Theoleptos of Philadelphia

Saint Theoleptos of Philadelphia was a Byzantine monk, spiritual father and bishop of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. For nearly forty years he shepherded the metropolis of Philadelphia in Asia Minor, a city constantly threatened by the Turks.

The Church honours him as a confessor of Orthodoxy at the time of the Union of Lyon, as a defender of his flock in time of siege, and above all as a teacher of inner prayer. He was one of the guides of the young Gregory Palamas, and his writings were taken into the Philokalia.

Early life and calling

Theoleptos was born in Nicaea around 1250 (other sources say about 1252). He married, had children, and was ordained deacon. Even then he would often withdraw to the countryside around Nicaea and the nearby monasteries to give himself to prayer and fasting.

Around 1275 he left his family and property and embraced the monastic life. His wife tried for a whole year to bring him home, without success. According to Russian sources, he himself later persuaded her to receive the monastic tonsure.

Confessor against the Union of Lyon

In 1274, at the Second Council of Lyon, the envoys of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos accepted union with the Church of Rome. When the union was proclaimed in Constantinople on 16 January 1275, Theoleptos was among the monks around Nicaea who openly protested.

He was arrested and brought before the emperor in the capital. There he rebuked the emperor for twisting the Holy Scriptures, and for this he was beaten and briefly imprisoned. The unionist Patriarch John XI Bekkos also excommunicated him. Some sources say he had withdrawn to Mount Athos, near Karyes, and was sought out there and brought to trial.

While in prison he probably met Nikephoros the Monk, one of the teachers of the prayer of the mind, and became his disciple around 1276. This meeting shaped the course of his whole spiritual life.

Years of ascetic struggle

Once released, Theoleptos returned to the monastic life near Nicaea. He lived there as an ascetic for eight years, and many of the faithful sought him out as a defender of the true faith and a spiritual father.

During these years the monk Neilos of Sicily acted as his guide. It is said that three days after Neilos died, he appeared to Theoleptos in a dream, which moved him deeply. Theoleptos then spent time on Mount Athos, where he came to know more closely the hesychast tradition of Orthodox monasticism.

Metropolitan of Philadelphia

The Union of Lyon collapsed after Pope Martin IV excommunicated Michael VIII. When Michael died, he was succeeded by his son Andronikos II Palaiologos, who opposed the union, and the unionist bishops were removed from their sees.

In these circumstances, in 1283 or 1284, Theoleptos was consecrated bishop and installed as Metropolitan of Philadelphia, at the age of thirty-⁠three. He remained in this see for about forty years, until his death, and played a decisive part in both the church life and the civic life of the city.

In the controversies of Constantinople

At the Council of Blachernae in 1285, Patriarch Gregory II of Cyprus tried to define more precisely the Orthodox teaching on the procession of the Holy Spirit, in answer to the Filioque. Part of the clergy rose against his formulations, and at first Theoleptos was the most prominent of them.

The dispute grew worse when a former student of the patriarch, the monk Mark, published his own commentary on the synodal tomos. The opposition split into two camps. One, led by Metropolitan John Cheilas of Ephesus and Daniel of Kyzikos, demanded the patriarch's deposition, and the other was led by Theoleptos.

After discussions with the Grand Logothete Theodore Mouzalon, Theoleptos changed his mind and laid the blame on Mark rather than on the patriarch. In June 1289, at an assembly in the imperial palace, he publicly affirmed the orthodoxy of Patriarch Gregory. The next day the patriarch offered his resignation, as he had agreed to do for the peace of the Church, and Theoleptos calmed the objections raised over the way it was submitted.

As metropolitan he signed synodal decisions under Patriarchs Gregory II and John XII, travelling to Constantinople in 1288 and 1297. In 1301 he came to the capital again to support Patriarch John XIII Glykys against the restoration of John Cheilas to the see of Ephesus. In July 1302 he once more supported the patriarch in condemning Metropolitan Hilarion of Selymbria for calumny.

Around the year 1300, urged on by members of the provincial aristocracy, Theoleptos joined in accusing the Arsenite general John Tarchaneiotes of plotting a revolt. Those nobles resented the general's military reforms and his fight against corruption in the army. Tarchaneiotes took refuge in a monastery and denied every charge, but was forced to leave Asia Minor. The Greek source describes the accusations as false.

Teacher of Gregory Palamas

In 1307 and 1308 Theoleptos stayed in Constantinople. There he met the young Gregory Palamas and taught him the monastic life and inner prayer. Palamas later regarded him as a forerunner of the hesychast teaching.

