Saint Theophylact of Ohrid

c. 1055–1107 · 11th c. · 29 works

Theophylact of Ohrid (c. 1050–1107) was a Byzantine churchman and one of the most celebrated biblical commentators of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Born in Euboea, he rose through the clergy of Constantinople before being appointed archbishop of Ohrid, the metropolitan see of the Church in Bulgaria, then under Byzantine rule. He is remembered chiefly as a lucid exegete who synthesized earlier patristic interpretation.

Educated at Constantinople in the scholarly tradition associated with Michael Psellos, Theophylact became a teacher of rhetoric and a deacon of Hagia Sophia, and served at the imperial court as tutor to the heir to the throne. Appointed archbishop of Ohrid around 1078, he cared for his Bulgarian and Slavic flock for some twenty-five years; his surviving letters reflect the difficulties of governing a remote provincial see.

His principal works are extensive commentaries on the Gospels and the New Testament Epistles, drawing heavily on John Chrysostom and earlier Fathers and prized for their clarity. He also produced a commentary on the Minor Prophets, the Life of Clement of Ohrid, a treatise on the points at issue between the Greeks and the Latins, and a voluminous correspondence.

Theophylact reposed about 1107. He is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church, where his commemoration is observed on 31 December.

Sources: Orthodox Church in America — Saint Theophylactus of Ochrid · Encyclopædia Britannica — Theophylactus of Ochrida