BLEMMYDES, NICEFORO. – Byzantine philosopher and theologian, born in Constantinople in 1197, died in 1272. At first an opponent of Catholic doctrine on the procession of the Holy Spirit, he caused the attempts at union with the Latins at Nymphaea, near Nicaea, in 1234 and 1250 to fail. Around 1256, however, entering into the conciliatory line of thought of the emperor Teodoro II and coming under the influence of Niceta da Maronea’s Dialogues on the Procession of the Holy Spirit, he clearly taught the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father through the Son. Later, in compiling his Autobiography (1264), he gave the formula per Filium an anti-Photius explanation, but no longer a Catholic one. This explanation refers to the reply given to the Latins at Nymphaea in 1250, and it is reasonable to believe that toward the end of his life he did not repudiate what he had written in 1256. It is known, moreover, that he favored the unionist policy of Michele Paleologo.
B. wrote numerous works relating to theology, philosophy, exegesis, liturgy, and asceticism. He also wrote a treatise on the duties and virtues of a good prince, pamphlets on geography, and a number of letters. Several of these writings have been published; others remain unpublished, and others have been lost.