The Life of Gregorios 79 was written by Ignatius the Deacon (Ignatios 9) (BHG 711) and is supplemented by details in the Lives of Joseph the Hymnographer written by Theophanes (BHG 944) and John the Deacon (BHG 946). For the chronology of his life, see Denise Papachrysanthou, TM 3 (1968), p. 321, n. 77, and Cyril Mango, "On Re-reading the Life of St Gregory the Decapolite", in Byzantina 13 (1985), pp. 633-646.

Gregorios 79 was a native of Eirenopolis, a city of the Decapolis in Isauria, and was a son of Sergios 58 and Maria 7: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 2. He had a brother, whose name is unknown (Anonymus 286): Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 6. Nephew of Symeon 14: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 4, 5. He was also nephew of Anonymus 285: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 4. A native of the Decapolis (in Isauria): Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 5 (τῆς Δεκαπολιτῶν λήξεως βλαστὸς), Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 952C (τὸ Δεκαπολιτῶν περιλάλημα), Synax. Eccl. Const., 20 November (pp. 581-584) (Γρηγορίου, ᾧ τὸ ἐπώνυμον Δεκαπολίτου).

Gregorios 79 was probably born between 795 and 800, since he reached manhood during the iconoclast persecution under Leo V (Leo 15); see below, and see Papachrysanthou, loc. cit., and Mango, p. 634. He began his schooling at the age of eight (ὀκταέτη γενόμενον εἰς γραμματεῖς τοῦ φοιτᾶν ἐδικαίωσαν) but when he had mastered the rudiments and laid the foundations for further study (πλήρης δὲ τῶν πρώτων στοιχείων καὶ τῶν εἰς τὸ τελειότερον ἐπιβαλλόντων μαθήσιν γεγονὼς) he began to frequent churches in search of improvement, to the neglect of his own personal well-being; he allegedly bolted his meals in order to hurry back to church to listen to the singing of psalms; he also became skilful with his hands and was able to earn sufficient to keep himself and his parents and sometimes to give also to the poor and needy; he himself however always went in rough clothes rather than the silks that his parents wanted him to wear (this implies that the family was in fact quite well-to-do): Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 2.

When Gregorios 79 arrived at manhood, his parents sought to arrange a marriage for him, but he ran away and sought the advice of a holy man, a former bishop who had abandoned his see to escape the iconoclasts (Anonymus 283); Gregorios 79 explained his longing for a religious life and was directed for guidance to some monks living nearby: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 3. Given the other circumstance of his life, this probably refers to the persecution of iconoclasts under Leo V (Leo 15, 815/820); Gregorios 79 could therefore hardly have been born earlier than 795 and probably a year or more later. At this time his father (Sergios 58) died and his mother (Maria 7) sought him out and encouraged him in his intentions, suggesting that he enter a monastery in which her brother (Anonymus 285) was a monk and share his hardships with him; Gregorios 79 entered the monastery, but found that the hegoumenos (Anonymus 284) was sympathetic to the iconoclast cause; he stood up and openly denounced him before the assembled monks; the hegoumenos had him beaten and disgraced, and so he then left the monastery and went to see his uncle, Symeon 14, who was head of all the monasteries in the Decapolis; Symeon 14 took him into his care and he became a monk in his uncle's own monastery: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 4.

