The only favour which Mouktar Pacha could obtain for him was a sentence of exile allowing him to retreat to Macedonia.
Athanasius departed from Janina with all the demonstrations of utter despair, and continued his route with the haste of one who fears pursuit.

Arrived in Macedonia, he assumed the habit of a monk, and undertook a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, saying that both the disguise and the journey were necessary to his safety.

On the way he encountered one of the itinerant friars of the great Servian convent, to whom he described his disgrace in energetic terms, begging him to obtain his admission among the lay brethren of his monastery.
Delighted at the prospect of bringing back to the fold of the Church a man so notorious for his crimes, the friar hastened to inform his superior, who in his turn lost no time in announcing to Pacho Bey that his compatriot and companion in misfortune was to be received among the lay brethren, and in relating the history of Athanasius as he himself had heard it.

Pacho Bey, however, was not easily deceived, and at once guessing that Vaya's real object was his own assassination, told his doubts to the superior, who had already received him as a friend.

The latter retarded the reception of Vaya so as to give Pacho time to escape and take the road to Constantinople.