Theophilus

ON ST. THEOPHILUS, MONK AND CONFESSOR, IN GREECE,

ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY.

SYLLOGE.

Theophilus, monk, confessor, in Greece. (S.)

BY C. B.

The Menology of the Greeks, which the most learned Cardinal Sirleto translated into the Latin tongue and made public, announces St. Theophilus the monk at this day with the following eulogy: The Saint, who in Sirleto's Menology and in other On the same day the Birthday of our holy father Theophilus, who was a religious monk and fearing God, under Leo the Isaurian, whose impiety seeing, and his execrable hatred for overturning the venerable images of the Saints, reproaching him to his face with his heresy, he refuted him, calling him impious, nefarious, and the forerunner of Antichrist and the deserter of Christ, and objecting other like things. By which provoked to anger, he first ordered him to be beaten, and cast into prison; led out thence afterwards, he is compelled to deny the holy images. Which altogether refusing, sent into exile, he there left the present life. To the Sirletan Menology is added the Basilian, printed with Urbino types in the year 1727 by the labour and zeal of Cardinal Annibale Albani, which also adorns St. Theophilus at this day with a eulogy conceived in almost as many, although somewhat different, words. The same is done by the great Menaea of the Greeks, and these also here, as he is wont to do everywhere elsewhere, Maximus Margunius, bishop of Cythera, has followed in the Menology expressed by him in the vernacular tongue of the Greeks. Before the eulogy of the Menaea little verses are set according to custom. There are two in number here, in which the author alludes to the name of Theophilus, and wishes, as it appears, to signify that the Saint, as in name, so also in reality, is the friend of God. Here they are with a Latin version added:

Ἐναντίον μου σὴ τελευτὴ τιμία, Λέγει θεός σοι τῷ φίλῳ θεοφίλῳ.

Precious in my sight is thy death, God says to thee, Theophilus, beloved by Him.

[2] To the two Menologies of the Greeks already mentioned, namely the Basilian and the Sirletan, is inscribed in the sacred Fasti of the Greeks, obtains a fuller eulogy, and to the Menaea, and to Maximus Margunius, who, as I have said, followed these, is added the manuscript Synaxarium of Sirmond, in which St. Theophilus is likewise adorned with a eulogy at the 2nd day of October. This is longer than are the eulogies with which the name of the Saint is marked in the praised Menaea and the other sacred Fasti. It teaches besides, at least under a disjunction, the fatherland of Theophilus, and some other circumstances which you would seek elsewhere in vain, and therefore it will be worth the labour to transcribe it here entire, with a Latin interpretation added. It has thus: Μνήμη τοῦ ἁγίου θεοφίλου τοῦ νεοῦ ὁμολογητοῦ, ὅς ὑπῆρχε τιβερίου πόλεως γέννημα καὶ θρέμμα χριστιανῶν γονέων ὑιὸς καὶ ἐξ ἀυτῶν τῶν σπαργάνων ἔχων βιόντε καθαρὸν καὶ ἀνεπύληπτον. οὗτος μοναχὸς γεγονὼς πολλοῖς ἐγένετο διδασκάλος καὶ ἀλείπτης πρὸς τὴν ευσέβειαν. Περὶ τόυτον ἀναμαθὼν ὁ βασιλεὺς λέων ὁ ἴσαυρος ὃτι προσκυνητὴς τῶν θείων εἰκόνών ἐστι. μετακαλεσάμενος πρὸς ἐαυτὸν καὶ συμβουλευσάμενος δῆθεν ἀποστῆναι τῆς προσκυνήσεως τῶν σεπτῶν εἰκόνων, οὐ μόνον ὀυκ ἔσχε καταπειθῆ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐλέγχοντα ἀυτὸν καὶ ὑβρίζοντα ἰσχυρῶς, ἄθεον ἀυτὸν ἀποκαλοῦντα καὶ παράνομον καὶ τοῦ ἀντιχρίστου πρόδρομον καὶ ἀρνίτην τῆς τῶν χριστιανῶν πίστεως. ὅθεν εἰς ὀργὴν ἐκινηθεὶς ὅ βασιλεὺς πρώτον μέν τύπτει σφόδρως καὶ εἰς φυλακὴν ἀυτὸν ἐμβάλλει καὶ λιμοκτονεῖ ἱκανῶς, ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ ὅυτως οὐ πείθων εἰς ἐξορίαν ἐκπέμπει. Διὰ βασιλικῶν δὲ γραμμάτων κακεῖσε συμβουλεύων καὶ ἀπειλῶν καὶ μηδ᾽ ὅλως πείσας, ἀποστείλας καλύβιόν τινα τοὔνομα τύπτει τοῦτον βουνεύροις. Εἶτα τὴν ὄψιν καὶ τοὺς πόδας διαπερνήσας σιδήροις ἐλάυνει καὶ ἀφανήσας ἀυτοῦ τὸ σῶμα ἀπερρίπτει. ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ θανεῖν ἔμελλεν ὁ μακάριος, άφείθη. Χριστοῦ δὲ χάριτος ἆυθις ὑγιαστεὶς τὸν ὑπολειπόντε χρόνον θεαρέστως βιώσας καὶ θαυμάτων ἀπειρῶν γενόμενος ἀυτουργὸς τοῦ βίου ἐνδόξως μεθίσταται.

