TEOFANE CHERAMEO. — Under the name of T. we have the largest collection of Greek homilies of the Middle Ages. Some bear the name of Gregorio, Filippo, or Filagato: it is not certain whether these were distinct persons or the same individual.
Until the middle of the last century, it was universally believed that T. had been bishop of Taormina. But the information found in the homilies themselves categorically rules this out. He lived in the time of King Ruggero II, when the diocese of Taormina had not existed for almost three centuries. In reality, he was a Basilian monk from Calabria, perhaps from the Rossano Patirion, a disciple of s. Bartolomeo di Simeri, archbishop of Rossano, who died around the middle of the twelfth century.
Works: Homiliae in Evangelia dominicalia et festo totius anni, Paris 1644, reproduced by Palama, Jerusalem 1860, and by Migne in PG 133. Some homilies (in codices of the Escorial, the Vatican Library, and the Ambrosiana) are still unpublished.