Eirene 6 was the mother of the patriarch Photios 1; she had a brother (Sergios 44) who married one of the sisters of the empress Theodora (Theodora 2): Theoph. Cont. IV 22 (p. 175). Formerly a nun, she was removed from her convent by Sergios 16 and married him; she bore him a son, the future patriarch Photios (Photios 1); she had Photios 1 baptised by the hegoumenos of the monastery of Maximina, Iakobos 2; she was also acquainted with the hegoumenos of the monastery of Dalmatos, Hilarion 1: Ps.-Symeon 668-669. In Scylitzes the account given in Theophanes Continuatus is presented in a confused form; Eirene (the sister of the empress Theodora) is here said to have married Sergios patrikios who was brother of Photios 1: Scyl., p. 98. The empress's sister certainly did not marry the brother of Photios. Scylitzes records the marriages of each of Theodora 2's sisters (Sophia 1, Eirene 4 and Kalomaria 1); this suggests that in the common source of Theophanes Continuatus and Scylitzes all three marriages were recorded, and therefore that in the extant text of Theophanes Continuatus the name of one of the women has fallen out at the start of the description of her marriage. Moreover the sequence in Scylitzes is different from that in Theophanes Continuatus and clearly shows that it is wrong to infer from the existing text of Theophanes Continuatus that Arsaber 6, husband of Kalomaria 1, was the paternal uncle of Photios 1 and father of Stephanos 75 and Bardas 13. It follows that it was Eirene 4 (sister of Theodora 2) who married the brother of Eirene 6. What is not clear is whether the Sergios patrikios mentioned in the garbled text of Scylitzes, p. 98, was the husband of Eirene 4 or Eirene 6. While the latter certainly married a man called Sergios (Sergios 16), it is not recorded that he was a patrikios, and she could well have had a brother also called Sergios who married the sister of Theodora 2. This reasoning supports the genealogical tree printed as alternative 1 on p. 11 of C. Mango's article, "The Liquidation of Iconoclasm and the Patriarch Photios", in Iconoclasm, ed. A. Bryer and J. Herrin (Birmingham, 1977), p. 10, and excludes his alternative 2. For the suggestion that Sergios 44 was the brother of Eirene 6 and the husband of Eirene 4, see Sergios 44. Eirene 6 was the mother also of Tarasios 5, Konstantinos 261, Theodoros 329 and Sergios 107 (the brothers of Photios 1).

Eirene 6 and her husband (Sergios 16) both suffered persecution for their support of icon veneration and died premature deaths: Photius, Ep. 234, lines 58-61, Ep. 289, lines 56-57.

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