Joachim I of Bulgaria

Saint Joachim I was the first Bulgarian patriarch of Tarnovo, from 1235 to 1246, in the time of Tsar Ivan Asen II. A former Athonite monk, a hermit in the Rusenski Lom region and founder of the rock monastery at Ivanovo, he became archbishop in 1234 and was installed as patriarch in 1235, when the Bulgarian Church regained its patriarchate. He fell asleep in peace on 18 January 1246 and was soon numbered among the saints. Honoured as a pious and holy man, of chosen life, with care for orphans and the poor, he is remembered as the first patriarch of the God-⁠protected imperial city of Tarnovo.

Youth and life on Athos

From his youth he gave himself to God, "when he came to hate the deceit of this world". He settled in one of the many monasteries of the Holy Mountain, where he spent his days in unceasing prayer, fasting and vigil. As a strict ascetic who ceaselessly wearied his body, he became known among the monks for his diligence and good conduct.

Hermit by the Danube

After many years he returned to the Bulgarian lands and settled with three disciples near the Danube, close to the village of Krasen (now in Ivanovo municipality, Ruse region). They carved a small church in the rock, in the gorge of the river Rusenski Lom. News of his labours reached Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218 to 1241), who came to bow before him. A close spiritual bond grew between the two. A chronicle says that Joachim was a very humble and venerable spiritual father, in methodical teaching, to the tsar. On leaving, the emperor, with his usual generosity, gave the old man much gold. With it he paid workmen to cut into the rock a great church dedicated to the Archangel Michael, now called the Buried Church, near the village of Ivanovo. Soon a great rock monastery arose there, which sheltered many monks, whom Joachim tirelessly guided in divine teaching and in vigil. The complex is known today as the Rock-⁠Hewn Churches of Ivanovo and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

Patriarch of Tarnovo

In 1234 Archbishop Basil I of Tarnovo gave up his see and retired to a monastery, and at the urging of Tsar Ivan Asen II the monk Joachim was elected archbishop. At that time the tsar ended the formal union of the Bulgarian Church with Rome, made in 1205 by his uncle Kaloyan with Pope Innocent III. In 1235 the Bulgarian emperor met the emperor of Nicaea, John Doukas Vatatzes, to conclude an alliance and obtain the restoration of the Bulgarian patriarchate, first recognized in 927. At a council held at Lampsacus in Asia Minor, the Ecumenical Patriarch Germanus II, in exile at Nicaea, confirmed Joachim as patriarch of Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian sources say the Eastern patriarchs took part. Patriarch Germanus handed him in person a document, confirmed with the signatures of the other patriarchs and a golden seal, which the Church of Tarnovo kept with great care.

Joachim shepherded the Church in a time of cultural and economic flowering of the Bulgarian state and "enlightened the whole Bulgarian land". He showed himself not only a churchman and scholar but also a statesman. He gave much of his time to his pastoral duties: he prayed for the country and people, cared for orphans, helped the poor and "saved many from the emperor's wrath", obtaining the pardon of some condemned, among them some under sentence of death. After the death of Ivan Asen II in 1241 he was, it seems, regent and guardian of the child tsar Kaliman I Asen (1241 to 1246).

Repose and veneration

Joachim held the patriarchal throne for nineteen years and fell asleep in peace on 18 January 1246. Soon after his death he was proclaimed a saint and a special life was written in his honour. He was remembered as a pious and holy man, whose deeds bring praise, and as the first patriarch of Tarnovo.