Gegnesios 1 was a leader of the Paulicians; son of the Armenian Paulos 1 and brother of Theodoros 1, he escaped with his father and brother from the persecution of Paulicians (Manichees) at Soros near Koloneia under Justinian II to Episparis; there Gegnesios 1 was made head of "the school of atheism" (εἰς τὸ τῆς ἀθεότητος διδασκαλεῖον) by his father and was given the name Timotheos; he and his brother began a lifelong quarrel, each claiming to be inspired by the Holy Spirit; Peter of Sicily (Petros 1) suggested that the name given to him should rather have been "Thymotheos"; Gegnesios attracted the attention of the emperor Leo III (Leo 3), who summoned him to Constantinople and sent him to the patriarch (Germanos 8 or Anastasios 2) for questioning; his replies to the patriarch's questions were all the correct ones but, according to Peter of Sicily, his meaning was not the orthodox interpretation; however he was judged innocent and received a seal (sigillion) from the emperor; Gegnesios 1 now returned to Episparis where he assembled his followers and fled to Mananalis (from where Konstantinos 1, founder of the Paulician sect in Peter of Sicily's account, had originally come); there he eventually died of plague (ὑπὸ τοῦ βουβῶνος), after thirty years as leader of the heretics (τῆς ἀσεβείας γενομένος προστάτης); he had a son, Zacharias 1, who was a candidate to succeed him, but his disciples were divided between Zacharias and a goatherd, Ioseph 1, whom Gegnesios had adopted after he was abandoned by his mother as illegitimate; Gegnesios is said to have adorned "Achaea" (meaning Mananalis): Peter of Sicily, 112-124, 163.

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