Athanasios of Grigoriou

Saint Athanasios of Grigoriou, a venerable monk, was born in 1873 at Pyrgos in Elis, into a pious family with many children, with the name Andreas Protogeropoulos. The reading of the lives of the saints turned him to monasticism. On 15 August 1891, the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, the eighteen-⁠year-⁠old arrived at the arsanas of the Grigoriou Monastery and reverently kissed the soil of the Garden of the Mother of God. The abbot Symeon (died 1905) became his spiritual father. He was an obedient, silent and hardworking servant. After his tonsure in 1893 he was for a decade konaktzis (keeper of the residence) at Karyes. In 1904 he was ordained deacon, without asking, and was guestmaster; four years later he was ordained priest. He was dependency-⁠keeper, librarian and prosphora-⁠baker. He was elected abbot in 1924, as archimandrite and confessor. As abbot he encouraged the monks more by example than by word, with love and prudence. After thirteen years he easily resigned the abbacy in order to find quiet.

His successor, the abbot Bessarion, said that his soul was "a harbour without storm". He was gentle, free from anger, a lover of quiet, a servant full of humility. On the icon of the Mother of God in his cell, the hand and the foot of Christ were "worn" by his many kisses. His last words, on 28 December 1953, were: "Why do you weep, my children?" He is honoured by the faithful, without synodal canonization.