They are filled with conventional complaints concerning Theophylact's 'barbarian' surroundings, whereas in fact he was deeply involved in local cultural development, producing an encomium of 15 martyrs of Tiberioupolis and a vita of Clement of Ohrid.

"[4] He also wrote (in his Letters) accounts of how the constant wars between the Byzantine Empire and the Pechenegs, Magyars and Normans had destroyed most of the food of the land and caused many people to flee to the forests from the towns.

The present day Eastern Orthodox Churches of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia consider him to be a saint, and commemorate him on December 31 as Theophylact of Ohrid (Greek: Θεοφύλακτος Αχρίδος, Теофилакт Охридски).

Thomas Aquinas, the celebrated western Christian theologian, included parts of Theophylact's writings in his Catena Aurea, which is a collection of commentary on the four Gospels by the Church Fathers.

Contemporary translations of Theophylact's commentaries are available in modern Greek, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Romanian, reflecting the wide influence of his exegetical work within the Orthodox Church, and beyond.

A twentieth century Bishop of Ohrid, Nikolaj Velimirović, wrote that Theophylact's "commentaries on the Four Gospels and other books of the New Testament ... are the finest works of their sort after St. John Chrysostom, and are read to this day with great benefit.