Family and Formation
Theophanes and his brother Nektarios were born to the prominent Apsarades family of Ioannina in the late fifteenth century. According to the tradition preserved in their life, their parents and three sisters all embraced the monastic schema, establishing themselves in a cell on the island of Ioannina.
Both brothers received an excellent education and monastic formation at the renowned Monastery of Philanthropinon under Abbot Makarios. In 1495 they received monastic vows from the elder Savvas at the Hermitage of the Honorable Forerunner on the island of Ioannina, remaining with their spiritual father until his death on 9 April 1505.
After Savvas's repose, the brothers travelled to Mount Athos, where they met the former Ecumenical Patriarch Niphon II at the Monastery of Dionysiou. Returning to Ioannina, they established the Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner, completing its church in 1507, and built the Hermitage of Saint Nicholas in Lepenos for members of their family.
The Rebuilding of Barlaam Monastery
Around 1510/11 the brothers moved to Meteora. After spending roughly seven years on the Forerunner pillar at the Great Meteoron, they settled on the Barlaam rock in October 1517/18, having received permission from Metropolitan Bessarion of Larissa and the abbot of the Great Meteoron.
The tradition recounted in accounts of Meteora holds that the brothers spent many years hoisting building materials to the summit of the rock formation, though the construction of the church itself is reported to have taken only a short span of days. Construction of the main church, dedicated to All Saints, began in 1542.
The monastery they refounded was reputed to house notable relics, and it has remained an active community into modern times.
Repose
On Saturday 17 May 1544, at the ninth hour, the Church of All Saints was completed. Theophanes, who had been bedridden for ten months and was near death, reposed that same day.
His life relates that as the church was finished a bright star came and stood above the saint's cell, shining with a supernatural light, and that his soul departed at sunset.
His brother Nektarios reposed later, on 7 April 1550, during Renewal Week.
Relics & Shrines
The incorrupt relics of the two brothers are venerated at the Barlaam Monastery at Meteora: Nektarios's right hand and Theophanes's left hand, preserved with incorrupt skin.
Their joint feast is kept on 17 May, the day of Theophanes's repose.