[3] rendered here in Latin, in the Synaxarium The commemoration of St. Theophilus, the new confessor, who was born and brought up at Tiberiopolis; the son of Christian parents. From his very cradle he led a chaste and irreproachable life. Having become a monk, he turned out a master and guide to piety for many. When the emperor Leo the Isaurian had heard concerning him that he was a worshipper of the sacred images, calling him to himself and exhorting him, namely, to desert the worship of the venerable images, he not only did not have him obedient to himself, but on the contrary refuting him and vehemently rebuking him, calling him besides by the name of impious and nefarious forerunner of Antichrist, and deserter of the Christian faith. Whence the emperor, provoked to anger, first indeed beats him vehemently and casts him into prison, and all but kills him with hunger; and then, effecting nothing even so, sends him into exile; and after he had attacked the Saint there also with imperial letters, and threatened him with menaces, and gained nothing at all, sending a certain man named Calubius, he beats him with bull's sinews, then, piercing his face and feet with nails, drives about and thrusts out his body; but when the Saint was now near to dying, he was released; and, restored to health by the grace of Christ, and passing the rest of his life according to the precepts of God, and made the worker of infinite miracles, he ended his life by a glorious departure.

[4] of Sirmond, according to which he was born at Tiberiopolis, obtains. You see, I think, learned reader, that some circumstances occur in this eulogy of the Saint which are lacking in the Sirletan eulogy recited above, and therefore in the Basilian, which agrees with it as to substance, and in that which the Menaea and Maximus Margunius supply. First among these, as I have already noted before, holds its place the fatherland of the Saint, which is said to have been Tiberiopolis. But two cities are found among the geographers distinguished by the name of Tiberiopolis, of which the one is situated in Asia, the other in Europe. Notice of the former is suggested by Baudrand in the Geography in these words: Tiberiopolis, a city of Greater Phrygia according to Ptolemy and Socrates, episcopal, under the archbishop of Hierapolis, towards the sources of the river Cayster, very near to the city of Eumenia, 40 thousand paces from Philadelphia to the North. And of the latter in these: Tiberiopolis, a city of Thrace, on the border of Lower Moesia, which today is called Stromizza by Sophianus, but Leunclavius, from Curopalates, has it as a city of the Bulgarians, which he writes is called today Varna, on the shore of the Euxine Sea. Thus Baudrand; but which of those two cities was the fatherland of our Saint I cannot declare for certain, so that these things from the praised Synaxarium of Sirmond only under a disjunction,

as I have already indicated, become known. But as regards the other circumstances which pertain to our Saint, and which, passed over in silence in the other Fasti of the Greeks, are recorded only in the Synaxarium of Sirmond just praised again, I shall presently bring forward a few things concerning them, when I shall have reviewed the other sacred Fasti in which the name of our Saint is likewise found inscribed. From the Greeks I pass over to the Latins.

[5] Galesini, in the Martyrology compiled by him, announces St. Theophilus at this day with the following eulogy, in the Roman Martyrology and in other which seems to have been drawn roughly from the Sirletan recited above or from the Basilian: In Greece, of St. Theophilus, monk and confessor. He, kindled with the ardour of divine piety, when he saw the images of the Saints impiously violated by the emperor Leo the Isaurian, came to him: and, having openly and freely detested his deed, he is first beaten for a long time with rods; then, thrust into a dark prison, he is almost consumed with starvation. But afterwards, led out thence, when he continued with constant piety to defend the worship of the sacred images, he is driven into exile: where, having suffered many vexations, and giving thanks to God for all, he at length rested holily in the Lord. The most eminent Cardinal Baronius likewise brought the name of St. Theophilus into the Roman Martyrology illustrated by him with notes; but he contracted the longer announcement of the Sirletan Menology into this shorter one: At Constantinople, of St. Theophilus the monk, who, for the defence of the holy images most savagely beaten by Leo the Isaurian, and driven into exile, departed to the Lord.

