Philotheos Bryennios

Philotheos Bryennios (March 26 (Old Style) 1833 - 1914 or 1918) was a Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia, and the discoverer in 1873 of an important manuscript with copies of early Church documents.

Born in Constantinople, he was educated at the theological school in Chalki, and at the universities of Leipzig, Munich, and Berlin. He became a professor at Chalce in 1861. In 1867 he went to head the Patriarchal School in Constantinople, leaving in 1875 to attend the Old Catholic conference in Bonn, during which he was appointed metropolitan of Serrae in Macedonia. In 1877 he transferred to Nicomedia.

In 1877, he participated in a commission dealing with plundered monasteries in Moldavia and Wallachia.

While in Constantinople, he discovered a manuscript in the Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulcher, which contained a synopsis of the Old and New Testaments arranged by St. Chrysostom, the Epistle of Barnabas, the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache), the spurious letter of Mary of Cassoboli, and twelve pseudo-Ignatian Epistles. The letters were published in 1875, and the Didache in 1883.

External links

* [http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc02/htm/iv.v.cdiii.htm Schaff bio of Bryennios]