July 5: Saint Athanasios the Athonite celebratestranslated

Today, July 5, the Church honors the memory of Saints Athanasios the Athonite and Lampados the miracle worker, and the Hieromartyr Stefanos Metropolitan of Rigi Calabria, in Lower Italy.

By LAMBROS K. SKONTZOU, Theologian - Professor

Agios Athanasios the Athonite: The founder of Agioritei Coinovian Monasticism Mount Athos has been the ark of Orthodox monasticism for a thousand years. It is the creation of a great man of our Church, Saint Athanasios of Athonite. He was the first founder of a synovian monastery in Athos, the venerable Monastery of the Great Lavra.

He was born in AD 930 in Trebizond on the Pontus to parents who had come from distant Antioch. Unfortunately they died early. His father before Athanasios was born and some time later his mother. Before his mother died, she baptized the newborn boy and named him Abramios. A devout friend of hers and a nun, undertook to raise the orphan. She cared for him as her own child and inspired him with faith in God, piety and love for the solitary ideal. But she too, when the child was seven years old, fell ill and died. Some other relatives picked it up and…