THEOPHANES CHERAMEUS. — Under the name of T. is preserved the most extensive collection of Greek medieval homilies. Some bear the names of Gregory, Philip, or Philagathus: it is uncertain whether these refer to distinct persons or to the same individual.
Until the middle of the last century it was universally believed that T. had been bishop of Taormina. But the data drawn from the homilies themselves categorically exclude this. He lived in the time of King Roger II, when the diocese of Taormina had not existed for nearly three centuries. In reality he was a Basilian monk of Calabria, perhaps from the monastery of Rossano, a disciple of St. Bartholomew of Simeri, archbishop of Rossano, who died toward the middle of the 12th century.
Works: *Homiliae in Evangelia dominicalia et festa totius anni*, Paris 1644, reprinted by Palamas, Jerusalem 1860, and by Migne in *PG* 133. Some homilies (in manuscripts of the Escorial, the Vatican Library, and the Ambrosian Library) remain unpublished.