EMPRESS THEOPHANO

Theophano’s date of birth is unknown. In total she lived for about 30 years. In 881, by the will of Emperor Basil I, Theophano married the future Emperor Leo VI (866–912) the Wise. As can be seen from the chronology, the emperor’s life was also very short. He lived only 45 years, of which twenty-five (886–912) he spent on the Throne.

Emperor Leo entered history with the name of the Wise. Possessing enormous secular and ecclesiastical erudition, he was the author of treatises, legal decrees, and even liturgical texts. It is to him that the hymn of Vespers on the Day of Pentecost belongs: “Come, people, let us worship the Trinitarian Divinity”.

This work, colossal in its theological depth, is an amazingly competent and complete summary of the Teaching of the Trinity of St. Gregory the Theologian (329–390). In the last years of his life, Leo removed and replaced Patriarchs due to his divorce proceedings.

Theophano was educated, beautiful and pious. Before becoming the wife of the heir to the throne, she won many brides in a competition. They said that everyone was surprised then… by her small shoe size. But her marriage with Leo was not happy. So, by the time of the wedding, the heir to the throne had another woman.

Leo himself explained this in such a way that the marriage with Theophany was forced on him by his adoptive father, Emperor Basil the Macedonian (811–886).

However, when Leo fell out of favor before Basil was under arrest, Theophano shared with her husband the three-year hardships of imprisonment. The young daughter of Leo and Theophano Eudokia died in 892. Soon, just three years later, in 895, Theophano herself died after an illness. The marriage of the Emperor and the Empress was not happy. During her short life, she managed to prove herself in matters of piety. And in her letters to her confessor, she complained about her spouse’s dislike, his disfavor and hard-heartedness.

‘Will a woman forget her suckling child, so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb? But even if she forgot, then I will not forget you,” says the Prophet Isaiah (Is. 49:15). This word was fully fulfilled at Theophano. The Lord glorified her resting place with signs and wonders. So, apparently, Emperor Leo himself admitted his lies to her.

In a gesture of expression of his repentance that is not entirely clear to us, the Emperor wanted to glorify her as a saint soon after her death. But too little time has passed since her departure. The Church was also against such haste.

Therefore, Leo erected a temple in Constantinople in her memory and dedicated it to All the Saints who have shone forth from the ages.

Researchers tell us that this church, dedicated to all saints, known and unknown, marked the beginning of the spring celebration in honor of All Saints in the Orthodox Church. Among these saints, Leo also meant Theophano. Her name translates as ‘Epiphany’. The blessed Queen, who demonstrated the “Meekness of God” in her life, undoubtedly intercedes for all those, husbands and wives, who, having lived in an outwardly very successful legal marriage and under happy circumstances, have endured much.