THEOPHANES

The name of many Byzantine monks, scholars, and eccelsiastics.

Theophanes Graptos, saint and Byzantine poet; b. in the Moabite Mountains, Palestine, c. 775; d. probably Nicaea, 845. Theophanes became a monk at the Monastery of St. Saba near Jerusalem. As an anti-Iconoclast, he was

exiled with his brother Theodore Graptos by Emperor leo v (813–29), and was sent into exile again during the reign of theophilus (829–42), who ordered 12 verses to be branded on his forehead. During the regency of Empress theodora he was appointed metropolitan of Nicaea. He wrote liturgical hymns of which 19 idiomela and 162 canons are authentic. Eustratiades attributes to him a greater number of anonymous canons and liturgical books. Most of his works are still in MS.

Theophanes, 9th century Byzantine monk, possibly the same as the priest and hegumen who wrote a notice enlarging the biography of Ignatius the Deacon with an account of the exile and death of Patriarch nicephorus i and the translation of his relies. He is perhaps the author of a biography of St. Joseph the Hymnographer (d. 886) and of a canon or hymn honoring St. John, the pupil of Gregory Decapolites.

Theophanes Siciliotes, Sicilian Byzantine hymnographer, possibly of the 9th century, who wrote a canon or hymn in honor of St. Beryllus of Catania and is credited with four further canons in the liturgical books. A. Papadopulos-Kerameus considered him the biographer of St. Joseph the Hymnographer and the correspondent of the Patriarch Photius. The canon for St. John (April 18) should perhaps be attributed to the biographer of St. Joseph the Hymnographer (see above paragraph).

Theophanes III of Nicaea, Byzantine theologian and polemicist, metropolitan of Nicaea from 1366 to 1381; b. c. 1315?; d. Constantinople, c. 1381. First mentioned in 1366 as bishop of Nicaea, Theophanes was in the entourage of the Emperor John IV Cantacuzene in 1369 when the Emperor directed him to give the Latin patriarch of Constantinople an account of the Palamite controversy. Theophanes proved a faithful but discriminatory disciple of Palamas. He resided at Constantinople because Nicaea was occupied by the Turks after 1330; he served as a member of the permanent synod (synodos endemousa ), and took part in the synod of 1370. Theophanes is the author of a large number of pastoral, polemic, liturgical, and theological works. Most of them are still in MS. He wrote a letter against the Jews and another against the Latins. Three of his pastoral letters to the clergy and laity of Nicaea have been published (Patrologia Graeca, 150:288–349), as has his "Discourse on the Mother of God" (ed. M. Jugie, Rome 1935). His treatise on "The Eternity of the World" is still in MS.

Theophanes of Medaia, metropolitan of Medaia in Thrace, 15th century antiunionist theologian; d. after 1474. A friend of the Byzantine Patriarch Gennadius II (George Scholarius) and a relative of Mark Eugenicus, he occupied various ecclesiastical positions, from the Great Teacher to Great Economo in the Byzantine Church. Between 1467 and 1470 he became metropolitan of Medaia. Theophanes was a sharp critic of ecclesiastical abuses and intrigues in the decades following the fall of Constantinople. He wrote theological and philosophical tracts in support of the antiunionist polemic of Gennadius and Marcus Eugenicus. One of these tracts deals with divine providence, another with the origin of the human soul. He exchanged letters with the philosopher Amirutzes about the problem of beatific vision.

Bibliography: Theophanes Graptos. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 516–517. s. vailhÉ, Revue de l'Orient chrétien 6 (1901) 313–332, 610–642. s. eustratiades, ΝΣιών 31 (1936) 5–10; 34 (1939). Theophanes (monk). a. ehrhard, Überlieferung und Bestand der hagiographischen und homiletischen Literatur der griechischen Kirche von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 16. Jh. (Leipzig-Berlin 1937-52) 1:427, 591. Bibliotheca hagiographica Graeca, ed. f. halkin (Brussels 1957) 1336–37. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 561. Theophanes Siciliotes. a. papadopulos-kerameus, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 9 (1900) 370–378. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 602. c. emereau, Échos d'Orient 25 (1926) 182–183. Theophanes III of Nicaea. Patrologia Graeca, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1858–66) 150:288–350. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 746–747. p. aubron, Recherches de science religieuse 27 (1937) 257–274, Discourse. h. pinna, Ratio Incarnationis secundum Theophanem nicaenum (Cagliari 1949). s. salaville, Revue des études byzantines 11 (1953) 266–271. Theophanes of Medaia. e. stÉphanou, Échos d'Orient 31 (1932) 165–176, philosophical works. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 773. s. and s. eustratiades, Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts in the Laura on Mt. Athos (Cambridge, MA 1925) 412–434.

[e. el-hayek]