Venerable Andronicus and His Wife Athanasia

Life

Citizens of Antioch from the time of Theodosius the Great. Andronicus was a goldsmith by trade. Both he and his wife were exceedingly pious, striving ceaselessly to walk in the way of the Lord. Of their earnings they gave one third to the poor, another to the Church, and by the third they sustained themselves. After two children were born to them, they agreed to live thenceforth as brother and sister. But by God's unfathomable Providence, both their children died on a single day. And they were in great sorrow, until the holy Martyr Julian appeared at the cemetery to Athanasia and comforted her with the tidings that their children were in the Kingdom of God, and that it was better for them than with their parents on earth. After this, both of them forsook everything, departed for Egypt and received the monastic tonsure: Saint Andronicus under the elder Daniel in the Scete, and Athanasia in a women's monastery in Tabennisi. Having pleased God through their long years of ascetic labors, they passed over into the eternal Kingdom of Christ — first Saint Athanasia, and eight days later Saint Andronicus.