TEOFANE of NICEA. — Byzantine theologian of the 14th century. The particular events of his life are unknown. However, from the subscriptions to several synodal acts of the period, it is known that he occupied the see of Nicea at least from 1366. He died ca. 1381.
As a follower of Palamism—although very moderate in his expression of the new theological formulas—he enjoyed the full confidence of the emperor Cantacuzeno, by then a monk, who commissioned him to defend Palamism against the Latin patriarch of Constantinople, Paolo. T.’s works are almost all unpublished and polemical in character; noteworthy is the Sermo in Deiparam, edited by Jugie, which treats with great originality of the excellence of the place occupied by the Mother of God in the divine plan, in addition to offering further reflections on the Incarnation and on many questions concerning Grace.