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Saint Theophanes Confessor (c. 758/760 – March 12, 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
 aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicle
Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronology order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler....
r. He is venerated on March 12 in the Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
 and the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
 (March 25 in those churches that follow the Julian calendar
Julian calendar

The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus....
).

phanes was born at Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
, of wealthy and noble iconodule parents: Isaac, imperial governor of the islands of the Black Sea, and of Theodora, of whose family nothing is known.






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Saint Theophanes Confessor (c. 758/760 – March 12, 817/818) was a member of the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
 aristocracy, who became a monk and chronicle
Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronology order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler....
r. He is venerated on March 12 in the Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
 and the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian communion in the world with an estimated 225 million members worldwide. It is considered by its adherents to be the Four Marks of the Church established by Jesus Christ and his Apostles nearly 2000 years ago....
 (March 25 in those churches that follow the Julian calendar
Julian calendar

The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus....
).

Biography

Theophanes was born at Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
, of wealthy and noble iconodule parents: Isaac, imperial governor of the islands of the Black Sea, and of Theodora, of whose family nothing is known. Isaac died when Theophanes was three years old, and the Byzantine emperor Constantine V Copronymus (740-775) subsequently saw to the boy's education and upbringing at the imperial court; Theophanes would hold several offices under this patron.

He was married at the age of twelve but induced his wife to lead a life of virginity, and in 799, after the death of his father-in-law, they separated with mutual consent to embrace the religious life, she choosing a convent on an island near Constantinople, while he entered the monastery called Polychronius in the district of Sigiane (Sigriano), near Cyzicus
Cyzicus

Cyzicus was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia, situated in Balikesir Province on the shoreward side of the present peninsula of Kapu-Dagh , which is said to have been originally an island in the Sea of Marmara, and to have been artificially connected with the mainland in historic times....
 on the Asian side of the Sea of Marmora. Later he built a monastery on his own lands on the island of Calonymus (now Calomio).

After six years he returned to Sigriano, founded an abbey known by the name "of the great acre", and governed it as abbot. As such he was present at the Second General Council of Nicaea in 787, and signed its decrees in defense of the sacred images.

When the emperor Leo V the Armenian
Leo V the Armenian

Leo V the Armenian , , was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 813 to 820....
 (813-820) resumed his iconoclastic warfare, he ordered Theophanes brought to Constantinople and tried in vain to induce him to condemn what had been sanctioned by the council. Theophanes was cast into prison and for two years suffered cruel treatment; he was then banished to Samothrace
Samothrace

Samothrace is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a self-governing deme in the prefecture of Evros, Greece. The island is long and is in size and has a population of 2,723 ....
 in 817, where overwhelmed with afflictions, he lived only seventeen days and is credited with many miracles after his death, probably 12 March, the day he is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology
Roman Martyrology

The Roman Martyrology is the official Martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church....
.

Chronicle

At the urgent request of his friend George Syncellus
George Syncellus

George Syncellus was a Byzantine Empire chronicler and ecclesiastic. He had lived many years in Palestine as a monk, before coming to Constantinople, where he was appointed syncellus to Patriarch Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople....
, Theophanes undertook the continuation of his chronicle, during the years 810-15 (P.G., CVIII, 55), making use of material already prepared by Syncellus
Syncellus

Syncellus may refer to:* an office in an Orthodox Church roughly equivalent to that of an episcopal vicar in the Roman Catholic Church.People named Syncellus:...
, probably also the extracts from the works of Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates Scholasticus

Socrates of Constantinople was a Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret, who used his work; he was born at Constantinople c....
, Sozomenus, and Theodoret
Theodoret

Saint Theodoret, known as Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus, was an influential author, theologian, and Christianity bishop of Cyrrhus%2C_Syria ....
, made by Theodore Lector, and the city chronicle of Constantinople.

