Background
Philotheos Bryennios was born in Istanbul on April 7, 1833.
Philotheos Bryennios was born in Istanbul on April 7, 1833.
First educated in Istanbul, he went to the theological school of Khalkis (Chalcis), and continued his higher education in philosophy and history at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Munich.
He was appointed professor of church history and exegetics at the theological school of Khalkis in 1861, becoming director of the school in 1863. In 1865 he attended the Old Catholic Conference at Bonn, where he was informed that he had been appointed metropolitan of Serrai, Macedonia. In 1875 he became metropolitan of Nicomedia in Asia Minor. In 1873, working in the library of the monastery of the Jerusalem patriarchate in Istanbul, he discovered a manuscript containing a synopsis of the Old and New Testaments, the First and Second Epistles of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, and the only known manuscript of the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles (DidachaDidache). A vast literature has since grown up around this manuscript. Bryennios prepared an edition of the Epistles of Clement in 1875. His edition of the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles was published in 1883. He died in Khalkis in 1914.
While in Constantinople, he discovered a manuscript in the Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre, which contained a synopsis of the Old and New Testaments arranged by St. John 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 discovery of the Didache was significant because early 3rd, 4th and later century writers spoke of it, but it was presumed lost.