[6] To Baronius and Galesini are added Arnold Wion in the Lignum Vitae, is also announced in the sacred Fasti of the Latins; and, following him, Gabriel Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menology, who both reckon St. Theophilus also among the Benedictine Saints at the second day of October, and adorn him with this eulogy: At Constantinople, of St. Theophilus the monk, who, when he openly reproved Leo the Isaurian promulgating edicts against the sacred images, was ordered to be most savagely beaten, and to be held for a long time in prison; at length, driven into exile, worn out by many tribulations and labours, he departed to the Lord. The recited eulogy the two praised Benedictine hagiologists, or at least the former of them, Wion, who lit the way for Bucelinus, probably transferred from the Sirletan or the Basilian into the sacred Fasti compiled by them; and although it is not established that our Saint professed the rule of St. Benedict, and it is therefore doubtful whether he is deservedly reckoned among the Benedictine Saints, Wion nevertheless gives the reason why he numbers him among the Saints of his Order. For concerning Theophilus, in the Annotations to the Benedictine Saints who are worshipped on the 2nd of October, inserted in the Lignum Vitae, tome 2, book 3, he writes thus: He lived under the emperor Leo the Isaurian, about the years of the Lord DCCXX; and since long before those times the Rule of our Holy Father Benedict was wont to be observed in those parts, he too perhaps could have served under his teaching. From which reasoning it follows that it is doubtful to Wion himself whether St. Theophilus was of the Benedictine Order.

[7] Further, the praised Wion and Bucelinus assign the memory of St. Theophilus to Constantinople, but in some, less rightly, at Constantinople; and in this matter the Roman Martyrology carried the torch before them, in which this is probably done for no other reason than that the Saint enjoys, or at least formerly enjoyed, ecclesiastical cult in that most celebrated city, formerly the metropolis of the Eastern empire. I indeed do not think it should be doubted that ecclesiastical cult and the honours proper to Saints were formerly paid to Theophilus at Constantinople; for that this accords with the truth can be an argument, that the Saint is inscribed in the Synaxarium of Sirmond, which is noted to have been for the use of the church of Constantinople, with the eulogy recited in Greek and Latin in nos. 2 and 3; but I am also persuaded that our Saint was formerly honoured with the cult wont to be paid to Saints not only at Constantinople, but besides in other places of the Greek church, and perhaps is honoured even today. Certainly I do not see by what reasoning it can be proved that the Saint enjoys, or formerly enjoyed, ecclesiastical cult nowhere else than at Constantinople, and therefore the announcement of Galesini pleases me more, according to which the memory of the Saint is referred not to Constantinople or another particular city, but to Greece in general; which, since Constantinople belongs to the Greek church, is also rightly done, even if Theophilus be established to have, or to have had, ecclesiastical cult nowhere else than at Constantinople. There is added, first indeed, that in the Basilian and Sirletan Menologies, the Menaea and the other sacred Fasti of the Greeks mentioned above, the Saint is not announced with the name added of the city or region in which his memory is held solemn, so that I do not know why in the Roman Martyrology he is assigned to Constantinople; and then, that the Menaea, in which the name of the Saint is inscribed and adorned with a eulogy, were for the use not of the church of Constantinople alone, but also of other Greek churches, so that the Saint who is inscribed in them was endowed with the cult proper to Saints not in the church of Constantinople alone, but also in other Greek churches, and therefore that his venerable memory is more rightly announced in general in Greece than in the city of Constantinople alone.

[8] what the Saint suffered in exile, I come now to those things which are related concerning Theophilus in the Synaxarium of Sirmond, and have been suppressed in silence in the other sacred Fasti of the Greeks. The chief are those which report what Theophilus suffered by the emperor's order when he had already been driven into exile for the worship of the sacred images. And they are these: Leo the Isaurian, not content with having driven the Saint into exile, moves every stone to draw him away from the worship of the sacred images. To this end he writes a letter to him, already driven into exile. By this he greatly exhorts the holy Exile, and urges him also with threats, to desert the worship of the sacred images. He refuses to obey the will of the emperor. The latter sends one who should subject Theophilus also to most savage torments. Direly wounded by these, and already almost about to give up his spirit, the Saint is released: he is restored to health by the grace of Christ, and at length, after a life holily led and infinite miracles performed, he meets a glorious death. All these things, as I have already indicated, have been omitted in the other Fasti of the Greeks. The Basilian Menology indeed says that Theophilus suffered many tribulations and vexations in exile; but what or of what kind they were, by whose order and by whom they were inflicted on the Saint, it does not declare, which, however, the Sirmondian eulogy recited above in Latin and Greek, as will be plain to one who inspects it, does accurately enough. But, you will say, do the tribulations and all the other circumstances which in the Synaxarium of Sirmond are reported to have accompanied the exile of St. Theophilus accord exactly with the truth? I answer that I indeed cannot affirm this for certain; yet that nothing also occurs by which I might invincibly convict those things of falsity, or even render them suspect with foundation.

