Saint Makarios Makris was an eminent figure of the later Byzantine years. An offspring of an important family of Thessaloniki, where he was born in about 1383, he received an outstanding education and, even from a young age, was distinguished by his learning, prudence and...
Constantine Harmenopoulos was born in Constantinople in 1320. He was professor of law and a scholar. He was born into a noble and important family, which was related to the Emperor John VI Cantacuzenus. By 1345 he was already “Nomophylax (Chief Magistrate) and a judge...
Saint Savvas was born in Thessaloniki around the year 1280. He became a monk at an early age as a disciple of a strict elder in a Vatopaidi cell at Karyes. He lived a severe ascetic life with extreme temperance in food and drink and...
Saint Philotheos Kokkinos was born in Thessaloniki in about the year 1300. He received an exceptional education and early on he embraced the monastic life. He visited Mount Sinai, and from there he went to Athos. Initially he settled at Vatopaidi Monastery; afterwards he stayed...
Saint Sava – called Rastko before becoming a monk – was born in 1169, the child of Stefan Nemanja, the Grand Prince of Serbia. At the age of sixteen he ran away from the palace and went to Mount Athos where he was tonsured a...
The Emperor of Byzantium John VI Cantacuzenus had direct ties with the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi and is commemorated among its founders and chief patrons. As it appears in the Life of Saint Savvas, the fool-for-Christ of Vatopaidi, Cantacuzenus had Savvas as his spiritual father....