TEOLEPTO, metropolitan of FILADELFIA. — Byzantine metropolitan and writer, born in 1250 at Nicea, died in Filadelfia of Asia Minor around 1327.
He was an opponent of the Union concluded under Michele Paleologo and enjoyed the favor of Andronico II, who broke the Union. Around 1284, T. became metropolitan of Filadelfia and spiritual director of Irene Chummo Paleologina, widow of the despot Giovanni Paleologo, son of the emperor Andronico II, who had become a nun. T. was also an ascetic and hagiographical writer (hymnographer).
BIBL.: V. S. Salaville, Formes et méthodes de prière d'après Théolepte de Philadelphie, in Echos d'Orient, 34 (1940), pp. 1–25; id., Une lettre et un discours inédits de Théolepte de Philadelphie, in Etudes byzantines, 5 (1947), pp. 101–15; V. Grumel, s. V. in LThK, X, p. 65. Giorgio Hofmann