TEOLETTO, metropolitan of Philadelphia. — Byzantine metropolitan and writer, b. in 1250 at Nicaea, d. at Philadelphia in Asia Minor about 1327.
He was an opponent of the Union concluded under Michael VIII Palaeologus and enjoyed the favor of Andronicus II, who broke the Union. T. became metropolitan of Philadelphia about 1284, and was the spiritual director of Irene Chumno Palaeologina, widow of the despot John Palaeologus, son of the emperor Andronicus II, who had become a nun. T. was also an ascetic and hagiographic writer (hymnographer).
BIBL.: V. S. Salaville, Formes et méthodes de prière d'après l'héliopite de Philadelphie, in *Echo d'Orient*, 34 (1940), pp. 1-25; id., Une lettre et un discours inédits de l'héliopite de Philadelphie, *Études byzantines*, 5 (1947), pp. 101-15; V. Grumel, S. V. LThK, X, p. 65. Giorgio Hofmann