Venerable Athanasia of Aegina

Life

Athanasia was born on Aegina to a Christian family about the year 790. Tradition relates that she was drawn to monasticism from childhood, but her parents required her to marry. Her first husband, a soldier, was killed only a short time after the wedding. When an imperial decree obliged unmarried women to marry, she entered a second marriage; by the account her second husband was won to her piety and at length withdrew to become a monk.

Freed at last from worldly obligation, Athanasia gave away her wealth to the poor and gathered other devout women into a monastic community on the island. The sources relate that the community afterward moved to a place called Timia, near a church of Saint Stephen. Though she was made abbess, she governed in such humility that she would not permit her sisters to serve her even in small things.

Asceticism and Charity

Her hagiographer recorded a rigorous ascetic discipline. She wore a hair-shirt beneath coarse woolen clothing, ate only bread and water and that only after the ninth hour, abstained from cheese and fish except at Pascha, and gave much of the night to prayer. In time of famine she distributed food to the hungry, taught the Scriptures to the women of the town, and received monks who came to her. From the offerings brought to the community she built three churches, dedicated to the Theotokos, to John the Baptist, and to Saint Nicholas.

Repose and Veneration

Athanasia reposed in about the year 860; the sources place her death in mid-August, on or near the feast of the Dormition, and give her age as about fifty-two. After her burial her relics were found incorrupt and were observed to flow with fragrant myrrh, and her tomb at Aegina became renowned for healings, drawing crowds who sought her intercession. She is commemorated in the Orthodox Church on April 12 and again on April 18.