He was born Simeon Ivanovich Antonov, of Russian Orthodox parents who came from the village of Shovskoye in Imperial Russia's Tambov Governorate.

According to the biography compiled by Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), St. Silouan of Athos worked in his youth as a carpenter in his brother's trade.

[2] The heart of St. Silouan of Athos “ignited with love for God” after witnessing the miracles performed at the tomb of St. John of Sezenovski [ru][3] At the age of twenty-seven, after a period of military service in the Imperial Russian Army, he left his native Russia and came to the monastic state of Mount Athos (an autonomous peninsula in Greece) where he became a monk at the Monastery of St Panteleimon, known as "Rossikon", an Orthodox monastery that houses Russian monks yet is, as all the Athonite monasteries, under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

[4] According to residents, archeologists and pilgrims of Mount Athos, St. Silouan liked to pray on an oblong roadside stone, which has since been nicknamed “St.

[5][6] The first “obedience” of St. Silouan of Athos was to work at the mill[7] An ardent ascetic, he received the grace of unceasing prayer and saw Christ in a vision.