Feast Day: July 5th
The Life of Saint Athanasios: Then the Holy Birth-giver of God said to him: “Strike your rod upon this rock and you will know who I am that speaks to you. Know that I am always remaining the Abbess – Economissa of your Lavra.”
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Prayers
Apolytikion: The Angels’ ranks were awed by thy life in the flesh, how, though corporeal, and clad with Earthly clay, thou didst set forth with courage to invisible wars and wrestlings and didst boldly smite the hordes of the demons with mortal wounds. Wherefore, Christ rewarded thee with abundant gifts in return. Entreat Him that our Souls find salvation, O most renowned Father Athanasios.
Kontakion: The yoke of thy Christ, thou tookest on thyself with faith, while bearing thy cross upon thy shoulders as a true and unrivalled emulator of His dread Passion and sharer of His great Glory, partaking of Divine and unending joy, O Athanasios.
by Saint Nikolai Velimivorich: On Mount Athos, a Lavra glows, wondrous Monastery of Athanasios. One thousand years have slid by it, but the spirit and bread did not run out. It was neither lacking in spirit or bread, nor the glowing vision of God’s Heaven. Thus it was written in books of old: About the Lavra, the Abbess – Economissa worries, Mount Athos is her state, the most fortified wall of Orthodoxy; That Mystical Abbess – Economissa, is it not the All-pure Birth-giver of God? The Lavra, she upholds and Iveron feeds, and Hilendar protects and Rusikon defends, Karakallou and Zograph, Simonpetra, and Pandocrator, all she protects. Those fortifications, to her citizens they belong, but peace and defense to all she is.
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One time, when a famine ensued in the Lavra of Athanasios, all of the brethren dispersed. Dejected, Athanasios began to move about and to seek out another place. A lady on the road asked him: “Where are you going?” “Who are you?” Athanasios asked bewildered because he sees a woman on the Holy Mountain, where access to women is not permitted. “I am she to whom you have dedicated your community. I am the Mother of your Lord.” Athanasios said: “I am afraid to trust you, for even demons can manifest themselves into angels of light. With what shall you prove to me the truthfulness of your words?” Then the Holy Birth-giver of God said to him: “Strike your rod upon this rock and you will know who I am that speaks to you. Know that I am always remaining the Abbess – Ikonomisa of your Lavra.” Athanasios then struck the rock with his rod. At that moment the rock shook and cracked as thunder and water gushed forth from the shattered rock. Frightened, Athanasios turned so as to prostrate before the Holy All-Pure one but She had already vanished. He returned to his Lavra and even to his greater amazement, found all the storehouses overflowing with wheat.
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The Economissa (or Stewardess) Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos depicts the Mother of God seated on a Throne, with her Son on her left knee. Saint Athanasios of Mount Athos stands on her right, holding a model of the Great Lavra. On her left is Saint Michael of Synnada. Two Angels are seen holding a Crown above the head of Our Holy Mother. To this day, the Great Lavra does not have a steward. There is, however, a Monk who serves as an assistant steward (“para-oikonomos”), to the Mother of God. The Economissa Icon rests on a throne in the narthex of the main church, and she remains the Stewardess of the Lavra. Pilgrims venerate the Icon, which shows in all 14 figures with a connection with the Monastery and its foundation, before entering the side chapel with the saint’s tomb.
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The Venerable Athanasios the Athonite was a tall man, large bodied and brawny, so much that he was able to drag large logs tied with a rope, when he as Abbot was building the sacred and most-revered Monastery of Great Lavra, together with the other brothers. In the Dining Room of the Monastery, the Venerable one saw that one of the brothers observed him with reproach because, while the other Brothers ate a plate of food, he was eating two. One day the Venerable one invited this Monk to sit with him, and he asked the waiter to bring them one plate of the food of the day each. The he ordered a second plate, as well as a third and a fourth. And while the Venerable one consumed one dish after another, right down to the seventh, the Monk was not able to even finish the fourth. “You see, Brother,” said the Abbot then, “by eating two plates I abstain; for I could have eaten twelve and not just stopped at seven. Yet you were not even able to complete the fourth.”
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A Brother was dispatched by Saint Athanasios to perform a certain ministration. He became careless and negligent with regard to his Salvation and fell into fornication. Afterwards, he returned to the Great Lavra and Confessed it to the Holy man who, as an experienced physician, guided and counseled him not to despair, but to place his hopes in God. Now another Monk, named Paul, heard of the matter and, as one indiscreet, he was offended and scandalized; so he condemned both the fallen Monk and the Saint. He found fault with the Elder because he had not punished the fallen Monk who dared to commit such a shameful and unholy deed. The Saint, observing Paul with a severe look, said: “Paul, watch what you are doing.” From that moment, the demon of fornication shot with a bow his arrow at Paul, who then experienced carnal warfare for three days and nights. The worst part of it was that he was embarrassed to confess it to the Saint who, by means of the Holy Spirit, was made aware of it anyway. Nonetheless, the Saint, in a skillful manner gave him courage, enjoining him to Confess and seek help. Whereupon, the all-wise one, admonished him not to judge the fallen, but rather to suffer with and Pray for such. Afterwards, the Saint entreated God and the warfare ceased when Paul was humbled and wept.