Cloud of Witnesses
Reviewed entry
Venerable (Monastic)14th century

Athanasius of Meteora

c. 1302 – c. 1380

Also known as Athanasius the Meteorite · Andronikos

Born Andronikos in Hypate, he founded the Great Meteoron monastery atop the rocks of Meteora in Thessaly and gave it a cenobitic rule patterned on Mount Athos; his disciple and successor Joasaph co-built the community.

April 20New Calendar
Feast Day
May 3Old Calendar
Suggest a correctionContribute
Icon galleryBrowse icons and imagery elsewhere
Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Athanasius the Meteorite, Founder of the Great Meteoron

Life

Athanasius of Meteora, born Andronikos at Hypate (the medieval town of New Patras, present-day Ypati in Phthiotis), was a fourteenth-century Byzantine monastic who founded the monastery of the Great Meteoron atop the towering rocks of Meteora in Thessaly. He organized its brotherhood under a cenobitic rule modelled on the typikon of the monasteries of Mount Athos, establishing what sources describe as the first systematic monastic community on the Meteora rocks.

Orphaned in childhood, educated in Thessalonica, and formed in the hesychast tradition before settling at Meteora, Athanasius is commemorated together with his disciple and successor Joasaph, who continued building the community after his repose. His feast is kept on April 20.

Kontakion & Troparion2 hymnsReadHide
KontakionTone 2

(Podoben: “Seeking the things on high...”) Desiring the things of Heaven, you took up your abode on high;
disdaining earthly things, you wove a basket
whereby you lifted up a multitude of monastics to the heights of dispassion,
and offered them as an acceptable gift to Christ our God.

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

TroparionTone 3

You are an unshakable pillar, a steadfast wall,
a battlement and protection for your flock, O wise Athanasios.
Shelter us beneath the wings of your intercessions with Christ God,
O Righteous Father,
for we lovingly praise and glorify your memory.

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Timeline5 momentsReadHide
  1. c. 1302Birth at HypateBorn at Hypate (New Patras, modern Ypati in Phthiotis) into a wealthy family and named Andronikos at baptism. According to the sources he was orphaned young and raised by a paternal relative.
  2. c. 1318–1319Flight from his homelandWhen Catalan forces seized his hometown, the young Andronikos relocated to Thessalonica, where teachers gave him an education in philosophy and classical letters.
  3. c. 1332–1333Monastic life on Mount AthosHaving earlier been refused entry to Mount Athos as too young, he returned about age thirty and was tonsured there, eventually receiving the name Athanasios. The Great Meteoron's account places his departure from Athos with his spiritual father Gregory around this period.
  4. c. 1340–1356Foundation of the Great MeteoronDeparting Athos amid Turkish raids, Athanasius settled on the Thessalian rocks of Stagoi and ascended a rock he himself named Meteoron, where he gathered a brotherhood and gave it a strict cenobitic rule patterned on the Athonite typikon, building a church dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord.
  5. c. 1380ReposeHe reposed on April 20, by the OCA account after a brief illness at about age seventy-eight. His disciple Joasaph succeeded him as the community's second founder.

Contributions & Legacy

3 contributionsReadHide

Formation

The sources trace Athanasius's path from the wealthy household of his birth at Hypate, through the loss of his parents and the disruption of his homeland by Catalan forces, to Thessalonica, where he received an education in philosophy and classical literature. His early attempt to enter Mount Athos was refused on account of his youth.

He was drawn into the hesychast current of his age, the OCA account naming Gregory of Sinai and Daniel the Hesychast among those under whom he studied ascetic practice, and a period of asceticism preceded his eventual tonsure on Mount Athos around the age of thirty, where he took the monastic name Athanasios.

The Great Meteoron and its Rule

Turkish raids on Athos prompted Athanasius's move to the Thessalian rocks. Following the direction of Bishop Jacob of Servia, he and his elder Gregory settled at the rocks of Stagoi, and Athanasius ascended the great rock he himself called Meteoron, from which the wider site takes its name.

There he gathered the first systematic monastic community of the rocks and gave it a strict cenobitic rule which the sources describe as patterned on the typikon of the monasteries of Mount Athos. He built a church dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Lord, the nucleus of the monastery that would grow into the Great Meteoron.

Relics & Shrines

The relics of Athanasius are venerated at the Monastery of the Transfiguration (the Great Meteoron), where, according to a cross-checking account, they rest together with those of his successor Joasaph.

Companions1 figureShowHide
Disciple and successor of Athanasius; formerly John Uros Palaiologos, a joint king of Serbia who took the monastic habit and became the second founder and builder of the Great Meteoron.
Venerable Joasaphof Meteora
Related Saints2 saintsShowHide

Saints connected to his life, mission, and place in Orthodox tradition.

Hesychast master; by the OCA account Athanasius studied ascetic practice under Gregory of Sinai before settling at Meteora and founding the Great Meteoron.
Venerable Gregoryof Sinai
A monk of the Great Meteoron, the community he founded.
Hieromartyr Nikodemosof Meteora

Browse similar saints by calling and place.

More Greece370More Byzantine Saints1282More Monastics1353
Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints; en.wikipedia.org