Jeremias II Tranos (c. 1536 – 4 September 1595) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople three times between 1572 and 1595. Life Jeremias Tranos was born in Anchialos, from an influential Greek family. The exact date of birth is not known, most probably 1530, but some scholars suggest 1536. He studied with the best Greek teachers of his age, and in his youth he became a monk. Supported by the rich Michael Cantacuzene, he was appointed bishop of Larissa on about 1568. When Cantacuzene obtained the deposition of Patriarch Metrophanes III, Jeremias, supported by Cantacuzene, was elected for the first time to the Patriarchate on 5 May 1572. Jeremias' first concern was the reform of his Church, and he summoned a synod with the aim to root out simony. He also restored his cathedral, that at the time was the Pammakaristos Church. During this his first reign Jeremias also had the first contacts with the Lutherans which ended in a deadlocked disagreement. On 3 March 1578 his patron, Cantacuzene was executed, and so Jeremias position became weak. On 23 (or 29) November 1579 Jeremias was deposed and excommunicated, and his rival Metrophanes III returned on the Patriarchal throne. Metrophanes III died in August 1580, and Jeremias returned for the second time on the throne, probably on 13 August. From 1580 to 1583 there were contacts between Jeremias and envoys of the pope in regard to the introduction in Greece of the Gregorian calendar: Rome was almost sure about a positive solution, but on the contrary the final position of Jeremias was negative. In 1584 Jeremias offered as a gift to Pope Gregory XIII two pieces of relics from the bodies of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Andrew of Crete. In the winter between 1583 and 1584 Jeremias was subject of a conspiracy of some Greek bishops against him, led by Pachomius of Kaisaria and Theoleptus of Philippoupolis, that accused him to have supported a Greek uprise against the Ottoman Empire, to have baptized a muslim and to be in correspondence with the papacy. Jeremias was arrested and beaten, and three trials followed: the first charge resulted false, but the last resulted in his deposition on 22 February 1584 and in his exile in Rhodes. Thanks to the intercession of the French ambassador, in 1586 Jeremias obtained the freedom from the exile in Rhodes and started his travel through the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth