 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 Alexandria and Antioch.