Gregorios 79 remained in this monastery for fourteen years; he then asked Symeon 14 for permission to become a solitary, and Symeon 14 gave him a cave on a nearby hillside where without distraction he could devote himself to God: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 5. The fourteen years could not have ended before 829 and may have been as late as 834; he may have become a solitary in c. 830 and his subsequent travels appear to have coincided with the resumption of the iconoclast persecution under the emperor Theophilos (Theophilos 5) in 833/834 (see below). While a solitary, Gregorios 79 was cared for by a monk whose duty was to attend on his needs: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 6. He was troubled by a vision, which Symeon 14 however explained as portending great things for him: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 7-8. He also heard a voice from Heaven, telling him to depart and go out into the world; accordingly he left his cave; he first went into Asia, remaining in a monastery in Ephesos when the winter made further travel impossible; with the spring he planned to travel on to Constantinople; the sailors were willing to take him but were unwilling to set out because a force of Moorish barbarians (presumably an Arab force) was close by; Gregorios 79 persuaded them to sail by promising a safe voyage, and they landed him on Prokonnesos; from there he wanted to go on to Constantinople, because the iconoclast persecution was in full swing (the persecution under Theophilos 5 was resumed in 833) and he wanted to speak out against it, but on Prokonnesos he encountered a poor man (Anonymus 303) who gave him shelter in his house, although it was forbidden to do so (presumably as a supporter of icons Gregorios 79 was supposed to be forbidden hospitality); his arrival changed the man's fortunes and from poor he became affluent, so much so that he refused to allow Gregorios 79 to leave, attributing his good fortune to his presence: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 9. Gregorios 79 however slipped away secretly and, crossing the Hellespont, put in at Aenos, where however he received a severe beating from an angry young man (Anonymus 304) until he revealed that he was an iconophile, when the man's anger abated and he apologised; Gregorios 79 then sailed on to Christopolis and made his way overland, encountering a band of Slav raiders whom he impressed with his calmness and courage and who ferried him across a river in his path: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 10. He then made his way to Thessalonike, where he stayed for a few days with the hegoumenos Markos 4; uncertain where to go next he joined a monk (Anonymus 295) who was travelling to Rome and accompanied him as far as Corinth; as he had no means to support himself, he accompanied the man as his servant (ἦν αὐτῷ διὰ τὴν ἀπορίαν ὑποτασσόμενος καὶ δούλου χρείαν πληρῶν) and travelled at his expense; from Corinth he planned to go to Sicily by boat; the sailors were reluctant to sail to that region because of the Arabs, but Gregorios 79 convinced them that they would be safe and they took him as far as Rhegium, where he stayed at the house of a pious man (Anonymus 305) and was offered a sum of money by the locals, but refused on the grounds that the money was from a tainted source (see Merkourios 2): Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 11. He set out from Rhegium on a ship from Naples, but it was wrecked in a storm, and a fellow passenger of Gregorios 79, another monk (Anonymus 306), was saved from drowning allegedly only by the prayers of Gregorios 79; he then went on to Rome where he remained for three months, living in a small cell and not making himself known; he left in order to escape attention after healing a man afflicted by an evil spirit and fled from Rome to Sicily, where he shut himself up in a tower in Syracuse, hoping for peace and quiet; while there his bed mat was destroyed by fire and he then slept on a sheepskin which was, however, infested with fleas until he drove them out by the sign of the cross: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 12. In Syracuse he persuaded a prostitute to abandon her trade (Anonyma 45) but had difficulties in his tower with a serpent; he abandoned Syracuse therefore and went on to Hydruntum, where he was arrested on charges of betraying Christians (perhaps because of his iconophile views; Mango, however, op. cit., p. 637, suggests that he was taken for a spy for the Arabs) and beaten and taken before the local bishop (Anonymus 286); he was however saved from further maltreatment and allowed to leave, but he next came across Arab troops (φοσσάτῳ Σαρακηνῶν), from whom he escaped safely, though only after one of them was prevented from killing him by a miracle: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 13. He then returned to Thessalonike: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 14. The chronology of these events can not be fixed precisely. Papachrysanthou suggests that Gregorios 79 became a solitary in c. 830, wintered at Ephesos in 832-833, left for Constantinople in spring 833, spent the next year travelling, and finally arrived in Thessalonike to settle in c. 834. Mango points out that the earliest winter which he could have spent in Ephesos was 829/830 but was probably a year or two later. The Life next recounts his arrival in Thessalonike, where he lived as a solitary close to the Church of the Martyr Menas, whose priest (Anonymus 288) gave him a welcome (τῇ δὲ Θεσσαλονίκῃ προσπελάσας καὶ πρὸς τῷ ναῷ τοῦ ἁγίου μάρτυρος Μηνᾶ μονὴν ποιησάμενος, ἐγνώσθη ὑπὸ τοῦ τηνικαῦτα τὴν ἐκκλησίαν διέποντος); he was extremely poor and had great difficulty in finding food and clothing, living by begging food in the streets, and pursuing the lonely life of an ascetic (ἡρεμοῦντι δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ τῆς ἀσκήσεως ἐπιμελουμένῳ); he began to receive regular food after helping a woman (Anonyma 46) whose house had collapsed (τὰ πρὸς τροφὴν δαψιλῶς ἐπορίσατο): Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 14. According to the Lives of Joseph, however, Gregorios 79 was already famous as a miracle worker when he arrived in Thessalonike; he there visited the monastery in which Ioseph 12 was a monk and, recognising Ioseph 12's qualities, obtained the permission of the hegoumenos (Anonymus 296) to share the ascetic life with him; later they went together to Constantinople and lived together a life of asceticism and devotion at the Church of the martyr Antipas, close to the Church of St Mokios: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 5, cf. Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 952B-D (already elderly when he came to Thessalonike), 953A-B (in Constantinople they lived in the vicinity of the Church of Sts Sergios and Bacchos), 961B-C.

