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Internally, John's long reign was one of the most creditable in history, witnessing the careful development of the internal prosperity and economy of his realm, and encouraging justice and charity and a cultural blossoming. Despite expensive campaigns to restore Byzantine unity, he lowered taxes, encouraged agriculture, built schools, libraries, churches, monasteries, hospitals, and homes for the old or the poor. Literature and art prospered under him, and he took steps to ensure the harmonious coexistence of the State with the Church, so that [[Nicea|Nicaea]] became one of the richest, fairest cities of the thirteenth century.<ref name="DURANT"/>
The generations after John Vatatzes looked back upon him as ''“the Father of the Greeks.”''<ref name="VASILIEV"/><ref group="note">"Apostolos Vacalopoulos notes that John III Ducas Vatatzes was prepared to use the words ‘nation’ (''genos''), ‘Hellene’ and ‘Hellas’ together in his correspondence with the Pope. John acknowledged that he was Greek, although bearing the title Emperor of the Romans: ''“the Greeks are the only heirs and successors of [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]]”'', he wrote. In similar fashion John’s son Theodore II, acc. 1254, who took some interest in the physical heritage of Antiquity, was prepared to refer to his whole Euro-Asian realm as “Hellas” and a “Hellenic dominion”. (What Vacalopoulos does not examine is whether, like the Latins, they also called their Aegean world ‘Roman-ia’)."<br>::* Michael O'Rourke. ''[http://www.scribd.com/doc/30421469/Byzantium-1220-to-1330 Byzantium: From Recovery to Ruin, A Detailed Chronology: AD 1220-1331].'' Compiled by Michael O'Rourke. Canberra, Australia, April 2010.</ref>
==Relics and Veneration==
