St. Theophanes

One winter's day the boy Theophanes saw a poor child, almost naked, shivering with cold.

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September 9 · Hermit, Confessor

St. Theophanes

St. Theophanes

One winter's day the boy Theophanes saw a poor child, almost naked, shivering with cold.

Traditional feast

September 9
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1897)

Current feast

October 11
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Hermit
Confessor

Their story

Adapted in modern English from Baring-Gould (1897–98) · original text below · little is known

One winter's day the boy Theophanes saw a poor child, almost naked, shivering with cold. He took off his own warm clothes and gave them to him. When his father asked, 'What have you done with your clothes?', he answered, 'I have given them to Christ.'

He ran away from home to a hermit on Mount Diabenum and lived with him in his cave until the hermit died. He was brought before the emperors Carus, Carinus and Numerian and beaten, then allowed to go back to his cave. It is said that whenever he left the cave he rode on the back of a lion. He died around the year 300, after seventy-five years in his cave.

Early life

Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.

Thin entry · the 1897 book gives only 133 words. We have not filled the gap with invented detail.

When his father saw him he said, “ What have you done with your clothes ?” He answered, “ I have given them to Christ.”

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Give to people in need. The account records care for the poor.

Make time for silence. Solitude and withdrawal to pray shape this life.

Read more

The full original · 133 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Greek Menrea and Menology. nology.] Authority: — The notice in the Me[jHEOP HANES was a boy bom of heathen parents, who had learned, unknown to his father and mother, the truths of the faith, instilled into him probably by a nurse.

One winter's day the little boy saw a poor child nearly naked, shivering with cold. Thereupon he stripped off his own warm clothing, and gave it to the poor boy. When his father saw him he said, “ What have you done with your clothes ?” He answered, “ I have given them to Christ.”

He ran away from home to a hermit on Mount Diabenum, and lived with him in a cave till his death. He was brought before the Emperors Carus, Carinus, and Numerian, and ■51S1. Dorotheas and Gor gonitis.

beaten, and then allowed to return to his cave. Whenever he sallied forth from his cave he is said to have ridden on the back of a lion. He died about a.d. 300, after having spent seventy-five years in his cave.

Feast days

Feast: October 11
Traditional: September 9

Nine days · Free

Pray the novena
with us.

One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Theophanes's story, and a nudge to keep going.

Also on September 9
D

Sts. Dorotheus and…

September 9 · Martyrs
S

St. Severian

September 9 · Martyr
K

St. Kieran of Clonmacnois

September 9 · Abbot
← All 1726 saints in the library
Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

Image: TeodorGrapte.jpg · AnonymousUnknown author · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.

Image: AnonymousUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.