Athanasios of Pantokratoros

Athanasios of Pantokratoros, a hieromonk, with the secular name Basil Katmadas, was born in 1887 at Madytos in Eastern Thrace to very pious parents. He desired the monastic life from childhood, and in 1901 he came to Pantokratoros Monastery under the obedience of his compatriot the hieromonk Stephen. After two years of trial he was tonsured a monk and in the same year entered the Athoniada School as a pupil; after three years he studied at the Great School of the Nation in Constantinople. In 1910 he was ordained deacon, and in 1912 appointed teacher at the Athoniada. Bishop Chrysostom of Rodostolon, later head of the Athoniada, called him "a renowned Athonite and a powerful teacher."

He then studied at the Theological School of Athens, where he excelled. In 1918 he was ordained priest and was noted as a preacher and writer. In 1920 he was elected superior of his monastery and chief secretary of the Holy Community for three years; afterwards he was the monastery's representative in the Holy Community. He was always diligent, honourable, truth-⁠loving, fond of the brothers, studious and active. In 1930-1941 he was head of the Athoniada, and in 1945-1954 a teacher at the Ecclesiastical School of Xanthi. He left a good memory and all praised him, for his genuinely churchly ethos and mind.

He reposed in the Lord on 4 February 1959 in Thessaloniki, in poverty, and was buried in the Evangelistria cemetery. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.