Photeinos 21 was the husband of Theoktiste 3, father of Theodoros 15 (Theodore the Stoudite); Photeinos 21 and his wife were both of distinguished family (τὸ γένος ἐπίσημοι); Photeinos 21 held a senior financial office (τὴν οὐ πολλοστὴν ἀπὸ βασιλέως διέπων ἀρχὴν - ταμίας γὰρ τῶν βασιλικῶν χρημάτων ἐτύγχανε), but refused to accept the emperor's iconoclast policies and gave up his office to pursue instead the life of an anchorite (τὸν ἀναχωρητικὸν ἀγαπήσας βίον καὶ ἄζυγα κἀν τούτῳ θαυμασίως διαπρέψας): Vita C Theod. Stud. §4, p. 259, cf. Vita B Theod. Stud. 236C-D (γονεῖς δὲ αὐτῳ εὐσεβεῖς τε καὶ εὐπατρίδαι ... ὁ μὲν πατὴρ, φῶς ἀληθῶς κατὰ τὴν λαλῶν τὼν Ἀθηναίων γλῶτταν, παρὰ Θεοῦ γεννηθεὶς, φωτεινὸς τοῖς τρόποις καὶ τῇ κλήσει γεγένηται, καλοκαγαθίας μεταποιούμενος καὶ σωφροσύνης αἴγλῃ ἀξίως κατακοσμούμενος ... τὴν γὰρ οὐ πολλοστὴν ἀπὸ βασιλέως διέπων ἀρχὴν, καθ' ὅτι ταμιείας ἐχρημάτιζε τῶν βασιλικῶν φόρων; he chose a religious life in preference to that at the imperial court, five years after ceasing to have conjugal relations with his wife - τῆς συνεύνου).

In addition to Theodoros 15 they had two other sons and a younger daughter: Vita C Theod. Stud. §8, p. 262 (σὺν ἅμα δυσὶ τοῦ Θεοδώρου ἀδελφοῖς καὶ μικρᾷ ἀδελφῇ). One son was Ioseph 3: Vita C Theod. Stud. §12, p. 264 (ὁ θαυμάσιος Ἰωσήφ, ὁ καὶ τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν προαίρεσιν ἀδελφός). See further Euthymios 14 and Anonyma 74. His son Theodoros 15 was born in Constantinople under Constantine V (Konstantinos 7), in c. 759: cf. Vita C Theod. Stud. §§4-5, pp. 259-260, §7, p. 261. He was still alive in 796, when he appears to have become a deacon and to have been one of the monks who accompanied Theodoros 15 into banishment at Thessalonike after opposing the divorce and remarriage of the emperor Constantine VI (Konstantinos 8): Theod. Stud., Ep. 1 ad fin. (ὁ κύριος διάκονος καὶ πατὴρ ἡμῶν), cf. Epp. 2, 3.

Possibly identical with the unnamed deacon, Anonymus 718; cf. Thomas Pratsch, Theodoros Studites (759-826) - zwischen Dogma und Pragma (Berliner Byzantinische Studien 4) (1998), pp. 23-24. He is also mentioned in another letter of Theodoros 15, Theod. Stud., Ep. 103, and in two of his sermons, Theod. Stud., Catech. Parva 95 (p. 327 Auvray), Theod. Stud., Catech. Magna 14 (Nova Patium Bibliotheca IX, p. 40).

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