Philotheos Bryennios

Philotheos Bryennios
Metropolitan of Nicomedia
Personal details
Born	7 April 1833 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died	18 November 1917 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire

Philotheos Bryennios (Greek: Φιλόθεος Βρυέννιος; 7 April 1833 – November 18, 1917) was a Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia, and the discoverer in 1873 of an important manuscript with copies of early Church documents.

Life[]

Born in Constantinople, he was educated at the theological school in Halki, and at the universities of Leipzig, Munich, and Berlin. He became a professor at Halki in 1861, and then director in 1863. In 1867 he went to head the Patriarchal School in Constantinople, leaving in 1875 to attend the Old Catholic conference in Bonn, during which he was appointed metropolitan of Serres in Macedonia. In 1877 he became Metropolitan of Nicomedia.

In 1877, he participated in a commission dealing with plundered monasteries in Moldavia and Wallachia.

Metropolitan Bryennios died in 1917 in his native Constantinople.

Works[]

In 1873, he discovered a manuscript in the Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre which contained a synopsis of the Old and New Testaments arranged by St. John Chrysostom, the Epistle of Barnabas, the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache), the spurious letter of Mary of Cassoboli, and twelve pseudo-Ignatian Epistles. The letters were published in 1875, and the Didache in 1883; the letters of Clement and the Didache had notes written by Bryennios. The discovery of the Didache was significant because early 3rd, 4th and later centuries, writers spoke of it, but it was presumed lost.^[1]

References[]

External links[]

• A fuller profile of the Metropolitan can be found at the Orthodox Wiki Portal: Philotheos (Bryennios) of Nicomedia
• Schaff bio of Bryennios