Athanasia of Aegina

Life events

1. Born — 790

   Athanasia was born c. 790 on the Greek island of Aegina, the daughter of Niketas and Irene, described in her hagiography as Christian nobles.

2. Educated — 797

   From age seven, Athanasia received an elementary education in the Psalter and Scripture — the standard curriculum for noble girls in late 8th-century Byzantium — and, according to scholar Eve Davies, had mastered the Psalter by that age.

3. Other — 806

   At approximately age 16, Athanasia was compelled by her parents to marry a soldier; he was killed during an Arab raid on Aegina little more than two weeks after the wedding.

4. Other

   Following an imperial edict requiring widows and unmarried women to marry foreigners, Athanasia's parents arranged a second marriage; after several years the couple reached a mutual agreement to separate and each pursue monastic life.

5. Tonsured

   After giving away all her possessions to the poor, Athanasia joined a group of pious women on Aegina, founded a convent with them, and reluctantly accepted the position of abbess three or four years later.

6. Other

   Athanasia built three churches on Aegina — dedicated to the Theotokos, to John the Baptist, and to Saint Nicholas — and subsequently relocated her convent to Timia, near the ancient church of Stephen the Protomartyr.

7. Pilgrimage

   At an unspecified date after becoming abbess at Timia, Athanasia traveled to Constantinople and lived sequestered in a monastery there for almost seven years before a dream prompted her return to Aegina.

8. Died — 860

   Athanasia died on 15 August 860 at Timia, twelve days after falling ill on her return from Constantinople; the date coincided with the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, which subsequently became one of her commemoration days.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Athanasia is known from a single anonymous hagiography preserved in one manuscript, written shortly after her death and published in 916; its author identifies himself as an eyewitness to her posthumous miracles. (likely)
• As abbess, Athanasia ate only bread and water after the ninth hour, abstained from cheese and fish except at Easter, consumed only raw greens on alternate days during Lent, slept on stones, and wore a goat-hair shirt as her inner garment. (likely)
• During a famine on Aegina, Athanasia distributed food not only to believers but also to heretics from Asia Minor, and met with women of the town every Sunday and feast day to read and teach the Scriptures. (likely)
• Most miracles attributed to Athanasia occurred after her death: her hagiographer records healings of demonic possession, paralysis, and disease during her 40-day commemoration Mass, and fragrant oil dripping from her coffin when opened a year later. (plausible)
• Translator Lee Francis Sherry notes that the hagiographer makes no mention of iconoclasm, despite Athanasia living through its second phase; Sherry speculates image veneration was less contested on the Aegean islands than in Constantinople or Bithynia. (likely)