Gerontios of Vouleftiria

Gerontios of Vouleftiria was the last abbot of Vouleftiria Monastery on Mount Athos and is regarded as the founder of the Skete of St Anne, the oldest skete of the Holy Mountain. He is venerated locally in St Anne Skete; his feast is kept on 26 July, in the church calendar (old style).

Vouleftiria (Vouleutirion) was a place of assembly and decision for the Athonite monks, on the southwest slope of the mountain, and around 960 it was placed under the care of St Athanasios and the Great Lavra. In 1302 the Catalans plundered the monastery by the sea. Gerontios, its last abbot, went up with his disciple to the cliffs above, to the place where the chapel of St Panteleimon now stands, and which he built. They lived there in great hardship, since there was no water. At his prayer the Mother of God brought water out of the rock. The disciple, however, began to cultivate a garden against her command, and the spring dried up. When Gerontios prayed again, the Mother of God appeared and told him that she had given water to drink, not for a garden, which distracts the mind of a monk seeking stillness. With her blessing the water flowed again, farther down; the spring is preserved to this day and is considered holy water.

Gerontios lived in stillness and prayer to the end and reposed in peace at an advanced age. His life records a spiritual bond with his contemporary St Maximos of Kavsokalyvia. Many hermits later lived around the chapel, and in 1686 the settlement became the Skete of St Anne, when monks brought there the relic of the left foot of St Anne. A service in his honour was composed by the monk Gerasimos Mikragiannanites.