Theophanes' chronicle of world events, covering events from the accession of Diocletian
Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
 in 284 (the point where the chronicle of George Syncellus
George Syncellus

George Syncellus was a Byzantine Empire chronicler and ecclesiastic. He had lived many years in Palestine as a monk, before coming to Constantinople, where he was appointed syncellus to Patriarch Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople....
 ends) to the downfall of Michael I Rhangabes in 813, is valuable for preserving the accounts of lost authorities on Byzantine history that would be otherwise lost for the seventh and eighth centuries. The language occupies a place midway between the stiff ecclesiastical and the vernacular Greek.

The work consists of two parts, the first giving the history, arranged according to years, the other containing chronological tables, 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 (Hugo von Hurter, Nomenclator literarius recentioris I, Innsbruck, 1903, 735). In chronology, in addition to reckoning by the years of the world and the Christian era, Theophanes introduces in tabular form the regnal years of the Roman emperors, of the Persian kings and Arab caliphs, and of the five oecumenical patriarchs, a system which leads to considerable confusion, and therefore of little value.

The first part, though lacking in critical insight and chronological accuracy, which could scarcely be expected from a man of such ascetical disposition, greatly surpasses the majority of Byzantine chronicles (Krumbacher, "Geschichte der byzant. Litteratur," 1897, 342). Theophanes's Chronicle becomes valuable with the reign of Justin II
Justin II

Flavius Iustinus Augustus was Eastern Roman emperor from 565 to 578. He was the nephew of Justinian I, and husband of Sophia , the niece of the late empress Theodora , and therefore member of the Justinian Dynasty....
 (565) the point in his work he drew upon sources that have not survived his times.

His Chronicle was much used by succeeding chroniclers, and in 873-875 a Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 compilation (published in vol. ii. of De Boor's edition) was made by the papal
Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
 librarian Anastasius
Anastasius Bibliothecarius

Anastasius Bibliothecarius was a librarian and supposed antipope of the Roman Catholic Church....
 from the chronicles of Patriarch Nicephorus, George Syncellus, and Theophanes for the use of a deacon named Johannes in the second half of the ninth century, and thus was known to Western Europe.

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 Continuatus or Scriptores post Theophanem), who undertook the work at the instructions of Constantine Porphyrogenitus.

Sources and references

(incomplete)*

  • C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897); Ein Dithyrambus auf Theophanes Confessor (a panegyric on Theophanes by a certain protoasecretis, or imperial chief secretary, under Constantine Porphyrogenitus) and Eine neue Vita des Theophanes Confessor (anonymous), both edited by the same writer in 'Sitzungsberichte' of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1896, pp. 583-625; and 1897, pp. 371-399)
  • Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the West (ed. Bury), v. p. 500.


Editions of the Chronicle:
  • Editio princeps
    Editio princeps

    In classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which were therefore circulated only after being copied by hand....
    , Jacques Goar
    Jacques Goar

    Jacques Goar was a French Dominican Order and Hellenist....
     (Paris, 1655)
  • Combefis (Venice, 1729), with annotations and corrections.
  • J. P. Migne
    Jacques Paul Migne

    Jacques Paul Migne was a France priest who published inexpensive and widely-distributed editions of theological works, encyclopedias and the texts of the Church Fathers, with the goal of providing a universal library for the Catholic priesthood....
    , Patrologia Graeca
    Patrologia Graeca

    The Patrologia Graeca is an edited collection of writings by the Christian Church Fathers and various secular writers, in the ancient Koine or Medieval Greek variants of the Greek language....
    , cviii (vol.108, col.55-1009).
  • J. Classen in Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byzantinae (1839-41)
  • C. de Boor (Leipzig, 1883-85), with an exhaustive treatise on the manuscript and an elaborate index, and an edition of the Latin version by Anastasius Bibliothecarius
  • Jules Pargoire, "Saint Theophane le Chronographe et ses rapports avec saint Theodore studite," in VizVrem, ix. (St Petersburg, 1902).


Editions of the Continuation:
  • J. P. Migne, Pair. Gr., cix.
  • I. Bekker, Bonn Corpus Scriptorum Hist. Byz. (1838).

External links