When the persecution of the venerators of icons was in full swing, Gregorios 79 spoke out against it; he was asked by the iconophiles in Constantinople to send a message to the bishop of Rome describing the situation; he agreed and drew up a letter to the pope which he then entrusted to Ioseph 12 to take; Ioseph 12 however was captured en route by pirates and carried off captive to Crete: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 6, cf. Ioannes. Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 953B-956B (dating the persecution under Leo V (Leo 15), certainly wrongly; the emperor can only be Theophilos 5, given the chronology). The anecdotes in the Life suggest that he acquired disciples in Thessalonike (probably correct) and also became the head of the monastery of the martyr Menas in Thessalonike (τὸν ... καθηγεμόνα καὶ μέγαν Γρηγόριον; Vita Greg. Dec. 17) (probably incorrect); his fame spread and he had access to the leading officials there: cf. Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 14-24 and see Anonymus 290, Anastasios 38, Georgios 136 and Ioannes 244; cf. also Anonymus 292. The monastery itself was apparently built by the monk Zacharias 20: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 20 (and cf. Anonyma 47). Gregorios 79 is said to have visited Constantinople, where he stayed with Anastasios 38, before going on to visit Mt Olympus in Bithynia; he returned quickly from there having learned miraculously of the arrival at Constantinople of one of his disciples: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 20. He is not said to have returned to Thessalonike, and possibly this was when he travelled with Ioseph 12 to Constantinople and remained there. (Could the disciple whom he hurried back to greet have in fact been Ioseph 12? or possibly Ioannes 244?). He is recorded as once suffering from an illness affecting his groin and stomach, which he treated with cauteries; at the time, apparently, he was staying among people who did not know him and was using the name Georgios: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 23 (could this be an anecdote from before he settled in Thessalonike? Mango suggests that he lived in Thessalonike under an assumed name, because his earlier travels had been connected with espionage or secret diplomatic activities and he needed for a time to remain hidden; see Mango, op. cit.., pp. 637-638).

Gregorios 79 fell ill with epilepsy and paralysis which then apparently turned to dropsy and a wasting disease, allegedly after he prayed to be relieved of his original ailments; he became unrecognisable, apart from his voice; even so he managed to travel to Constantinople to see his uncle Symeon 14, who was in prison for his iconophile beliefs: gnatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 28-29. His illness lasted for a year (προσπαλαίων δὲ ὅλον ἐνιαυτὸν τῷ νοσήματι) and then he had himself removed from his cell to the common hospice of the monastery by the monks, and there he died on 20 November: Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 29. The year (inferred from the evidence in the Lives of Joseph) was perhaps 842, since, when Ioseph 12 returned from Crete, after the ending of the persecution of iconophiles, he found that Gregorios 79 was dead: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 8, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 960D-961A. However, Gregorios 79 could have died a year or two previously; see Mango, op. cit. p. 643. His character and qualities are described in Ignatius, Vita Greg. Dec. 25-27. There are clearly difficulties in reconciling the accounts in the two sources. The Life implies that after his travels he lived mainly in Thessalonike and there fell mortally ill; after visiting his uncle (Symeon 14) in Constantinople he then returned to the monastery and died; the Lives of Joseph suggest rather that after a spell in Thessalonike he moved, with Ioseph 12, to Constantinople and it was there that he fell ill and died. Ioannes 244 was his pupil and disciple; some years after Gregorios 79's death, his body together with that of Ioannes 244 was transferred by Ioseph 12 first to the Shrine of St John Chrysostom and then, five years later, to the monastery of St Bartholomaios, founded by Ioseph 12 perhaps in c. 850: Theophanes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 9, Ioannes, Vita Ioseph. Hymnog. 961C-D.

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