December 29 is commemorated the memory of the blessed queen Feofania – wives of the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise. Feofania was born in Constantinople in 863 in the family of the Martynakii royal family (according to some sources, she was the niece of the wife of Emperor Basil I, the founder of the Macedonian dynasty). The girl’s parents were pious, so Feofania received a proper upbringing and a good education, and later became the wife of Leo, the heir of the Macedonian dynasty (881 or 882).

Leo and Feofania were very different: the emperor loved earthly pleasures, and the queen gave her soul and body to Christ. The couple experienced many trials even before the ascension of Leo to the throne. Believing the slander, his father Vasyl ordered to imprison his son together with his wife, the married couple spent 3 years in prison. The death of their young daughter Evdokia became a terrible test for Feofania and Lev. The grief-stricken tsarina went to the monastery near the Blacherna Church, where she increased her fasting and prayers, and the emperor found comfort in the arms of another woman – the daughter of the head of the guard, Zoya Zautsina (the future empress). Feofania wanted to give Leo a divorce, but Patriarch Euthymius did not bless this break. The marriage lasted 12 years. Feofania died in 893 (in some sources in 895). The Church honors her as a blessed queen, for whom the imperial palace became a monastery in peace.