The life of St Athanasius the Elder of Vysotsk
In 1374, at the request of a local prince, Sergius brought Athanasius to found a monastery on high ground above the river Nara near Serpukhov, dedicated to the conception of the Mother of God, and known ever after as the Vysotsky, or "monastery of the heights." As its founding abbot, Athanasius trained many who came seeking a stricter monastic discipline, among them the future igumen Nikon, who would later succeed Sergius himself.
Some years afterward, Athanasius accompanied Metropolitan Cyprian on a journey to Constantinople in support of Cyprian's disputed claim to the Russian metropolitanate, and remained there for about twenty years at the Monastery of the Forerunner, occupying himself with prayer, the translation of Greek theological works into Slavonic, and the copying of books and icons that he sent back to strengthen his monastery at home. He died in Constantinople in advanced old age, around 1401.
He left the Vysotsky Monastery in the care of his own disciple, known as Athanasius the Younger, who guided the community faithfully until his own repose in 1395, six years before his teacher's death far away in Constantinople.
