ATHANASIUS OF PAROS. - Greek theologian and dissident polemicist, b. on the island of Paros around 1725, d. on the island of Chios on 24 June 1813. Having chosen the monastic life, he studied theology at the Academy of Athos under the famous Eugenios Boulgaris, whom he succeeded as director of the school; but he soon had to abandon it for having taken part in the so-called controversy of the Kollyvades which, toward the end of the 18th century, divided the Athonite monks into two opposing camps (v. L. Petit, La grande controverse des colybes, in Echos d'Orient, 2 [1899], pp. 321-31). Excommunicated in 1776 by the patriarch Sophronios II (1774-80), he was absolved, after having made a public recantation, in 1781, and was able to continue until his death his life as a professor and preacher. From 1792 onward he directed a large school at Chios.
His writings, several of which are unpublished, concern theology, hagiography, preaching, and grammar. Among those published, the following are noteworthy: 1) Χριστιανική ἀπολογία (Christian Apology; Constantinople 1768), published without the author's name, in which A. refutes the revolutionary ideas of liberty and equality; 2) a manual of theology, entitled: Ἐπιτομή εἶπε συλλογὴ τῶν θείων τῆς πίστεως δυγμάτων (Leipzig 1806), a rather summary and incomplete compendium in which the Latins are often attacked; 3) Διδασκαλία πατρική (Constantinople 1798), a diatribe against the followers of modern progress, that is, against Catholics and the philosophers of the 18th century; 4) a pamphlet against the Latin religious: Réfutation dirigée contre le zèle déplacé des philosophes d'Europe, montrant combien veine et déraisonnable est leur compassion pour notre ruce (Trieste 1802), published under the pseudonym of Nathanaël de Néocésarée.
Bibliography6 works
Martino Jugie