Our Venerable Father Joachim, Abbot of the Opochsky Monastery of the Prophet Elijah
Life
Joachim of Opochka was a sixteenth-century Russian monastic, remembered as the founder and abbot (igumen) of the Opochsky Monastery dedicated to the Prophet Elijah, in the Pskov region. He is counted among the disciples of Saint Euphrosynos of Pskov, the pioneer of eremitic monasticism in the region and founder of the Spaso-Eleazarovsky Monastery, whose followers established a network of monastic communities across the lands of Pskov.
Surviving notices of his life are brief. Manuscript saints' calendars record that he reposed around 1550 and place his commemoration on September 9. He is venerated as a Venerable (prepodobny) of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Timeline3 momentsReadHide
c. 1550ReposeJoachim, abbot of the Opochsky Monastery of the Prophet Elijah, reposed; manuscript calendars place the commemoration on September 9.
1621Uncovering of relics commemoratedA Korazhemsky calendar records a commemoration on April 19 of the finding of his relics at the monastery.
1688Monastery dissolvedThe Opochsky Monastery was abolished and its Church of the Prophet Elijah became a parish church.
Contributions & Legacy
2 contributionsReadHide
Monastic Foundation
Joachim founded the Opochsky Monastery of the Prophet Elijah, situated on the Shelon River near Porkhov, within the wider Pskov-Novgorod monastic country. He served as its abbot. The monastery was among the foundations attributed to the disciples of Euphrosynos of Pskov, part of the spread of organized monastic life through the region in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The monastery was dissolved in 1688, after which its Church of the Prophet Elijah continued as a parish church.
Relics & Shrines
His relics are recorded as resting beneath the Church of the Prophet Elijah at the monastery he founded. A Korazhemsky calendar of 1621 notes a commemoration of the uncovering of his relics on April 19, describing the finding of the relics of the venerable father Joachim at the Opochsky monastery of the Prophet Elijah on the Shelon River in the land of Great Novgorod.
Companions & Contemporaries1 figureShowHide
Pioneer of Pskov monasticism and founder of the Spaso-Eleazarovsky Monastery; Joachim is counted among his disciples.
Euphrosynos of Pskov
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