10th century
Saint Athanasius the Athonite
Tenth-century monk who founded the Great Lavra, the oldest monastery on Mount Athos.
Biography
Athanasios came from a well-off family of Trebizond and studied in Constantinople, where he felt drawn to monastic life. He first became a monk on Mount Kyminas, under abbot Michael Maleinos, and later withdrew to Mount Athos, living in great humility beside an elder hermit.
With the support of Emperor Nikephoros Phokas he built a church to the Mother of God and cells for monks, founding the Great Lavra, the oldest monastery on Athos (963). He died when the church roof collapsed while he and fellow monks were working on it.