Theodoros Balsamon

Byzantine law collection with commentaries by Theodor Balsamon, 13th century

Theodoros Balsamon (Greek Θεόδωρος Βαλσαμῶν , * around 1130/1140 in Constantinople ; † after 1195) was a Byzantine Orthodox legal scholar and patriarch of Antioch (from 1185/1190 to after 1195). He was the author of an important work on Orthodox canon law.

Life

Theodoros was a deacon at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople . He carried the title of nomophylax ( Νομοφύλαξ , guardian of the law ). Its exact meaning is unclear, perhaps the official was responsible for all legal cases and proceedings in the Patriarchate of Constantinople . In the time of Patriarch Michael III. of Constantinople 1170/78 the title Chartophylax ( χαρτοφύλαξ ) is also occupied for Theodoros . He was the first priest of the Blachernae Church .

In 1193 he became Patriarch of Antioch with his seat in Constantinople. After 1195 he died in Constantinople.

Works

Theodoros Balsamon wrote the Scholia ( Σχόλια ), a commentary on the Nomocanon of Photios I , the standard work on ecclesiastical and secular law in the Byzantine Empire of his time.

He was also the author of the Syntagmata , a collection of canon law decisions. Excerpts from these works are still part of the Pedalion ( Πεδαλιον ), a collection of provisions on the current Orthodox church law. They are also part of the theological training in Orthodox canon law.

Two letters have survived from him in which he comments on fasting and novices in Orthodox monasteries, as well as a collection of epigrams .

His texts contain details of the past and present of the Byzantine Empire that are no longer preserved elsewhere. He was the first to use the term Ἀθίγγανοι ( Athinganen ), from which the name Gypsy probably derives .

Theodoros also reformed liturgical practice in the Patriarchate of Antioch and adapted it to the Byzantine rite.

expenditure

• Jacques Paul Migne (Ed.): Patrologia graeca . Vol. 104, p. 144 ( Scholia ); Vol. 137; Vol. 138.
• Konstantin Horna (ed.): The epigrams of Theodoros Balsamon. In: Wiener Studien 25, 1903, pp. 165–217.

literature

• Charles Herbermann: Theodore Balsamon. In: Catholic Encyclopedia. London 1913 digitized
• Dietrich Stein: Balsamon, Theodoros . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , Sp. 1389 f.
• Carl Gerold Fürst : Balsamon, il Graziano del diritto canonico bizantino? . In: Enrique De León - Nicolás Álvarez de las Asturias [ed.]: La cultura giuridico-canonica medioevale: premesse per un dialogo ecumenico , Milano 2003, pp. 233–248.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Agapius & Nicodemus: The Rudder (Pedalion) - All the Sacred and Divine Canons. The Orthodox Christian Educational Society, Chicago 1957.

predecessor	Office	successor
Elias III.	Patriarch of Antioch 1185/1190 – after 1195	Joachim