Saint Athanasia of Egina

Athanasia of Aegina (c.790 in Aegina – 15 August 860 in Timia, Greece) was a Byzantine saint and abbess. Athanasia's hagiographer called her "this praiseworthy woman, who bears the name of immortality, who lived her life admirably". She is known by one hagiography, written by an anonymous writer shortly after her death and published in 916. She was born of noble parents and received a standard education for girls at the time. When she was seven years old, she experienced a vision that inspired her to enter a convent. Her parents forced her to marry not once but twice, the first time at the age of 16, to a soldier who was killed in battle a little over two weeks after they were married, and the second time to a man who also chose to enter the religious life. Athanasia became an ascetic, gave away all her possessions, built churches, and started a convent with other women in Aegina. She became abbess of the convent and moved it to Timia, Greece. She left Aegina to live sequestered in Constantinople for seven years and returned to Aegina shortly before she died on 15 April 860. Most of the miracles attributed to her occurred after her death. Athanasia of Aegina was born on the Greek island of Aegina in 790, the daughter of Niketas and Irene, who were Christian nobles. She resided in the Byzantine Empire and was an advisor to Theodora II. She is known from one hagiography, which is preserved in one manuscript, written shortly after her death and published in 916, but the anonymous male author is unknown. According to the Bibliotheca Sanctorum, Athanasia's hagiography, entitled "The Life and Conduct of our Blessed Mother, Athanasia, and a Partial Narration of Her Miracles," is told in two identical vitae, one in Greek and the other in Latin. The exact dates of her life are uncertain, but based on internal evidence of her hagiography, she probably lived during the first half of the ninth century, at the time of the early Arab raids on the Aegean islands.