5th July - Saint Athanasius - Independent Catholic News

5th July - Saint Athanasius - Independent Catholic News: Abbot and founder. St Athanasius was born in Trebizond, Turkey, around 920 and studied at Constantinople. He became a monk, at St Michael's Monastery in Kymina in the Bithynian Olympus and then migrated to Mount Athos in Greece, where he founded the 'great laura' or monastery there in 961, with the help of his friend Nicephoras Phocas who later became emperor.