Gregorios Th. Stathis was born in the village of Platania-Gerakari, Ioannina, on November 8, 1939. Following his secondary education at the renowned Zosimaia School -a model high school- he pursued university studies in three fields (in Athens, Rome, Copenhagen and Oxford): Theology and Byzantine Philology, Music, and Musicology. He is Professor Emeritus of Byzantine Musicology and the Art of Psaltiki (Chanting) at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (since September 2008) and Honorary Director of the Institute of Byzantine Musicology of the Church of Greece (since June 2022). A renowned musicologist of international standing and influence, he is a prolific author with a vast, diverse, and significant body of work comprising over eight hundred titles; central to this output is the monumental seven-volume catalogue Byzantine Music Manuscripts – Mount Athos, which was awarded a prize by the Academy of Athens on December 30, 1976.
As a university educator, he has served as a spiritual mentor - a "father to doctoral scholars" - guiding an entire generation of fifty young researchers and academics (many of whom are now university teachers themselves). Through his multifaceted contributions, he stands as the true founder of the discipline of Byzantine musicology in Greece and a revitalizer of Psaltic Art (Byzantine chant), enjoying international renown.
Alongside his scholarly and pedagogical work - and inextricably linked to his life’s path - is his work as a composer and artist. Gregorios Stathis is a composer with an extensive body of work and an interpreter of pre-1814 musical notation. Above all, he is a poet, having authored thirty collections and major long-form poetic works. {Published works include: The Unredeemed – the epic of Cyprus, a five-act drama comprising 3,612 fifteen-syllable verses (1965); Erotic Discourse (three collections, 2001); The Athonite Enneads and The Ballads of the Prisoner (2001); among others.}
Through his decisive contribution and his digital rendering of the Psaltic notation symbols (the "Stathis Series"), their global standardization was achieved (July 4, 1997) by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), recognizing them as derivatives of the Greek alphabet (mid-10th century).
He established (in 2000) the triennial International Conference on the "Theory and Practice of Psaltic Art." To date, nine such events (I–IX) have been held, with the proceedings of the first four (I–IV) having been published.
He paid special attention to the proper chanting of liturgical services by female chanters; he taught the art of Byzantine chant and established choirs of female chanters at the following women's monasteries: the Annunciation of the Theotokos in Ormylia (Chalkidiki), Pantokratoros–Taos (Penteli), the Pammegistoi Taxiarchai (Mount Pelion), and the Panagia of New Tikhvin (Yekaterinburg, Russia).
He has been honored with a commendation and award from the Church of Greece (1971) and an award from the Academy of Athens (1976), and has been presented with crosses, icons, and medals by Patriarchates, Dioceses, monasteries, and various organizations and associations. He was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor (Doctor Honoris Causa) by the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Romania (July 31, 2012), and by the “George Enescu” University of Fine Arts in the city of Iași, Romania (September 29, 2017), and recently (December 2, 2024), by the Department of Social Theology and Christian Culture of the School of Theology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.