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Popular with the people of Chios, they wanted him to be [[ordination|ordained]] to the [[priest]]hood. However, his [[bishop]] refused to ordain him because Anthimus lacked the necessary education. However, at the insistence of Anthimus' godfather, the Bishop of Smyrna did ordain him. Following a [[pilgrimage]] to [[Mount Athos]], Father Anthimus returned to Chios where he was appointed the [[chaplain]] at a leper hospital that had fallen into disarray. Under his guidance the hospital soon became a spiritual center, as much like a monastery as a hospital. Fr. Anthimus tended many of the sickest with his own hands and worked many miracles of healing. Some of his recovered patients became monks or [[nun]]s.
Following the [[w:Treaty_of_Lausanne|Treaty of Lausanne]] of [[January 30]], 1923 that resulted in the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations in Asia Minor and Greece, refugees poured into Chios, many of them destitute nuns and girls. During the turmoil, Fr. Anthimus had a vision of the Mother of God to build a monastery to receive the refugee nuns. Fr. Anthimus established a monastery on Chios that became, in 1930, the Monastery of Panaghia Voethia (The Virgin of Assistance), having deflected the opposition of many who said that setting up such a community was out of date. The monastery soon grew to eighty nuns and was known throughout Greece as a model of monastic life. Fr. Anthimos served as priest to the nuns. He also received many visiting faithful, as many as sixty or seventy persons each day, who came to him for [[prayer]] or counsel. Fr. Anthimus carried on this ministry for more than thirty years, working many miracles of healing. When he was too old to work with his hands, he retired to his [[cell]] and prayed that he be enabled to serve his neighbor until his last breath.
Fr. Anthimus celebrated his final [[Divine Liturgy]] on [[January 27]], 1960. He reposed in peace at the age of ninety-one on [[February 15]], 1960 and was buried inside the [[church]] of the monastery he founded where his presence still works miracles along with the holy icon Panagia Voithia. He was [[glorification|glorified]] by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on [[August 13]], 1992.