Theophanes 23 was the author of a Life of Joseph the Hymnographer (Ioseph 12) (see below); the work survives and is published by A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Monumenta Graeca et Latina ad Historiam Photii Patriarchae Pertinentia II (St Petersburg, 1901) 1-14 (BHG 944). The work was known to Joseph's later biographer, Ioannes the deacon (PBE II), who criticised it for omissions (which in his own version he claimed to remedy): Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 941C (Θεοφάνει μὲν οὖν τινι, τοῦ ἱεροῦ πρεσβυτερίου ἠξιωμένῳ καὶ τῷ καταλόγῳ ἠριθμημένῳ τῶν μοναχῶν). He became a monk through the influence of Ioseph 12, from whom he received the tonsure; he was still young (καὶ ἐμὲ τὸν ἐλάχιστον πατρικῶν ἀγκαλῶν ἀφάρπασας): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 11. A monk and then a priest, he became head of the monastery founded by Ioseph 12 (the monastery of St Bartholomaios): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. title (συγγραφεὶς παρὰ Θεοφάνους μοναχοῦ πρεσβυτέρου καὶ ἡγουμένου τῆς αὐτοῦ (sc. of Joseph) μονῆς), 16 (ὃν τῆς σῆς ποίμνης, εἰ καὶ παρ' ἄξιαν, ἄρχειν προείλουá ὃν ποίμενα κατεστήσας, μηδ' ὡς χρέων πρόβατον χρηματίζοντα), cf. Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 941C (cited above). On his death-bed Ioseph 12, who was the skeuophylax of the Great Church, entrusted Theophanes to the care of the patriarch Photios 1, together with the register of Church estates (σὺν τούτῳ καὶ ἐμὲ προσλαβὼν τῷ Φωτωνύμῳ ... ἐγχειρίζει): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 14, cf. Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 972A (σὺν τούτῳ καὶ τὸν μαθητὴν Θεοφάνην παραλαβὼν Φωτίῳ τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ παρατίθεται). Ioseph 12 died on 3 April, some time between 877 and 886 (the dates 883 and 886 have been proposed). Theophanes was presumably hegoumenos before the death of Joseph, though his title is not referred to by Ioannes.

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