Joachim

Joachim, Bishop of Chersonisos in Crete, was killed at Heraklion in June 1821, in the church of St Menas, together with the Metropolitan of Crete and other bishops. He was numbered among the saints by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the year 2000 as a hieromartyr, and is commemorated on 23 June in the synaxis of the martyrs of Crete of 1821.

The sources preserve nothing about his childhood, formation or pastoral work. The tradition of the Metropolis of Petra and Chersonisos gives 23 June 1821 as the day of his death. When the Turks burst into the church of St Menas and killed the metropolitan first, the bishops of Knossos, Sitia and Diopolis fell after him, and Joachim with them.

His memory is kept in the Church of Crete through the common service of the martyrs of 1821, sung especially in the church of St Menas at Heraklion.