Venerable Dionysius of Athos

St. Dionysius of Athos was born in 1316 in the village of Korisos near Kastoria. In 1335, at age nineteen, he entered the Athonite Monastery of Philotheou, where his elder brother — later St. Theodosius, Metropolitan of Trebizond — served as abbot. After ordination, Dionysius withdrew around 1347 to a cave on Mount Athos's "Little Athos" peak to pursue hesychastic silence. A brotherhood of ascetics gradually gathered around him, and between 1350 and 1355 they built a church dedicated to the Nativity of John the Baptist. With the support of Emperor Alexios III Komnenos of Trebizond, whom Dionysius had helped heal of an eye ailment, he founded a cenobitic monastery around 1375 that came to bear his name — Dionysiou, becoming one of the notable monasteries of Mount Athos. St. Dionysius reposed in Trebizond.