Joachim of Xenophontos

Joachim of Xenophontos was born in 1868, with the secular name John Boyatzoglou, the son of Panagiotis and Aikaterini, at Ofrynion near the Dardanelles. From 1891 he lived in the hut of the Entrance of the Theotokos in the skete of Xenophontos with his brother in the flesh, the monk Anthimos. He was tonsured a monk in 1893. His elders were the monk Anthimos of Volos and the monk Ioannikios of Canakkale; Anthimos began at the monastery of Saint Panteleimon, then at Konstamonitou and in the skete of Xenophontos, and he tonsured Ioannikios.

The other Anthimos, Joachim's brother, was hardworking, simple and virtuous. He reposed ill with myocarditis, with a holy end: reciting the Akathist to the Mother of God and crying out "The Holy Spirit... the Holy Spirit...," he gave up his soul on 26 April 1946. Joachim's end was holy too. Returning from the Divine Liturgy at the kyriakon, the monk Euthymios found him speaking with the Mother of God and saying before her icon: "Lady Theotokos, take me, I am tired, I thank you." He asked for Holy Unction, communed and asked forgiveness of all. At the end he told his disciples, the hieromonk Basil, the hieromonk Ioannikios and the monk Euthymios: "I ask one last favour: do not let the lamp of the Entrance of the Theotokos go out." He reposed in the Lord in 1962. Father Euthymios keeps the Mother of God's lamp burning to this day. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.