Saint Theophan was born into a Palestinian family distinguished by three virtues: piety, hospitality, and love of knowledge. His parents provided him and his older brother Theodore with opportunities to learn what was known among them in terms of worldly sciences and divine science. Then he sent them to the Monastery of Saint Saba in Palestine to complete their knowledge, especially the foundations of monastic life.

When the Byzantine Emperor Leo the Armenian sparked a wave of persecution against those who venerated the holy icons (813-820), Patriarch Thomas of Jerusalem, who was in charge of Orthodoxy, wanted to fight Leo with the pretext that he might come to his senses, so he sent him an embassy consisting of the learned brothers Theodore and Theophanes and their spiritual father Michael. The Emperor initially tried to win the embassy over to his party. When he was unable to do so, he handed the two brothers over to the torturers, then exiled them to one of the Black Sea islands and prohibited anyone from providing them with assistance, even in the necessities of their livelihood.

As soon as Emperor Theophilus ascended to the throne, the grip of persecution intensified again, more intensely than it had previously. He sent for the brothers Theodore and Theophan from exile and tried to win them to his camp. When that did not work, he brutally tortured them and ordered them to be branded on the forehead. So, through the prick of needles and fire, verses of poetry (thirteen lines from the sea called “Emphikon”) were written on the forehead of each of them explaining the reasons for the punishment imposed on them. Therefore, both Saint Theophanes and his righteous brother Theodorus are called the Marked.

After that, he returned them to exile (to Apamea), and in Apamea, Theodorus surrendered his soul after he became old and spent twenty-five years in persecution. As for Theophan, he was still strong in build, so he remained in exile until Emperor Theophilus died in the year 842 AD. The death of Theophanes marked the end of the series of intermittent campaigns against icon-venerators since the year 726 AD. Then Theophanes was chosen as bishop of the city of Nicaea, and served as shepherd of its people until he rested in peace in the Lord in the year 847.

Both brothers wrote many laws and songs that decorated the church.

The church celebrates Saint Theophanes on October 11.

Troparia in the eighth tune
You have appeared, O contemplative Theophanes, a guide to the upright faith, and a teacher of good worship and purity, O star of the inhabited world, and beauty of the wise high priests, and with your teachings you have enlightened all, O knowledge of the spirit, interceding with Christ God to save our souls.