Theophylaktos 37 was St Theophylact of Nicomedia (Nikomedeia), whose Life was written some years after his death by a man at Nikomedeia, also called Theophylaktos (Theophylaktos 57), who was perhaps a cleric there; Vita Sancti Theophylacti archiepiscopi Nicomediae, ed. A. Vogt, "S. Théophylacte de Nicomédie", in Anal. Boll. 50 (1932), pp. 71-82. He was of obscure and humble parentage and travelled from his home somewhere in the east (ὥρμητο δὲ ἐκ τοῦ τῆς ἑῴας μέρους) to Constantinople, where he entered the service of Tarasios (τούτῳ ἑαυτὸν εἰς ὑπηρεσίαν ἐκδίδωσιν) when the latter was still asekretis: Vita S. Theophylacti 2.

When Tarasios 1 became patriarch of Constantinople (December 784), he asked Theophylaktos 37 to choose what manner of life he preferred; Theophylaktos 37 chose the monastic life, and so Tarasios 1 installed him, together with Michael 6 (later bishop of Synnada), in a monastery which Tarasios 1 himself had founded near the entrance to the Pontus: Vita S. Theophylacti 5. Later (but before the Council of Nikaia in 787, when Michael 6 was a bishop) Theophylaktos 37 and Michael 6 were brought back to Constantinople by Tarasios 1, because of a water shortage at the monastery, and were installed at Hagia Sophia (this is perhaps the meaning of the phrase τοῖς ἱεροῖς εὐκτηρίοις τοῦ μεγάλου καὶ καθολικοῦ θείου οἴκου): Vita S. Theophylacti 6.

Both showed such qualities that Tarasios 1 soon ordained them both as priests and then consecrated them as bishops: Vita S. Theophylacti 7. Michael 6 became bishop of Synnada (by 787) and Theophylaktos 37 archbishop of Nikomedeia; at Nikomedeia Theophylaktos 37 was a great builder; he constructed a number of two-storied buildings, a Church dedicated to the Anargyroi, SS. Cosmas and Damian, and also founded a hospital which he endowed with doctors and attendants and all the necessary equipment and which was still flourishing in the author of the Life's own day; in addition he established monthly distributions of food to orphans and widows whom he took steps to have carefully identified and registered by name, birth, country and appearance; this too continued to be observed by subsequent bishops of Nikomedeia down to the author's own day: Vita S. Theophylacti 8. He was punctilious in his attendance on and care for the sick: Vita S. Theophylacti 9.

Bishop of Nikomedeia, and a confessor, in 803 Theophylaktos 37 was exiled together with the bishops of Sardis and Amorion, Euthymios 1 and Eudoxios 2, because they had supported, though unwillingly, the revolt of Bardanes 3 Tourkos against the emperor Nikephoros 8; they were all apparently sent to the West into exile to the island of Pantellaria; later Theophylaktos 37 was recalled by Nikephoros 8 and restored to his see: Vita Euthym. Sard. 5 (σὺν τῷ Νικομηδέων προέδρῳ καὶ ὁμολογητῇ, Θεοφυλάκτῳ φημὶ τῷ τρισολβίῳ). This event is not recorded in the Vita.

Bishop of Nikomedeia; in 815 Theophylaktos 37 defended the veneration of icons at a meeting with the emperor Leo V (Leo 15) in the imperial palace: Vita Nicetae Medicii (ASS April I) 34.

Bishop of Nikomedeia; he was one of the iconophile bishops summoned by the patriarch Nikephoros 2 in 814 and 815 to plead with the emperor Leo V (Leo 15) not to reintroduce iconoclast measures: Vita S. Theophylacti 12. After Nikephoros 2 went into exile, Theophylaktos 37 was one of the bishops who rebuked Leo V (Leo 15) to his face; he was then also sent into exile: Vita S. Theophylacti 13-14. His beard was pulled out and he was beaten about the head before being exiled to a place called Strobilos, where he remained for thirty years enduring all manner of hardships: Vita S. Theophylacti 15. There were places called Strobilos in the Caucasus, in the Kibyrrhaiotai theme and in Italy near Venice; it is uncertain which one was Theophylaktos 37's place of exile; cf. Vita S. Theophylacti, ed. Vogt, p. 80, n. 1. In exile he continued with pastoral duties and taught and preached the Gospel: Vita S. Theophylacti 16. He fell ill and died on 8 March; if the figure thirty years is correct, he presumably died in 845: Vita S. Theophylacti 17. His body was brought back when Theodora 2 was empress and Methodios 1 patriarch (843/847) and was interred in the Church which he himself had built in Nikomedeia: Vita S. Theophylacti 18.

Theophylaktos 37 was the addressee of two letters from Theodoros 15 (Theodore the Stoudite), written in 817 or 818: Theod. Stud., Ep. 175 (addressed Θεοφυλάκτῳ Νικομηδείας ἐπισκόπῳ), Ep. 314 (addressed Θεοφυλάκτῳ Νικομηδείας). In both letters Theodoros 15 says that he has long wanted to write; in Ep. 175 he says that he has been waiting for two years, and in Ep. 314 that he has found someone at last to deliver the message. Theophylaktos 37 had once been a protégé of Tarasios 1; he was now in exile; he is styled as σε τὸν ἐμὸν πατὲρα and addressed as ὦ ἱερώτατε by Theodoros 15: Theod. Stud., Ep. 175. Also styled τῇ μακαριότητι σου and addressed as ἁγιώτατε μου πατέρ: Theod. Stud., Ep. 314. Theodoros 15 possibly alludes to Theophylaktos 37 in one of his sermons when he mentions a bishop of Nikomedeia who had informed Theodoros 15 himself and his monks of threats made against them by the emperor: Theod. Stud., Catech. Parva 51 (p. 184 Auvray). He is included among the metropolitans acclaimed for their support of icons in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy: Gouillard, "Synodikon", p. 53, line 123.

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