Athanasia, the daughter of Nikita and Marina, was born into a noble, yet religious family in the 8th century on the Island of Aegina, Greece. She was drawn to religious life from a young age; tradition has it that when she was learning to weave, a star appeared and settled over her heart, enlightening her. However, at the insistence of her parents, she married an army officer at the age of 16. Her husband died in combat against invading Arabs, leaving her widowed after only 16 days of marriage. She gave religious life further thought, but an imperial decree forced all unmarried women of marriageable age to wed soldiers.

She married a profoundly pious man in her second marriage, and the two took in the sick and impoverished as well as led Bible studies in their houses. Her spouse felt called to become a monk, and Athanasia supported his decision. She lived a life of extreme austerity, became a nun, gave away the majority of her belongings, turned her house into a convent, gained Matthias as a spiritual director, had other sisters move in with her, and served as abbess. She constructed three churches.

The congregation then relocated to Timia, where Athanasia became well-known for miraculous healings. She escaped in secret to Constantinople with two sisters in order to escape the crowds of people attracted to her reputation for holiness and resume her solitary, contemplative life. There, she spent seven years living as an anchoress in a cell and serving as Empress Theodora's counsellor despite being walled in. She spent her final days in Timia after returning there quite late in life, giving in to the pleas of her sisters. She died on 14 August 860 at Timia of natural causes.

Many stories have been passed down to us about Athanasia, most of them describe her actions after death. During Mass at the convent forty days after Athanasia's death, two of her sisters saw Saint Athanasia at the gates of heaven. There, two shining men gave her a brilliant staff, put a crown with crosses on her head, and guided her past the gates to the altar.

Athanasia left instructions to feed the impoverished in her memory for forty days just before she passed away. Her sisters, on the other hand, merely set up a memorial trapeza or dining hall where religious and pilgrims may meet for food, for nine days. Athanasia appeared to a few of the sisters and stated, "It was wrong that you did not fulfill my testament, the forty-day commemoration in church of those who have fallen asleep and the feeding of the poor greatly helps sinful souls, while heavenly mercy is sent down from righteous souls to those who carry out the commemoration." After jabbing her staff into the ground, she vanished from sight. The next day, the staff had blossomed and turned into a living sapling.

A year after Athanasia died, a possessed woman was brought to her tomb. In an attempt to heave the woman, the folks accompanying her dug up the dirt over the grave. After removing Athanasia's coffin, they noticed a perfume emanating from the coffin. The possessed woman was healed when she touched it. When the casket was opened by the witnesses, they discovered Athanasia's body was uncorrupt and that fragrant myrrh was gushing out of it.

These witnesses moved the body to a different ark after discovering it in this condition. In an attempt to cover the body with silk, her sisters took off the hair shirt that Athanasia had worn throughout her life and even at death. But when they attempted to put on the silk garments, she experienced extreme rigor, her hands gripping her breast, making it impossible for them to dress her in the opulent gown. The sisters interpreted this as Athanasia's fondness for austere poverty. One of the nuns called out to the saint, "O our lady, as thou didst unquestioningly obey us while thou didst live with us, so even now be well pleased to obey us and be clothed in these garments, our humble gift offered unto thee." The body then sat up, extended her arms, and clothed in the silk attire.

Her relics have been preserved at Timia in a specially made reliquary, and are known for their healing powers. She is usually represented in liturgical art as a young girl weaving with a star over her or on her breast.

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