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.

At about the same time, Theophylact advised his nephew-in-law Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria on the new Bogomil heresy.

Theophylact introduced theatrical elements to the Byzantine liturgy, something which was not universally supported by the conservative clergy around him.

Theophylact's detractors describe him as an irreverent man primarily interested in his huge stable of horses, who was ready to abandon the celebration of Divine Liturgy in the Hagia Sophia to be present at the foaling of his favorite mare.