[9] But another circumstance occurs which, although it is such that the eulogy of our Saint is clothed with it both in the Menaea and other Greek Fasti and in the Synaxarium of Sirmond, will nevertheless perhaps appear to someone suspect of falsity. why he was not killed by the emperor, For according to it St. Theophilus, either of his own accord, or, as the Synaxarium of Sirmond indicates, summoned, came to the emperor Leo the Isaurian, and called him impious and nefarious, and affected him with other opprobrious titles, by no means fearing the anger of the imperial majesty; and this will perhaps seem to someone little credible and suspect of falsity for this reason, that after this deed there was no raging against Theophilus with the supreme punishment of death itself. Indeed it can seem wonderful that the emperor, assailed with such ignominious appellations and provoked to anger, did not kill Theophilus, even with the most monstrous torments. But the most learned Cardinal Baronius in some measure takes away my wonder concerning this, when in his Ecclesiastical Annals at the year of Christ 731, having brought forward the Sirletan eulogy of our Saint, he pronounces thus concerning the emperor Leo the Isaurian in no. 2: The impious man doing these things, but not acting against the Catholics according to the rage he had conceived, grudging them the crown of martyrdom, knowing that the same would be to be worshipped as martyrs in the Church, and their relics also to be exposed for veneration, which the impious man was labouring to destroy. Leo the Isaurian therefore, however provoked to anger, would not inflict death on our Saint, lest he should procure for him the glorious name of martyr among the Catholics, although meanwhile he was inclined to torture Theophilus with any most cruel punishments whatever, and it therefore becomes probable even from this that the Saint, already punished with exile, was afflicted by the emperor's order with those torments which, as we said in the preceding number, the often-praised Synaxarium of Sirmond records, and the other sacred Fasti of the Greeks nevertheless wrap in silence.

[10] And these are the things which I have been able to find out concerning St. Theophilus. about when he was relegated, and then died. It remains that I now record a few things concerning the time at which he was driven into exile for the defence of the sacred images, and at which he exchanged this mortal and miserable life for the immortal and blessed one. Leo the Isaurian took up the reins of the Roman empire, as Pagi clearly proves in the Critica at the years 716 and 717, on the XXV of March in the year 717; and in the course of the tenth year of his empire he declared war on the sacred images. Zonaras relates this in the Leo the Isaurian, from no. 1 to 5. The same is also established from the Life of St. Stephen the Younger, monk and martyr, written by Stephen, deacon of the church of Constantinople, and inserted by Jacques Loppin, Benedictine monk, in tome 1 of the Greek Analecta. The words bearing on this are these: After the tenth year of his empire, namely begun, that new Belshazzar (Leo the Isaurian) breathed into the Church the Manichaean heresy, and one perhaps not unlike that of the Aphthartodocetae, so to speak. Therefore, having convoked the people subject to him, before all, roaring leoninely, this inhuman beast, and distinguished by the name of Lion, from his wrathful heart, as from Mount Etna fire and sulphur, belched forth and uttered that pitiable voice: Since the making of images is an idolatrous art, it is not fitting to adore them. In the tenth year of his empire, therefore, as I have asserted, Leo the Isaurian declared war on the sacred images and their worshippers, and therefore, since he took up the empire in the year 717, as I have already taught, he did not begin that war or persecution before the year of Christ 726, whence it follows that St. Theophilus, since the emperor did not rage against him before the persecution against the worshippers of the sacred images had been set in motion, was not driven away into exile before that year. But, you will say, in what determinate year, then, was he driven into exile? I answer that absolutely nothing comes to mind by which I may determine for certain the year in which this happened, and that it only becomes undoubted, from what has already been said and from the year 741, in which Leo the Isaurian, as Pagi again clearly shows in the Critica at the same year, departed from among the living, that the exile of our Saint is to be placed between the year of Christ 726 and 741. Further, the learned reader will now easily gather, as I think, why I assign our Saint here in the margin to about the middle of the eighth century, with the particle of doubting perhaps added, because, namely, since between the year

726 and 741, as I have already taught, he was driven into exile, and could easily have survived among the living as an exile for a space of about twenty years, he perhaps ended his life and at the same time his exile by a happy departure a little earlier, or perhaps even a little later, than the year 750.