In this work, the comprehensive exploration and depiction of the life and multifaceted personality of Dimitrios Kydonis clearly demonstrates that this public figure was one of the most powerful and prominent political and theological/spiritual, but also controversial personalities in Byzantine history of the 14th century. He managed to simultaneously combine, and indeed successfully, the qualities of a capable politician and a high-ranking imperial official, a learned intellectual, and a rival Thomist theologian, serving with unwavering dedication the imperial family of the Palaiologos. His steadfast commitment to his ancestral tradition led him to make the main mission of his political career the assistance in realizing the vision, already from the time when Michael VIII Palaiologos reestablished the Byzantine Empire in its physical seat (1261), for the preservation and survival of the latter through ecclesiastical union and political alliance with the West, in order to ensure the preservation of the imperial family in power in his time, but also to secure his own and his family's political survival as members of the noble and loyal collaborators. However, this effort, besides being a complete failure and ultimately utopian (due to the ambivalent stance and the many internal problems of the Christian West), also led him to a fierce confrontation with the majority of his compatriots on religious and political levels, resulting in him being considered a controversial figure by almost the entire social environment from the mid-1360s. Finally, his presence, due to his fierce opposition and mainly because of the change in his confession and theological orientation, was to become undesirable until the end of his life.
With this work, Dimitrios Kydonis now acquires his comprehensive monograph, which I believe will establish itself in the literature and will serve many researchers. The author, in addition to his profound scientific background, also has the gift of written speech - something not so obvious or often encountered, especially in our time when the Greek language has suffered multiple losses and leveling. With great pleasure and honor, I introduce this important synthetic work by Fr. Evangelos Prigkipakis, whom I have long considered one of my closest scientific collaborators.