Anna Akropolitissa

Anna Doukaina Akropolitissa (1260, Constantinople – c. 1325/1330, Anafi) was a Byzantine noblewoman and Queen of Jerusalem by marriage from 1272 to 1275. As a young widow, she became a nun by the name of Xene on the island of Anafi following her family's disgrace.
== Life ==
A daughter of the Byzantine statesman and historian George Akropolites, her father arranged her betrothal to Aimery IV of Jerusalem when she was ten years old. The marriage was approved of by the Byzantine emperor Theodore II Laskaris, who long maintained a policy of strengthening the crusader states against the Mamluk Sultanate and even assisted the ill-fated Sixth Crusade. The marriage of Aimery and Anna, who aside from being the Grand Logothete's daughter was also the great-grandniece of John III Doukas Vatatzes, Theodore II's father, was supposed to solidify the alliance between the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Unfortunately for Anna, King Aimery IV died suddenly in 1275, at age twenty-seven, without leaving an heir from a marriage that had only recently been consummated. Anna found herself a widow at the age of fifteen. Sidelined by the Jerusalemite nobility, she returned to Constantinople, where she was afforded honors and status as the Dowager Queen of Jerusalem. By 1280, her father was considering to negotiate her marriage to Manuel Palaiologos, eldest son of Michael Palaiologos, or to Romanos Melissenos the Younger. However, all negotiations ceased when her father fell from grace in 1281 and was exiled to the remote Aegean island of Anafi. 
Anna chose to follow her father into exile to care for him, also fleeing the volatile political situation in Constantinople. When the Great Latin War broke out and the mood in Constantinople definitely turned against the crusader states and everyone associated with them, especially after the Battle of Seleucia, Anna chose to make her move to Anafi permanent and with her own funds established the monastery of St. George on Anafi, becoming its first hegumenia. As a nun, Anna assumed the monastic name of Xene. 
The convent of St. George on Anaphi never gained prominence due to its remoteness, mostly serving the local populace. Nevertheless, it acquired imperial funding and patronage from the empress Eudoxia Laskarina, who had been Anna's childhood friend. As hegumenia and endowed with imperial funds, as well as the considerable family fortune, Anna-Xene organized several missions to the Holy Land in the 1290's to offer sanctuary to displaced Orthodox nuns or otherwise girls in need, especially in the aftermath of the Fall of Tripoli and the end of crusader rule in the Levant. Anna-Xene remained in monastic obscurity until her death around 1325/1330.
Following her death, a local cult emerged on the island of Anafi which venerates her life as a saint and guards her relics. However, she is not officially recognized as a saint by the Orthodox Church.
Category:Byzantine people
Category:Consorts