Joachim of Shartom

Holy Venerable Joachim of Shartom is one of the most honoured saints of the Shuya land. The years of his life are not known exactly, but it may be reckoned that he lived in the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the first third of the seventeenth and that he fell asleep after 1634. He was a strict ascetic monk and an outstanding icon painter, who painted several icons that became wonderworking. The page says that his commemoration is kept on 22 September, and that he is also honoured on 20 June, in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Ivanovo metropolis, and on 6 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir.

His monastic path began, it seems, in the Rostov lands, then he struggled at the Saint Nicholas monastery at Shartom, and the last part of his life, apart from a few years of forced exile on Solovki, he spent in Suzdal, where he died and was buried. He continued the ascetic tradition of Venerable Irenarchus of Rostov, who for forty years wore chains and lived in strict enclosure, burdened with more than a hundred and fifty kilograms of iron. A Russian menology of the seventeenth century, compiled by the spiritual writer Simon Azaryin, says of the seven disciples of Irenarchus, among whom Joachim of Shartom is named, that they wore heavy irons, chained themselves to the wall and ate only dry food, and that many came to them, praised their life and received great spiritual benefit.

In his free time, so as not to be idle, the monk Joachim painted icons. Around 1619 he painted for the Saviour church in Shuya the Cyprus icon of the Mother of God, soon glorified by many healings. In 1622 he painted the Kazan icon of the Mother of God, commissioned by Princess Irina Miloslavskaya for the cathedral church in Vyazniki. So many healings came from this icon that a church commission was gathered, which examined all the miracles (two hundred and sixty-⁠three were recorded) and recognized the icon as wonderworking. It is kept today in the church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Vyazniki. A second Kazan icon is also known, made by the ascetic for his own monastery, with which the monks of Shartom went round with the alms box in Ivanovo-⁠Voznesensk at the end of the nineteenth century. The third Kazan icon was painted in a quite special way: according to the life, the Mother of God appeared to him in the monastery and commanded him to paint it and then carry it to Suzdal, for the comfort and protection from misfortunes of the people of the ancient town. The Suzdal icon too was glorified by many healings. The saint remained to live in Suzdal, in a hut beside the church built for the new wonderworking icon, and after his death was buried there. All his icons known today were painted while he lived at the Shartom monastery.

The life of the venerable one is not rich in detail. The hardest for scholars is the beginning of his life: neither his birthplace nor his origin is known. Some historians even doubt his discipleship to Irenarchus and his living in a monastery in the Rostov lands. A trace of a link with that land has been found in the synodikon of the Boris and Gleb monastery on the Ustye, where, among the people of Vyazniki, a schemamonk Joachim appears from the family of one Ivan Lisin of Shuya, but there are not enough grounds to identify him with the saint. His "Grecophile" style departs from local traditions, which shows that he painted as a master and not as a town craftsman. It has been suggested that he learned from monks, at a dependency of the Trinity Lavra, or even from Greek masters who came to the region. In support of this it is pointed out that he was in close relations with Archbishop Arsenius of Elassona of Suzdal (until 1625), a "learned Greek" and himself a skilled icon painter, who headed two commissions for the examination of two of Joachim's icons and by all signs persuaded him to stay in Suzdal. The Cyprus icon, his first known one, was little known in Russia then, but much venerated in Greece.

The wonderworking icon of Suzdal was stolen from the church of the Emperor Constantine in Suzdal around the year 2002. Interest in Venerable Joachim and in his icons does not fade even today. There was no official act of glorification, and he is still regarded as a locally venerated saint.