Editing Theophylact of Constantinople

{{Short description|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 933 to 956}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = 
| name             = Theophylact of Constantinople
| patriarch_of     = [[List of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]]
| image            = Bulcsú vezért megkeresztelik Bizáncban. Codex Skylitzes 134r..png
| caption          = The baptism of Hungarian chieftain [[Bulcsú (chieftain)|Bulcsú]], performed by Theophylact in 948 (''[[Madrid Skylitzes]]'')
| ordination       = 
| consecration     = 
| enthroned        = 2 February 933
| ended            = 27 February 956
| province         = 
| diocese          = 
| see              = Constantinople
| church           = 
| predecessor      = [[Tryphon of Constantinople]]
| successor        = [[Polyeuctus of Constantinople]]
| birth_name       = Theophylact Lekapenos
| birth_date       = 917
| birth_place      = Constantinople
| death_date       = 27 February 956
| death_place      = 
| buried           = 
| nationality      = 
| religion         = [[Chalcedonian Christianity]]
}}
'''Theophylact Lekapenos''' ({{langx|el|Θεοφύλακτος Λεκαπηνός}}; 917 – 27 February 956) was [[list of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]]<ref>Catherine Cubitt (2003), ''Court Culture in the Early Middle Ages - The Proceedings of the First Alcuin Conference'', University of York, Centre for Medieval Studies.</ref><ref>Catherine Holmes (2005), ''Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976–1025)'', Oxford University Press.</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium]] |page=2068 |date=1991 |title=Theophylaktos |last1=Kazhdan |first1=Alexander |author-link=Alexander Kazhdan |url=https://archive.org/details/odb_20210521/page/739/mode/1up |editor-first=Alexander |editor-last=Kazhdan |ISBN=978-0-19-504652-6}}</ref> from 2 February 933 to his death in 956.

Theophylact was the youngest son of Emperor [[Romanos I Lekapenos]] and his wife [[Theodora (wife of Romanos I)|Theodora]]. Romanos I planned to make his son patriarch as soon as Patriarch [[Nicholas I of Constantinople|Nicholas I]] died in 925, but two minor patriarchates and a two-year vacancy passed before Theophylact was considered old enough to discharge his duties as patriarch (as he was still only sixteen years old). At this time, or before, he was castrated to help his career in the church{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}. Theophylact was the third patriarch of Constantinople to be the son of an emperor and the only one to have become patriarch during the reign of his father. His patriarchate of just over twenty-three years was unusually long, and his father had secured the support of [[Pope John XI]] for his elevation to the patriarchate. Apart from the bastard [[eunuch]] [[Basil Lekapenos]], who was appointed ''[[parakoimomenos]]'', Theophylact was the only son of Romanos I to retain his high office after the family's fall from power in 945.

Theophylact supported his father's policies and pursued ecclesiastical [[ecumenicism]], keeping in close contact with the Greek patriarchates of [[List of Greek Orthodox Patriarchs of Alexandria|Alexandria]] and [[List of Greek Orthodox Patriarchs of Antioch|Antioch]]. He sent missionaries to the [[Magyars]], trying to help the efforts of imperial diplomacy in the late 940s. At about the same time, Theophylact advised his nephew-in-law Emperor [[Peter I of Bulgaria]] on the new [[Bogomilism|Bogomil]] heresy. Theophylact introduced theatrical elements to the Byzantine liturgy, something which was not universally supported by the conservative clergy around him.

Theophylact's detractors describe him as an irreverent man primarily interested in his huge stable of horses, who was ready to abandon the celebration of Divine Liturgy in the [[Hagia Sophia]] to be present at the foaling of his favorite mare. Theophylact died after [[List of horse accidents|falling from a horse]] in 956.

== Notes and references ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book |last=Kiminas |first=Demetrius |title=The Ecumenical Patriarchate - A History of Its Metropolitanates with Annotated Hierarch Catalogs |date=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QLWqXrW2X-8C |publisher=[[Wildside Press]] |isbn=9781434458766}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Madgearu |first=Alexandru |title=The Mission of Hierotheos - Location and Significance |journal=Byzantinoslavica |date=2008 |volume=66 |pages=119–138 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1300118}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Madgearu |first=Alexandru |title=Further Considerations on Hierotheos' Mission to the Magyars |journal=Acta Musei Napocensis |date=2017 |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=1–16 |url=https://www.academia.edu/38573000}}

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{{Succession box
| before = [[Tryphon of Constantinople|Tryphon]]
| title  = [[List of ecumenical patriarchs of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople]]
| years  = 933 – 956
| after  = [[Polyeuctus of Constantinople|Polyeuctus]]
}}
{{S-end}}

{{Patriarchs of Constantinople}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Theophylact 01 of Constantinople}}
[[Category:917 births]]
[[Category:956 deaths]]
[[Category:10th-century patriarchs of Constantinople]]
[[Category:Lekapenos family]]
[[Category:Macedonian dynasty|Macedonian dynasty]]
[[Category:Christian anti-Gnosticism]]
[[Category:Deaths by horse-riding accident]]
[[Category:Constantine VII]]
[[Category:Sons of Byzantine emperors]]
[[Category:Byzantine people of Armenian descent]]