The Emperor and the Nun

The young Roman Emperor Theophilus backed away from marriage to the formidable Cassiani, but he could not forget her.

829-842

Roman Empire (Byzantine Era) 330 - 1453

Introduction

Cassiani was a nun of noble birth in the Roman Empire’s capital city, Constantinople, during the 9th century. Her gift for poetry and hymn-writing was widely admired, and the Eastern service-books are littered with her works. The most famous is a Hymn for Wednesday in Holy Week, and thereby hangs quite a tale.

by Clay Lane

WHEN sixteen-year-old Theophilus succeeded his father Michael II as Roman Emperor in 829, the boy’s stepmother Euphrosyne organised a ‘bride show’: Theophilus must choose a wife from among the Empire’s most eligible young ladies, by handing a golden apple to one lucky winner.*

Theophilus’s eye was caught by a very beautiful girl named Cassiani, whom he approached with the awkward line, “From a woman came the baser things.” He was recalling Eve’s fatal tasting of the forbidden fruit of Eden; but the girl instantly countered with, “And from a woman came the better”, recalling Christ’s birth from a virgin. A little dazed, Theophilus passed on, and eventually chose Theodora, an army officer’s daughter, for his Empress. They married on June 5th 830, in Agia Sophia.

Cassiani became a nun, craving the freedom to live for prayer, poetry and music; but Theophilus did not forget her, and shortly before he died in 842, aged twenty-nine, paid her one last visit.

❰

1 2

❱

A similar procedure was followed for the choosing a bride in The Story of Esther. King Ahasuerus of Persia (probably intended to be Xerxes I) divorced his wife Vashti for failing to entertain his guests adequately, and selected a Jewish girl from a parade of the Empire’s most beautiful women to be her replacement. See also the Greek myth of the Apple of Discord.

Précis

The 9th century Roman Emperor Theophilus was just sixteen when his stepmother organised a bride show to find him a wife. His first choice was a girl named Cassiani, but after she trumped his chat-up line with something much cleverer, he moved on to pick another woman, Theodora, instead. Cassiani became a nun, but Theophilus always remembered her.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

How did Theophilus and Cassiani first meet?

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Theophilus was sixteen in 829. His father Michael died. Theophilus became Roman Emperor.

Clay Lane The Copybook