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Although he had supported Nikephoros II Phokas in his rise to the throne against the machinations of Joseph Bringas, Patr. Polyeuctus excommunicated Nikephoros for having married the empress Theophano on the grounds that he had been the godfather to one or more of his sons. The patriarch had previously refused Nikephoras communion for a year for the sin of having contracted a second marriage. Although his first wife had been dead several years when he married Theophano, the religious views prevalent in the Eastern Roman Empire of the tenth century only begrudgingly tolerated remarriage, which was considered a sin, after the death of ones first wife.
Patr. Polyeuctus had the good grace to oppose sin on all fronts. He [[excommunication|excommunicated]] the assassins of the emperor Nikephoros and refused to crown the new emperor John I Tzimiskes, who was the nephew of the late Emperor and one of the assassins, until he had punished the assassins and exiled John I's lover the empress Theophano who organized the assassination of her husband.
St. Polyeuctus fell reposeed peacefully in 970.
[[Category: Bishops]]
[[Category: Patriarchs of Constantinople]]]
[[Category: Saints]]
