Saint Theophylact of Ohrid

Theophylact (Greek: Θεοφύλακτος, Bulgarian: Теофилакт; around 1055 – after 1107) was a Byzantine Archbishop of Ohrid and commentator on the Bible. He is regarded as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, commemorated on December 31st. Theophylact was born in the mid-11th century at Euripus (Chalcis) in Euboea, at the time part of the Byzantine Empire (now Greece). He became a deacon at Constantinople, attained a high reputation as a scholar, and became the tutor of Constantine Doukas, son of the Emperor Michael VII, for whom he wrote The Education of Princes. In about 1078 he moved to the Province of Bulgaria where he became the archbishop of Achrida (modern Ohrid). Ohrid was one of the capital cities of Bulgaria that had been re-conquered by the Byzantines sixty years earlier. In this demanding position in a conquered territory on the outskirts of the Byzantine Empire, he conscientiously and energetically carried out his pastoral duties over the course of the next twenty years. Although a Byzantine by upbringing and outlook, he was a diligent archpastor of the Bulgarian Church, defending its interests and autonomy (i.e. its independence from the Patriarchate of Constantinople). He acted vigorously to protect his archbishopric from the teachings of the Paulicians and Bogomils (considered heretics by the Eastern Orthodox Church). He won the respect and love of the Bulgarian people who witnessed his labors on their behalf. In his Letters he complains much about the rude manners of the Bulgarians, and he sought to be relieved of his office, but apparently without success. "His letters from Ohrid are a valuable source for the economic, social, and political history of Bulgaria as well as Byzantine prosopography.