Theophano

Saint Theophano, the right-⁠believing empress, called Martinakia, was the first wife of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise, born around 866 or 867 and fallen asleep on 10 November 897. Unloved by her husband, she bore her trial with meekness and devoted her life to prayer and good works, and after her death she showed herself a wonderworker. The Church commemorates her on 16 December.

Family and marriage She was the daughter of Constantine Martinakios and Anna. Her family, the Martinakioi, was related to the Amorian dynasty, which ruled Byzantium from 820 to 867. Decades before her birth a prophecy had said that the family of Martinakios would rise to the throne. Fearing it, the emperor Theophilos forced a member of the family to become a monk and turned his house into a monastery.

Theophano was educated, pious and beautiful. According to one chronicler, she was chosen as the bride of Leo, then sixteen, at a gathering of beautiful girls of the empire arranged by his parents, Emperor Basil I and Eudokia. Leo later confessed that he married against his will, out of fear of his father. The chronicle of Symeon Metaphrastes places the wedding in the sixteenth year of Basil's reign, between 882 and 883.

The empress Relations between Leo and his father were cold. Leo was accused in a plot against the emperor and spent about three years under arrest with his wife, then Basil freed him and proclaimed him heir again. At Basil's death in 886, Leo took the throne, and Theophano became empress.

She devoted most of the day to prayer, psalms and hymns. She gave her clothes and jewels to the poor and the widows and took care of the restoration of monasteries. Tradition calls her founder or patron of the monastery of Saint Anastasia Pharmakolytria in Chalkidiki. Leo, however, fell in love with Zoe Zaoutzaina, who became his mistress around 889. The death of their only daughter, Eudokia, in the winter of 892 made the bond between them colder still.

Withdrawal and repose Around 893 Theophano withdrew to a monastery near the church at Blachernae. Her spiritual father, Father Euthymius, did not allow the dissolution of the marriage, and she lived there without receiving the monastic tonsure. The sources do not say clearly whether the withdrawal was voluntary. On her status then the chroniclers differ: according to Symeon the marriage was annulled, according to Theophanes it remained valid.

She fell asleep in the monastery on 10 November 897, according to some sources in 893 or 895. According to tradition she was glorified by miracles within days of her death. According to some sources Leo built a church in her honour near the church of the Holy Apostles. According to others, being forbidden to dedicate it to her, he dedicated it to all saints, so that she too would be honoured if she were among the righteous. According to tradition, he also widened the commemoration on the Sunday after Pentecost from all martyrs to all saints. Her relics rest in the patriarchal church at the Phanar, and the Church commemorates her on 16 December.