The Legend of Emperor Theophilos
- Daniel Oltean
- Mar 17
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 25
In the Byzantine tradition, the first Sunday of Lent is called the Sunday of Orthodoxy. It evokes a historical moment known as the Triumph of Orthodoxy, i.e., the definitive recognition of the cult of images in the Byzantine Empire. The event occurred in 843, shortly after the death of Emperor Theophilos (829–842), the last ruler who opposed the veneration of icons (iconoclast).
The transition from an iconoclastic regime to an iconodule one (in favour of the cult of images) is a fascinating page in the history of the Byzantine Church. It was coordinated by Empress Theodora, the wife of Theophilos, who accepted the change but on one condition: the emperor had to be publicly absolved of his errors posthumously. Although this contradicted ecclesiastical practice, Patriarch Methodios I (843–847) successfully accomplished the mission. He cleaned the image of the former iconoclast and facilitated his establishment among the good and just rulers.
Theophilos the Iconoclast
The oldest historical and hagiographical texts about Theophilos present him as a persecutor of those who venerated icons. The sufferings endured by Bishop Euthymius of Sardis (present-day Sart, western Turkey) and by the brothers Theodore and Theophanes Graptos were direct consequences of the religious policy of Theophilos’s time. However, upon his death, Empress Theodora, who would later be canonized (February 11), did not want Theophilos’s name to remain linked to the iconoclastic movement.
Imperial propaganda thus circulated two texts in favour of the deceased emperor, entitled The Meritorious Deeds of Emperor Theophilos (BHG 1735) [1] and The Absolution (of Sins) of Emperor Theophilos (BHG 1732–1734). [2] The first text praises the spirit of justice shown by Theophilos and emphasizes his concern for the construction and restoration of public and religious buildings. The second, a narrative in which historical and supernatural events mix without contradiction, presents the practical way the emperor would have been forgiven for his errors.
In response to the empress’s request, Methodios asked everyone to pray for Theophilos during the first week of Lent. At the Church of Hagia Sophia, services and prayers did not stop. Toward the end of the week, an angel appeared to the patriarch in a vision, assuring him that the prayers had been heard and Theophilos had thus been forgiven:
After that, while he [Methodios] was in prayer and petition with all others, he also dreamt that a luminescent and divine angel came to him and said thus: Behold, O Bishop, your plea was heard, and Emperor Theophilos has been granted pardon; so do not bother the Divine concerning him anymore.
Furthermore, to obtain material proof of this miracle, Methodios wrote a list of all the heretics from history, which contained the name of the emperor, and placed it under the altar. Upon checking the list at the end of the prayer, the patriarch no longer found Theophilos’s name written there.
Although not unanimously accepted, promoting these miracles led Empress Theodora to restore the cult of images. Paradoxically, the absolution of a heretical emperor thus allowed the condemnation of all heretics before him. The anathemas, written in a document entitled Synodicon of Orthodoxy, are solemnly read on the first Sunday of Lent to this day. [3]
Over time, the process of publicly rehabilitating the emperor had unexpected results. A 12th-century pamphlet entitled Timarion considered Theophilos not only the most just of emperors but also the most just of Christians. In the afterlife, he replaced Rhadamanthus, one of Greek mythology’s three supreme judges of the dead. Ironically, the author depicts Theophilos wearing simple, black clothing. An angel always accompanied him, as he would have done in life. [4]
The Legend of Emperor Trajan Reused in Constantinople
The public absolution of a confirmed unfaithful is a unique event in Byzantine history. The act contradicts traditional calls for life-changing and offers an easy way to obtain salvation, regardless of one’s actions. The unusual manner in which Theophilos received forgiveness, however, was skillfully prepared by Methodios. He used the example of Trajan, the Roman emperor (98–117), who, according to legend, was also saved posthumously thanks to the prayers of Pope Gregory I of Rome (590–604). The already cited fragment of the Absolution of Emperor Theophilos is an almost identical copy of a text in the Life of Pope Gregory written in Rome. Methodios himself probably copied this text in his youth while he was in the papal city:
As he [Gregory] continued his fervent prayer, he heard this voice from heaven: I have listened to your supplication and delivered the soul of Trajan from torment, but do not you again begin to supplicate me for unbelievers! After this, the holy angel also appeared to him and said: Behold, the Lord has heard your supplication, but do not again begin to supplicate the Lord in this way for the impious and idolaters. [5]
Furthermore, the possibility of obtaining forgiveness after death was set forth in a treatise entitled On Those Who Have Fallen Asleep in the Faith (BHG 2103t). The text has been put under the name of John Damascene but is generally attributed to Michael Synkellos, a close collaborator of Patriarch Methodios and hegumenos of the monastery of Chora in Constantinople. Among the hagiographical arguments raised, one uses the same Life of Pope Gregory:
[Gregory] addressed a fervent prayer to the Lord who loves souls for the forgiveness of Trajan’s sins; a voice from God immediately spoke to him, and he heard it said: I have heard your prayer and granted my pardon to Trajan, but do not address prayers for the impious anymore. [6]
The comparison between these texts leaves no room for doubt. Based on an example provided by a hagiographic composition found in Rome and transmitted to Constantinople, Patriarch Methodios created a new legend. Trajan, saved by the prayers of Pope Gregory, thus became Theophilos, delivered from sins by the prayer of the Patriarch of Constantinople!
