudest of the
church that he had built and adorned. Towards the end of his life he
wrote of his hope that it would secure for him “a glorious memory
among posterity to the end of the world.” It has indeed.