Saint Polyeuctus Patriarch of Constantinople

Polyeuctus was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 956 until his death on February 5, 970. Born in Constantinople, he was made a eunuch in childhood by his parents, who hoped he would enter the civil service of the Eastern Roman Empire. He chose instead to become a monk, and in monastic life distinguished himself for his learning and ascetic discipline. Raised from the cloister to the patriarchal throne in 956 by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, he succeeded the imperial prince Theophylact Lekapenos.

Polyeuctus was renowned for the power of his preaching and his zeal for the Orthodox faith, qualities that earned him the title of a "second Chrysostom" among his contemporaries. Although he owed his elevation to Constantine VII, he did not subordinate himself to imperial interests; he maintained the independence of the patriarchate, questioned the legitimacy of the marriage of Constantine's parents, and rehabilitated the memory of an earlier patriarch, Euthymius I, who had opposed it.

During his tenure Polyeuctus baptized Olga, the regent princess of Kiev, who came to Constantinople in 957; Emperor Constantine VII stood as her godfather. The conversion of Olga, later venerated as Equal-to-the-Apostles, marked an early stage in the Christianization of the Rus'. Polyeuctus is also remembered for his firmness toward emperors: he excommunicated Nikephoros II Phokas over his marriage to the empress Theophano, on the grounds of a spiritual-kinship impediment, and after Nikephoros's assassination he refused to crown John I Tzimiskes until the conditions he set had been satisfied. The anchor tradition distinguishes him from the earlier Martyr Polyeuctus of Melitene, commemorated on January 9.