The parallel between the two emperors became established, and later generations often mentioned them together. In a marginal note, probably from the 11th/12th century, in a manuscript containing Michael Synkellos’s treatise, an anonymous author wrote:
After Trajan, many emperors succeeded one another until we learn that the iconomach Theophilos was similarly judged worthy of [divine] mercy; as Trajan had this privilege, so did the iconomach Theophilos. [7]
From the 13th/14th century onwards, the Trajan–Theophilos parallel entered liturgical use, a commentary by Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopoulos being included in the Byzantine Triodion to the present day:
Gregory the Dialogue also, by prayer, saved the Emperor Trajan; [but] he was instructed by God to pray no more for the pagans. Moreover, it is said that by the [prayers of] holy men and confessors, Empress Theodora freed from torments and saved Theophilos, the hater of God. [8]
A miracle ordered by an empress to safeguard her family’s reputation seems to have changed the course of history. But her contemporaries gave it little credit and limited the spread of the new legend as much as possible. A shadow of doubt remains today about this miraculous salvation of Emperor Theophilos. [9]
[1] The text was published by W. Regel, Analecta Byzantino–Russica, Sankt Petersburg, 1891, p. 40–43. BHG refers to Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca.
[2] The different versions of this text have been published by Regel, Analecta Byzantino–Russica, p. 19–39 (BHG 1732–1733) and D. Afinogenov, The Story of the Emperor Theophilos’ Pardon, in Travaux et mémoires, 24.2 (2020), p. 239–2756 (BHG 1734).
[3] See J. Guillard, Le synodikon de l’Orthodoxie : édition et commentaire, in Travaux et mémoires, 2 (1967), p. 1–316, here 119–129.
[4] R.-Cl. Bondoux – J.-P. Grélois (ed. and trans.), Timarion ou Ses infortunes, §29–33, Paris, 2022, p. 116–123.
[5] B. Martin-Hisard, L’ange et le pape : le témoin géorgien d’une Vie grecque perdue de Grégoire le Grand, in O. Delouis et al. (éd.), Le saint, le moine et le paysan. Mélanges d’histoire byzantine offerts à Michel Kaplan (Byzantina Sorbonensia, 29), Paris, 2016, p. 457–502, here 468, https://books.openedition.org/psorbonne/37705. For the stay in Rome of the future Patriarch Methodios, see P. Canart, Le patriarche Méthode de Constantinople, copiste à Rome, in Palaeographica, Diplomatica et Archivistica. Studi in onore di Giulio Battelli (Storia e Letteratura, 139), Roma, 1979, p. 343–353.
[6] The text is published in Patrologia Graeca, 95, col. 247–278, here 261D–264A. For the attribution of this treatise to Michael Synkellos, see J.-M. Hoeck, Stand und Aufgaben der Damaskenos-Forschung, in Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 17 (1951), p. 5–60, here 39–40 (no. 94) and n. 3.
[7] Londra, British Library Add. 19390 (9th/10th c.), f. 9r, https://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/cote/38966/ (no. diktyon 38966); cf. C. Mango (ed. and trans.), Nikephoros Patriarch of Constantinople, Short History (Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, 13), Washington (DC), 1990, p. [23].
[8] Τριῴδιον, Athens, 1960, p. 22.
[9] See also A. Markopoulos, The Rehabilitation of the Emperor Theophilos, in L. Brubaker (ed.), Byzantium in the Ninth Century: Dead or Alive?, Aldershot, 1998, p. 37–49; Ó. Prieto Domínguez, The Iconoclast Saint: Emperor Theophilos in Byzantine Hagiography, in S. Tougher (ed.), The Emperor in the Byzantine World, Londres, 2019, p. 216–234; D. Oltean, Le pape Grégoire Ier, l’absolution de l’empereur Théophile et la liturgie byzantine des présanctifiés, in Ostkirchliche Studien, 72.2 (2023), p. 311–338.