88 ST. ATHAXASIA to come and pay the last duties to his dear brother who was about to depart. The dying Athanasia told her story to the abbot, but not to her husband. A few days after her death, Andronicus was seized with the same fever. The abbot, seeing him near death, told him who it was that had shared his cell for 30 many year& Daniel's monks, having heard much of the sanctity of their former companion, wished to take his body and bury him near their own abode, but the brethren near whom he had spent his later years claimed him as their own. It was finally settled that the pair should be buried side by side, near the spot where they had led their silent ascetic Hfe. AA.SS. St. Athanasia (3 Aug. 4, 14, April 18, called in some calendars An astasia. Jc. 860. Abbess of Timia, in Egypt, epresented (1) weaving at a loom, a star over her; (2) with a star on her breast. Bom in the island of Egina. Her parents, Nicetas and Irene, instructed her in the Holy Scriptures from her earliest childhood, and married her young, about 822, to an officer in the imperial army. He was obliged to leave her sixteen days after their marriage, to oppose the Saracens, who had come from Africa, and were threatening the shores of Greece. He was killed, and she be- took herself to a religious life, but before she had made any yows, an edict was pro- mulgated by the Emperor Michael the Stammerer, to oblige all marriageable girls and young widows to marry, on the ground that war and other scourges had depopulated the greater part of the Greek empire. Athanasia's parents found her a good religious husband, who joined in all her pious and charitable works. On Sundays and other holy days she used to assemble all the women of her neigh- bourhood, and read and explain the Bible to them. Her husband became a monk, and Athanasia, having no children to take care of, converted her llouso into a convent, of which she was too humble to assume the direction, until it was forced upon her by the community. Austerities, which usually tend to make the temper sour and discontentedi never diminished her sweetness and patience. After four years, she decided that her house was too near the stir of the world. With the assistance of a holy priest named Matthias, she found a more suitable place, where she built three churches, as well as a convenient house for her increasing community. Her convent was called Timia, which means a place ho- noured or respected. In superintending the removal of her nuns to their new residence, Matthias observed that they wore all extremely thin, and looked very ill. He advised St. Athanasia to moderate the severity of her rule, and she thenceforth took more care of the health and comfort of her spiritual daughters. She went to Constantinoplo to get funds for her three churches, and to visit the Empress Theodoba, mother and guardian of the Emperor Michael III., who was fond of receiving persons illustrious for sanctity. She remained there against her will for seyen years, and died soon after her return to Timia. After her death she appeared in a vision to her successor, the new abbess, and reproached her for not making the prayers and alms for her soul that she ought to have done for forty days, bidding her do her duty in this respect, and assuring her that at the end of that time she would enter into Paradise. At the end of forty days, two of the nuns saw Athanasia crowned above the altar, and, many miracles being performed at her tomb, her sanctity was universally acknowledged. Long after- wards her body was found fresh and entire, and was dressed in goodly robes and removed into the church. The Muscovites, who follow the Greek rite, place her fete on April 18. B.M., Aug. 14. AA,SS., Aug. 4. Baillet says that her Life is contemporary, but has passed through the hands of Metaphrastes. In the Martyrology of the Order of St, Basil the Great, A.B.M,, Aug. 21, she is said to belong to that order. Gallot, Images. Husenbeth, Emblems of Saints. Gahier, Caractiristiques, Die Heiligen Bilder, The legend that explains the loom and star in her pictures is that one day, while she was still a young girl, sitting at her loom, she fell into an ecstasy ; a
