Ananias of Vatopaidi, Archimandrite (1806-1876)
Annanias was born in Ioannina in 1806. Prior to joining the Vatopaidi brotherhood in 1833, he had studied at Zosimaia School and had been ordained a deacon. As an archimandrite he served from the end of the 1840s to 1872 as Abbot of Golia Monastery, as commissioner of Vatopaidi Monastery’s metochia in Moldavia (and later in Bessarabia), and as agent for the Holy Mountain regarding the matter of the Athonite properties in Romania. He died at Vatopaidi Monastery in 1876. Ananias assisted with the education of the Nation with his great donation (12,000 florins) to the University of Athens in 1859, which declared him a Great Benefactor. He contributed to the revival of the Great School of the Nation in 1859, offering 6000 pounds. The collection of his books, his archive, and his personal items are preserved in the Monastery of Vatopaidi.