Venerable Theophanes the Confessor, Hymnographer, Bishop of Nicaea (+c. 850)

The Venerable Theophanes the Confessor, hymnographer and bishop of Nicaea, was born in Arabia. He was the younger brother of the Venerable Theodore the Branded (commemorated 27 December). The brothers received a brilliant education and were especially drawn to philosophy. The thirst to know God brought them to the lavra of Saint Sabbas. There the Venerable Theophanes was tonsured a monk, and some years later he was ordained hieromonk.

The holy brothers were glorified before the Lord during the tyranny of the iconoclasts. At the charge of the Patriarch of Jerusalem they went to Constantinople and rebuked the heretical emperor Leo the Armenian (813–820). Afterwards the Lord’s chosen ones also admonished the iconoclast emperors Michael the Stammerer (Balbus) (820–829) and Theophilus (829–842), and explained to them the holy practice of venerating icons.

The blessed confessors suffered for twenty-five years for their defence of the holy icons. By order of the Emperor Theophilus the executioners carved insulting words on their faces with red-hot needles (that is why the holy fathers are called “the Branded”). “Write what you please; you will read your writing at the dread Judgement,” the blessed brothers told the autocrat. Theodore died in prison (+833), while Theophanes was sent into exile. After the restoration of the veneration of icons he returned from exile and was consecrated bishop of Nicaea. The hierarch wrote about a hundred and fifty canons, among them a remarkable canon in defence of the veneration of the holy icons. Around 850 he committed his soul to the Lord in peace.