Joachim of Iviron

Joachim of Iviron, with the secular name Angelos Papadimitriou, was born in 1868 at Chortiatis near Thessaloniki, the son of the priest Demetrius, father of seven children. He came to Iviron in 1885 and in 1887 was tonsured a monk; his elder was Cyril of Kefalonia (d. 1908). He studied at the Theological School of Halki and, back at the monastery, was librarian. In 1898 he was appointed chief secretary of the Holy Community of the Mountain for four years. From 1902 he was his monastery's secretary until 1914, then steward of the metochion of Saint John at Sparta. In 1907 he was elected superior of his great and ancient monastery, and in 1918 he was among the members of the committee that drafted the Charter of the Holy Mountain.

Under Patriarch Meletios IV (1921-1923) he was appointed abbot of Vlatadon Monastery in Thessaloniki, which he served with zeal and devotion from 1923 to 1940. In 1931-1932 he was head of the Athoniada Academy. He reposed in the Lord after a short illness on 24 January 1941. The marble slab of his grave, behind the church of Vlatadon, reads: "Joachim of Iviron, abbot of Vlatadon Monastery, 1868-1941, 24 January. I await the resurrection of the dead."

He was a learned, diligent, sincere, active and kind monk, a friend of Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III and of the Metropolitans Sophronios of Leontopolis, Cyril of Rhodopolis and Joachim of Kozani. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.