Patriarch Polyeuctus of Constantinople

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Polyeuctus was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (956-70),

From being a simple monk, Polyeuctus was raised to the Patriarchate in 946, as successor to the imperial prince Theophylactus Lecapenus, and remained on the patriarchal throne in constantinople until his death in 970.

For his great mind, zeal for the Faith and power of oratory, he was called a second Chrysostom. He excommuicated the assassins of the Emperor Nikiforos II Fokas and refuse to crown the new Emperor Ioannes I Tsimiskis nephew of the late Emperor (and one of the assassins) until he punished the assassins and exile his lover Empress Theofano who organised her husband's assassin.

The Russian Princess Saint Olga came to Constantinople in the time of Patriarch Polyeuctus during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and was baptised there in 957. The Patriarch baptised her, and the Emperor stood godfather. St Polyeuctus prophesied: `Blessed art thou among Russian women, for thou bast desired the light and cast away darkness; the sons of Russia will bless thee to the last generation.'

He raised bishop Petrus of Otranto (958) to the dignity of metropolitan, with the obligation to establish the Greek Rite throughout the province; the Latin Rite was introduced again after the Norman conquest, but the Greek Rite remained in use in several towns of the archdiocese and of its suffragans, until the sixteenth century.

His orthodox feast is on February 5 (Old style?)