Paulos 86 was metropolitan bishop of Laodikeia and the addressee of five letters from the patriarch Photius (Photios 1), all addressed Παύλῳ μητροπολίτῃ Λαοδικείας: Photius, Epp. 167 (date uncertain), 206 (872/875?), 215 (872/875?), 220 (c. 875), 222 (868/872?) (II 43ff., 106, 120, 130ff., 134ff. Laourdas-Westerink). One letter, Ep. 167, is a reply to a query from Paulos 86. In two others, Epp. 206 and 215, Photios 1 noted that Paulos 86 had failed to pay him a visit. Another of Photios 1's letters was addressed in 873/875 to the protospatharios Niketas (PBE II) on behalf of the unnamed metropolitan bishops of Kyzikos and Laodikeia, who were in exile and in need of financial help from Niketas: Photius, Ep. 240 (II 162ff. Laourdas-Westerink) (written ὑπὲρ τῶν μητροπολιτῶν τοῦ Κυζίκου καὶ τοῦ Λαοδικείας). He had probably become bishop of Laodikeia as successor of Theodoros 175. He probably lost his see at the time of the anti-Photian Council of 869/870, and may have abandoned support for Photios 1, with one of his disciples, if only briefly; cf. Ep. 222. In 879/880 the bishop of Laodikeia was Symeon (PBE II).

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