Today the Russian Church commemorates St. Athanasios III (Patellarios) Archbishop of Constantinople. The future patriarch came from a noble family associated with the Palaiologan dynasty. Born Alexios, his father Gregory was a scientist, philosopher and publicist, and his elder brother Eustathios a doctor. Until the age of 26, Alexios lived in Crete, under the Venetian rule. There he was educated at Arkadi Monastery. St. Athanasios was well versed in philosophy. He knew ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and Italian. Athanasios became a monk at the Cretean metochian of Sinai Monastery. His fame as a preacher reached Wallachia were St. Athanasios arrived in 1625 as a representative of Archbishop of Constaninople Cyrill (Lucaris). He accepted monasticism in the Cretan courtyard of the Sinai Monastery and soon became famous in Cania (modern Chania), one of the cities of the island, as an outstanding preacher and interpreter of the Holy Scriptures. In 1631 Athanasios became Metropolitan of Thessaloniki. In two year’s time Patriarch Cyrill was deposed (he was a friend of Protestants and therefore the French and Austrian diplomats in Constaninople did not support him). In February 1634 Athanasios was elected Patriarch of Constanople; His enthronement took place on March 25, but only a few days later he gave up the throne to Cyril Lukaris, who had returned from exile, and retired to Athos. After the second deposition of Cyril I (1635), Athanasios went to Italy, where he lived in Ancona and Venice and received from the pope an offer to become a cardinal if he signed the Roman-Catholic confession of the faith. On June 26, 1638, Cyrill Lukaris, under the order of Sultan Murad IV, was strangled by Janissary on a ship in Bosporus. In August of 1639, the new Patriarch Parthenios I (1639-1644) demanded that he renounce the Patriarchal title and return to the Thessalonian See. For the debts of the metropolis, Athanasios had to endure imprisonment; at this time he twice turned to the Russians for alms. In 1643, St. Athanasios went to Russia, but on the way he fell ill and stayed in Moldova with Vasile Lupu, Voivode of Moldova and Greek origin (then in vassalage of the Sublime Porta). In Galata (the Christian district of Constaninople) Athanasios built a monastery of St. Nicholas as a courtyard of the Sinai Monastery. In 1652 Athanasios returned to Constaniople and occupied the Patriarchal throne for the second time. Having stayed in the office for only a few days. In July of 1652 he voluntarily abdicated the throne ad infinitum. On October 8, 1652, Athanasios left Constantinople forever. On April 6, 1653, he arrived in Moscow and on April 22 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich received him. The Russian Patriarch Nikon was in a great need of educated people. At the request of the Patriarch, Athansios wrote with his own hand “The Order of the Bishop’s Celebration of the Liturgy in the East.” This manual became the basis of Russian of the newly revised printed Arkhieratikon (chinovnik). Several times St. Athanasios turned to the Tsar with petitions for alms, and the Tsar generously gave gifts to the saint. Athansios encouraged the Tsar to foster the union with Zaporozh’e Cossack and Moldova and attack the Ottomans to liberate the Orthodox population. In the case of success, the Russian Tsar should become a Byzantine Emperor.(A few decades later Tsar Peter suffered a defeat from the Ottomans when he tried to implement these ill advised fantasies.) At the end of Decemver 1653 Athanasios left Moscow back to Moldova to settle in the St. Nicholas Monastery in Galati. On the way, he visited Bogdan Khmelnitsky in Chigirin. In February of 1654, he stopped at the Mgarsky Preobrazhenskii Monastery near the city of Lubna (modern Poltava region), where he reposed on Wednesday of St. Thomas Week. He was buried by the abbot of the monastery under the pulpit of the Transfiguration Church on the east according to the custom of sitting on the throne. On February 1, 1662 in the presence of the Metropolitan of Gaza, Paisius Ligarid visited the Lubenskii monastery, and Athanasios appeared to him in a dream, by which the discovery of the incorruptible relics of the saint took place. The holy relics were dressed in new vestments and placed in a specially constructed shrine. After this event, Athanasios began to appear to many in dreams, blessing, instructing and healing the sick. Numerous healings also occurred from the tomb of the saint. The veneration of St. Athanasios was finally adopted by the Russian Orthodox Church at the end of the 19th century due to the input of the historian Evgenii E. Golubinsky. In the 20th century, after the abolition of the Mgarsky Transfiguration Monastery, the relics of Athanasios were transported to Kharkov and have since rested in the Kharkov Annunciation Cathedral in a sitting position. Source: V, Shapran, Afanasii III Patelarii, Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopedia. | 
