From the Prologue of Ochrid
Born in Trebizond of God-fearing parents. He was orphaned early, but by the Providence of God a certain military commander took him, brought him to Constantinople, and gave him over to studies there. Because of his meekness and humility he was a favorite among all his peers. During children's games the children would choose one to be emperor, another to be commander, and Athanasius to be — abbot. As if a prophecy! Having completed his studies, Athanasius (before his tonsure known as Abraamius) withdrew to the wilderness of Maleinos, near the Holy Mountain, where he labored as a disciple of the then-famous Michael Maleinos. Desiring yet more rigorous asceticism, he moved to the Holy Mountain for the life of stillness. But many seekers of the ascetical life began to gather around him, and he was compelled to build his famous Lavra. In this he was generously helped by the Byzantine emperors, first Nikephoros Phokas, who himself intended to withdraw and become a monk, and then John Tzimiskes. Numerous temptations assailed Athanasius, both from demons and from men, but as a valiant soldier of Christ he endured and overcame them all by his boundless meekness and unceasing prayer to the living God. Full of the grace of God, he was deemed worthy to behold the Most Holy Theotokos, who miraculously brought forth water from a rock and promised to be forever the Stewardess of his monastery. In labor and in prayer Athanasius went before his brethren, and he loved them all with the love of a spiritual father and shepherd. Death came to him suddenly. Once he climbed with six monks above a newly built porch of the church to inspect a wall that was then being built, but the wall collapsed and buried them all. Thus ended this great luminary of monasticism in the year 980. After his death he appeared many times to his brethren, either to console or to admonish them.
