Theophanes the Confessor
Roman Catholic Church; Eastern Orthodox Church | |
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Feast | 12 March (Catholic Church); 12 March (Julian Calendar for Orthodox Church) |
Theophanes the Confessor (Greek: Θεοφάνης Ὁμολογητής; c. 758/760 – 12 March 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine aristocracy who became a monk and chronicler. He served in the court of Emperor Leo IV the Khazar before taking up the religious life. Theophanes attended the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 and resisted the iconoclasm of Leo V the Armenian, for which he was imprisoned. He died shortly after his release.
Theophanes the Confessor,
Biography
Theophanes was born in
He was married at the age of eighteen, but convinced his wife to lead a life of virginity. In 779, after the death of his father-in-law, they separated with mutual consent to embrace the religious life. She chose a convent on an island near Constantinople, while he entered the Polychronius Monastery, located in the district of Sigiane (Sigriano), near Cyzicus on the Asian side of the Sea of Marmara.[1] Later, he built a monastery on his own lands on the island of Calonymus (now Calomio),[3] where he acquired a high degree of skill in transcribing manuscripts.
After six years he returned to Sigriano, where he founded an abbey known by the name "of the big settlement" and governed it as abbot. In this position of leadership, he was present at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, and signed its decrees in defense of the veneration of icons.[1]
When Emperor Leo V the Armenian (813–820) resumed his iconoclastic warfare, he ordered Theophanes brought to Constantinople. The Emperor tried in vain to induce him to condemn the same veneration of icons that had been sanctioned by the council. Theophanes was cast into prison and for two years suffered cruel treatment. After his release, he was banished to Samothrace in 817, where overwhelmed with afflictions, he lived only seventeen days. He is credited with many miracles that occurred after his death,[1] which most likely took place on 12 March, the day he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology.[1]
Chronicle
At the urgent request of his friend
Theophanes' part of the chronicle covered events from the accession of
The work consists of two parts, wherein the first provides a chronological history arranged per annum, and the second contains chronological tables that are regrettably full of inaccuracies. It seems that Theophanes had only prepared the tables, leaving vacant spaces for the proper dates, but that these had been filled out by someone else (
The first part, though lacking in critical insight and chronological accuracy, greatly surpasses the majority of Byzantine chronicles.[7] Theophanes's Chronicle is particularly valuable beginning with the reign of Justin II (565), as in his work, he then drew upon sources that have not survived his times[8]
Theophanes' Chronicle was much used by succeeding chroniclers, and in 873–875 a
There also survives a further continuation, in six books, of the Chronicle down to the year 961 written by a number of mostly anonymous writers (called
Theophanes was the first to claim that the Prophet of the Islamic religion Muhammad had epilepsy.[10]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Mershman 1912.
- ^ "Venerable Theophanes the Confessor of Sigriane", Pravoslavie
- ^ "Bordone: Calomio, Calamo, Stampalia, S. Ioane de, Greece, Aegean, Kalymnos, 1528".
- ^ Mershman 1912 citing P.G., CVIII, 55
- ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
- ^ "Venerable Theophanes the Confessor of Sigriane", Orthodox Church in America
- ^ Mershman 1912 citing Krumbacher 1897, p. 342.
- Traianus Patricius, Theophilus of Edessa.
- ^ Mershman 1912 notes that it was published in vol. ii. of De Boor's edition.
- PMID 31822396.
References
- Krumbacher, C. (1897). Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur. München, C. H. Beck (O. Beck).
Attribution:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Mershman, Francis (1912). "St. Theophanes". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Theophanes". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Endnotes:
- Editions of the Chronicle:
- Editio princeps, Jacques Goar (Paris, 1655)
- J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, cviii (vol.108, col.55-1009).
- J. Classen in Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byzantinae (1839–1841);
- C. de Boor (1883–85), with an exhaustive treatise on the MS. and an elaborate index, [and an edition of the Latin version by Anastasius Bibliothecarius]
- see also the monograph by Jules Pargoire, Saint Theophane le Chronographe et ses rapports avec saint Theodore studite," in VizVrem, ix. (St Petersburg, 1902).
- Editions of the Continuation in
- J. P. Migne, Pair. Gr., cix.
- I. Bekker, Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byz. (1838)
- On both works and Theophanes generally, see:
- C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur (1897);
- Ein Dithyrambus auf Theophanes Confessor (a panegyric on Theophanes by a certain proto-asecretis, or chief secretary, under Constantine Porphyrogenitus), Eine neue Vita des Theophanes Confessor (anonymous), both edited by the same writer in Sitzungsbertchte der philos.-philol. und der hist. CI. der k. bayer. Akad. der Wissenschaften (1896, pp. 583– 625; and 1897, pp. 371–399);
- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, (ed. Bury), v. p. 500.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the - Editions of the Chronicle:
Further reading
- Mango, Cyril (1978). "Who Wrote the Chronicle of Theophanes?". Zborknik Radova Vizantinoškog Instituta. 18: 9–18. — republished in id., Byzantium and its Image, London 1984.
- Combefis. Venice. 1729. — An editions of the Chronicle with annotations and corrections.
- The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284–813. Translated by Mango, Cyril; Scott, Roger. Oxford. 1997.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) — a translations of the Chronicle - Chronographia. Bilingual document in Latin and Greek, in Spanish National Library (BN), 2 parts DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34638.20802 and DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36368.35840