John XIV Kalekas

John XIV Kalekas (c. 1282–1347), patriarch of Constantinople from 1334, came from a modest Thracian family and had a wife and children before ordination. Kantakouzenos, chief minister of Andronikos III, pushed through his election as patriarch against the synod's resistance.

After Andronikos died in 1341 Kalekas turned against his patron: Anna of Savoy made him regent for the child John V, and with Alexios Apokaukos he led the regency side in the 1341–1347 civil war against Kantakouzenos. He also opposed Hesychasm, and his synod of 1345 excommunicated Gregory Palamas and jailed him.

Kantakouzenos, helped by the Ottoman emir Orhan and Apokaukos's murder, then struck the regency a heavy blow. In 1347 a synod deposed Kalekas and exiled him to Didymoteicho; days later Kantakouzenos entered Constantinople and confirmed the sentence. Kalekas died in December 1347.