During his studies in Kiev, in 1838, his mother died, and a year later, his father died as well, influencing Govorov's life. On October 1, 1840, he submitted a petition to the academic authorities for monastic
tonsure; at the age of 26, he received monastic tonsure from the rector of the Kiev Theological Academy, Archimandrite Jeremiah Solovyov with the name Theophanes in honor of
Theophanes the Confessor. On April 6 of the same year, on the day of his episcopal consecration, Jeremiah ordained him to the office of
hierodeacon, and also to the office of
hieromonk on July 1 of the same year. In 1841, Hieromonk Theophan was among the first to graduate from the Academy with a master's degree in theology for a course essay "Review of Sublaw Religion" (Обозрение подзаконной религии), which, being found among the best works, was sent to the
Most Holy Synod. Metropolitan
Philaret Drozdov of Moscow, a permanent member of the Most Holy Synod, stated in his review: "This work contains so much information and considerations about the law of Moses that they serve as sufficient evidence of the knowledge of the writer, giving him the right to a master's degree." Immediately after graduating from the Academy, Theophan was appointed rector of the Kiev-Sofia Theological College, where he began to teach
Latin. On December 7, 1842, he was appointed an inspector and teacher of psychology and logic at the
Novgorod Theological Seminary. He received the degree of
Master of Divinity on December 18 of the same year. On October 16, 1844, he was appointed teacher of the
Saint Petersburg Theological Academy in the Department of
Moral and
Pastoral Theology and Hieromonk Theophan became an assistant inspector of the Academy from March 22, 1845. On July 3, 1845, he was appointed as a member of the committee to review the summaries of academic subjects taught at the seminary. At this time, he was interested a solitary monastic life; in a letter to his spiritual father Jeremiah, who tonsured and ordained him, he wrote: "I am beginning to be burdened by my academic position to the point of unbearability. I would like to go to church, and sit there". On August 21, 1847, at his request, he was appointed as a member of the
Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, headed by Archimandrite
Porphyrius (Uspensky). In Jerusalem. Theophan learned
iconography and studied
Greek,
French,
Hebrew and
Arabic. In Palestine, he became acquainted with the ancient asceticism of the Eastern monasteries and the monuments of ascetic writing of the past centuries. He also engaged in the translation of the works of the
holy fathers of the
Philokalia. In addition, he became intimately acquainted with the non-Orthodox Christian beliefs. For his works, on May 5, 1851, Theophan was awarded the gold pectoral cross. In 1853, the
Crimean War began; on May 3, 1854, the mission was withdrawn to Russia. The return took place through
Western Europe; Theophan visited many cities, churches, museums, libraries, and educational institutions. Notably, Archimandrite Porphyrius and Hieromonk Theophan had an audience with
Pope Pius IX. Upon his return to Russia, he was appointed a teacher of
canon law at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy; on April 14, 1855, he was elevated to the rank of
Archimandrite. In September of the same year, he was appointed rector of the
Olonets Theological Seminary, which was located in the building of the Petrozavodsk Theological College; Archimandrite Theophan had to organize the construction of his own building for the seminary. At this time he wrote the following: "We don't have a seminary. By right of the strong, we live in a building bought for a school, and it is in an apartment. The seminary bursa is also in the apartment, which is very, very inconvenient". In October 1855, he was appointed a member of the Olonets Ecclesiastical Consistory. At the suggestion of Archbishop Arcadius (Fyodorov), he was appointed censor of the sermons of the Olonets diocese. At the seminary, he organized an anti-schismatic library. On May 21, 1856, he was appointed rector of the Russian embassy church in Constantinople (Ottoman Empire), as he was well acquainted with the Orthodox East. Theophan was charged with collecting information about the
Greco-Bulgarian Schism that was brewing at that time. For his labors, on April 17, 1857, he was awarded the 2nd degree of the
Order of St. Anna. In May 1857, he was appointed rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. In addition to the rector's office, he was entrusted with overseeing the teaching of the
Law of God in secular educational institutions of the St. Petersburg district. He was chairman of the committee at the
Academy of Sciences for the publication of works of Byzantine historians; in 1858, he became a chairman of the committee for the
translation of Holy Scripture into Russian. On May 29, 1859, Archimandrite Theophan was elected Bishop of
Tambov and Shatsk, and on June 1, in the
Trinity Cathedral of the
Alexander Nevsky Lavra, he was consecrated bishop. On July 5, he took over the diocese. The Tambov diocese was one of the most extensive and popular; there were 1,172 priests, 681 deacons, several hundred monastics, and many sectarians and
Old Believers among the population. Bishop Theophan paid special attention to preaching; he accompanied almost every service with a sermon. Bishop Theophan and the clergy were convinced, as they stated, "that preaching is his first, direct and sacred duty, and at the same time should be an internal need, if only to properly and consciously treat his high ministry". The Tambov male monastery of
Our Lady of Kazan at the bishop's house became the center of preaching. In the Tambov Diocesan Gazette, Bishop Theophan published his homiletic treatise "How to compose a sermon", in which he stated the features of the sermon: "the peculiarity of my sermons is that they are not composed […] These are written impromptu." On July 22, 1863, Bishop Theophan was moved to the ancient Vladimir diocese. At the Diocese of Vladimir, where at the time there were many schismatics and sectarians, Theophan's fame as a preacher strengthened. He authored "Instruction for Preaching the Word of God", published on November 27, 1864 in the Vladimir Diocesan Gazette. In the same year he sent Hieromonk Moses to Moscow to verify old printed books. In
Vyazniki county he opened the "Epiphany Orthodox Brotherhood". In 1865, a women's diocesan school was opened under his care. For his archpastoral activity, on April 19, 1864, he was awarded the 1st degree of Order of St. Anna. == In retirement ==