 Romanos planned to make his son Patriarch as soon as Nicholas Mystikos 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.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.