Blessed Theophylact, Archbishop of Ohrid

Life

Theophylact was born on the island of Euboea and raised in Constantinople under the most distinguished teachers of that time. As a cleric of the Great Church Theophylact was chosen as bishop and sent, against his will, to Ohrid, where Theophylact spent about twenty-five years (approximately from 1082-1108). Chomatianos of Ohrid calls Theophylact "the wisest archbishop." A man of enormous learning, worldly and theological, of refined Byzantine taste, melancholic and sensitive, Theophylact felt among the Slavs in Ohrid as an exile among barbarians. Theophylact wrote Commentaries on all four Gospels and other books of the New Testament. This is the best work of that kind after Saint Chrysostom, which is read even to this day with great benefit. Of his other works the following are known: Letters, and the Life of Saint Clement of Ohrid. In old age Saint Theophylact withdrew from Ohrid to Thessalonica where, it is thought, Theophylact ended his earthly life and passed into blessed eternity.