Athanasius the Athonite
Monk from Mount Kyminas who settled on Athos and, at the urging and expense of Nikephoros Phokas, built the Great Lavra. He wrote its rule and defended it against the complaints of the other Athonite monks.
Athanasius tells his own story in the rule he wrote for his monastery. He had hoped to live alone, he says, and thought only of his own salvation; the general Nikephoros II Phokas, his friend from Kyminas, pressed him to build a house where the general might end his days as a monk, and when Nikephoros became emperor instead Athanasius went to the capital to reproach him (Athanasius, Typikon 3–8).
Some years later the leader of the Athonite monks complained of him to the emperor John Tzimiskes. The inquiry cleared both sides, and Athanasius signed the resulting charter as superior of the Great Lavra (Tragos (Typikon of John Tzimiskes) preface; signatures). See the Great Lavra and the Monastic Republic of Athos.
In the timeline
- AD 963 to AD 972, estimated dateThe Great Lavra and the Monastic Republic of Athos
With the backing of the general and emperor Nikephoros Phokas, the monk Athanasius builds the Great Lavra on Mount Athos as a self-governing monastery. A few years later an imperial charter gives all the monks of the Mountain a common rule.