Matthew Blastares

Matthew Blastares (flourished 14th century) was a Greek Orthodox monk, theological writer, and Byzantine legal authority whose systematizing of church and civil law influenced the development of later Slavic legal codes.

A priest-monk of the Esaias monastery at Thessalonica, Greece, Blastares in 1335 compiled the Syntagma alphabeticum (“Alphabetical Arrangement”), a handbook of Byzantine church and civil laws that synthesized material from previous collections. It was almost immediately translated into Slavonic at the behest of King Stefan Dušan of Serbia and appeared in a Bulgarian version during the 15th century and in a Russian edition in the early 16th century. By the 18th century it was recognized as the standard expression of Eastern Orthodox canon law. The Syntagma helped to establish Slavic customs relating to the rules of legal procedure and laws regulating state protection of the poor and persecuted. Moreover, it transmitted the principle of a political realm transcending the interests of individuals and classes, ruled by a sovereign himself subject to the laws he had promulgated.

Blastares also wrote controversial tracts against Latin sacramental doctrine. Other works include treatises on divine grace, political verse on the officials of Constantinople’s court, and liturgical essays and hymns.