The monks Athanasios 21 and Theophylaktos 120 were joint addressees of a letter from Ignatius the Deacon (Ignatios 9); Ignatios 9 addresses the recipient as ὦ σκεῦος θείας ἐκλογῆς καὶ τῆς ἀθανασίας ἐπώνυμε (line 2) and so it was clearly to Athanasios 21 that the letter was sent; before Athanasios 21 became a monk he is said to have traded (ἐνεπορεύσατο) in nothing unproductive or destructive or harmful (lines 2-3) and is then said, by becoming a monk, to have reached harbour safely with all his goods intact (τῶν ἀγωγίμων τὰ κάλλιστα περιέσωσας) (lines 10-15) (the language of the metaphors implies that he had been involved in trade, transporting his goods by sea; the allusions in lines 30-32 to spices and fragrance perhaps suggest the nature of his business); following the advice of an unnamed holy father (τῷ πηδαλίῳ τῆς σωστικῆς τοῦ θείου πατρὸς ἐπιπνοίας: lines 11-12) he abandoned the world and became a monk; he was now an old man (line 21); he is asked to pray for Ignatios 9 to the Theotokos; he had sent Ignatios 9 certain instructiuons which Ignatios 9 had already carried out and which seem to have related to the death and burial of Athanasios 21; he is addressed as πατέρων ἄριστε, παναοίδιμε δέσποτα and θεραπευτὰ καὶ λὰτρι τῆς παναμώμου καὶ ἁγνῆς Θεομήτορος (he may therefore have been a monk in a monastery of the Theotokos) and styled ἡ ὑμέτερα παναγία πατρότης: Ignatius Diac., Ep. 31 (addressed Θεοφυλάκτῳ καὶ Ἀθανασίῳ μοναχοῖς).

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