Catherine of Bulgaria

Daughter of the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Vladislav and his wife Maria, sister of Presian II and Alusian ^[1] .

Catherine was married to Isaac Komnin . They had at least two children ^[2] :

• Manuil Komnin (c. 1030 - 1042/57), was engaged to the daughter of Protiosafaria Helios ^[3] .
• Maria Komnina (born c. 1034), a famous beauty. She did not marry and retired with her mother to the monastery ^[4] .

Having become emperor in 1057, Isaac made his wife Augustus ^[5] . Two years later, Isaac fell ill and came to the conclusion that the disease was fatal. He abdicated on November 22, 1059, and appointed Konstantin Duku his successor. Two years later, he died as a monk at the Studios Monastery ^{[1] [6]} .

After her husband’s abdication, Catherine apparently reigned with Konstantin X for some time, but in the end she also retired to the Mireleion monastery, taking the name Ksenia ^[7] .

• The Chronographia of Michael Psellus . - New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1953.
• Varzos, Konstantinos. Archived copy : [] . - Thessaloniki: Center for Byzantine Studies, University of Thessaloniki, 1984. - Vol. A. Archived February 3, 2014 on the Wayback Machine

• Book 7 of the Chronographia which deals with the period 1056-1078. The text is part of the Internet Medieval Source Book