Gregorios 39 was bishop of Pessinous in Galatia Salutaris; in 787 he attended the Second Council of Nikaia (the Seventh Ecumenical Council). A former iconoclast, he was brought before the first session of the Council, on 24 September 787, with certain fellow bishops and iconoclasts (see Hypatios 1) for examination to determine if as former heretics they could be readmitted to communion: Mansi XII 1015. They had all taken part in the disruption of the Council summoned at Constantinople in the previous year: Mansi XII 1015-1018. In reply to questions from Tarasios 1, Gregorios 39 declared their acceptance of the traditional faith derived from the Apostles and the Fathers and quoted a council of Antioch and Isidore of Pelusium, and later St John Chrysostom, on the Christian attitude to icons: Mansi XII 1018-1019. See further Hypatios 1. At the end of this first session he and the others read out their statements of repentance accepting the traditional veneration of icons, all identical with the previous statement read out by the bishop of Ankyra, Basilios 21; the decision whether to readmit them was then postponed to a later session: Mansi XII 1050. After further discussion he and the others were readmitted at the third session (28 September) and allowed to take their seats: Mansi XII 1119. Later at the third session he accepted as orthodox the statements of the faith contained in letters from Tarasios 1 and the eastern patriarchs and condemned iconoclasts: Mansi XII 1151. He is styled Γρηγόριος ὁ εὐλαβέστατος ἐπίσκοπος Πισινοῦντος or similar: Mansi XII 1015, XII 1018, XII 1019, XII 1050, XII 1119, XII 1151. He is also attested at the fourth and seventh sessions, on 1 October and 13 October; he was probably present at the last six sessions, from 24 September to 23 November 787: Mansi XII 1119-XIII 486. In the list of those present at the seventh session he is styled Γρηγορίου ἐπισκόπου Πισινοῦντος: Mansi XIII 365. Elsewhere he is styled Γρηγόριος ἀνάξιος ἐπίσκοπος Πισινοῦντος: Mansi XIII 136, 381. At the fourth session he subscribed the statements read out from the Fathers in support of the veneration of icons: Mansi XIII 136. At the seventh session he subscribed the statement of the faith adopted by the Council: Mansi XIII 381.

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