Biography

The source of information about Gregory is a Life written by a certain Ignatius, ‘deacon and sacristan of the Great Church of God’ (Constantinople), later professor of rhetoric at the patriarchal school of St Sophia, bishop of Nicea from 845, and author of Lives of other moderate iconophile personalities such as the Patriarchs Tarasius (784-806) and Nicephorus I of Constantinople (806-15).

He tells how early in his youth Gregory …