In his defence of the holy hesychasts, Palamas calls him a true theologian and a sure contemplator of the mysteries of God. He says that Theoleptos, from Philadelphia as from a lampstand, gave light to the whole world.

Protector of the besieged city

In 1304 Philadelphia was besieged by the Turks of the emirates of Germiyan and Aydın. The metropolitan helped in the defence of the city, which was finally relieved by the Catalan Company of Roger de Flor. The Catalan chronicle of Francisco de Moncada describes the city's bishop as a man of rare holiness, whose prayers had defended the city more than the weapons of its guards.

In 1310 and 1311 the city was besieged again by Germiyan. This time Theoleptos himself took charge of the administration and defence of Philadelphia. He kept up the spirit of the people, organised the distribution of food, and negotiated with the Turks, probably securing peace in exchange for tribute in the spring of 1311.

In these years he often clashed with the military governor, Manuel Tagaris, insisting that the soldiers should obey the metropolitan. He sent his protonotarios, Manuel Gabalas, to Constantinople to ask for help against the Turks and for Tagaris to be removed, but neither request succeeded.

Break with Constantinople

On 14 September 1310 Patriarch Niphon I and Emperor Andronikos II held a ceremony of reconciliation in Hagia Sophia that ended the Arsenite schism. Theoleptos could not attend because of the siege, and he reproached the patriarch for carrying out the reconciliation without him. He also opposed the reconciliation of the Church with the Arsenite party.

He refused communion with Constantinople, and the break lasted from 1311 to 1317. During this time he barred Manuel Gabalas from his church duties, since Gabalas disagreed with him and had reported abuses by the metropolitan's nephew to the emperor. When the emperor summoned him in 1313 to justify himself, Theoleptos refused, replying that it was not for the emperor to correct an erring priest.

Between September 1317 and February 1319 he again took part in synods in the capital, and communion was restored. Manuel Gabalas may have helped to reconcile him with Patriarch John XIII, and the metropolitan and his protonotarios were reconciled as well, travelling together to Constantinople.

Shepherd and teacher

Theoleptos was close to Patriarch Athanasios I, sharing his love of poverty, his care for the poor, his moral strictness, and his conviction that the Church should stand above secular power. During a drought he preached at Philadelphia to the faithful walking in procession with the holy icons, calling them to repentance.

In that sermon he rebuked the city officials who out of pride would not pray alongside the common people, boasted of their noble blood and grew rich unjustly. He asked the faithful to follow their metropolitan as their shepherd and leader, assuring them that their salvation lay in obedience.

Spiritual father of the Choumnos family

Theoleptos was the spiritual father of the statesman and scholar Nikephoros Choumnos and of his daughter Irene Choumnaina. Irene had been married to the despot John Palaiologos, son of the emperor, and was left a widow at sixteen.

Under his guidance she became a nun with the name Eulogia and the abbess of the Monastery of Christ Philanthropos in Constantinople, which she founded. Theoleptos came to the capital to tonsure her in 1308, and he cared for the whole community as its spiritual guide.

Writings

His teaching is known mostly through this community. Most of his twenty-⁠three surviving discourses are addressed to the nuns of Christ Philanthropos, and five letters to the abbess Eulogia also survive.

The discourses speak of hidden activity in Christ, watchfulness and prayer, stillness, the discernment of passions, obedience to the superior, life in community, silence, fasting, humility and spiritual love. Others are homilies for feasts and for the Sundays after Pascha, and the last is a spiritual testament written early in 1322.

Several liturgical canons are attributed to him, among them a canon to the most sweet Jesus and a canon of compunction. Some of his works were included in the Philokalia and in volume 143 of the Patrologia Graeca, though much of what he wrote long remained unpublished.

Through this teaching Theoleptos played an important part in the Byzantine spiritual revival of the early fourteenth century. His influence on Saint Gregory Palamas helped prepare the great defence of hesychasm in the years that followed.

Last years and repose

In 1321 Theoleptos was in Constantinople together with Gabalas and Tagaris. He took part in the embassy sent by Andronikos II to Adrianople to reconcile the emperor with his rebellious grandson, the future Andronikos III.

Around the end of that year he returned to Philadelphia and wrote several more texts between May 1321 and 1322. He reposed around November 1322 after a sudden illness (other sources place his death about 1325).

Veneration

After his death Nikephoros Choumnos and his disciple Manuel Gabalas wrote funeral orations in his honour. The Orthodox Church numbers him among the holy hierarchs.

Saint Theoleptos of Philadelphia is commemorated on 25 June. In the Russian Church he is also remembered on the first Sunday after the Sunday of All Saints.