Joachim the New

Venerable Joachim the New lived as a monk and hermit in Achaea in the Peloponnese, and the synaxarion calls him God-⁠bearing. He was born in the middle of the seventeenth century (other sources say the end of the sixteenth) in the village of Skiadas, on the south-⁠western slopes of Mount Erymanthos, in the region of Old Patras.

While still young he was betrothed, against his will, to a pious girl of the same village. Burning with longing for the monastic life, he left his parents and his betrothed and entered the Chrysopigi Monastery above the village of Divri in Elis. There he rose so high in virtue that the abbot judged him worthy of the priesthood, and after the abbot's repose he was himself chosen as abbot.

Later he moved to the Notena Monastery, dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God and not far from his birthplace, and became its abbot as well. After some years, longing for stillness, he resigned the office and withdrew to a cave near the monastery. There he lived a severe ascetic life of constant prayer, fasting and vigil, eating porridge of flour boiled with honey or boiled wild greens. He hid his struggles, fearing that, as he put it, virtue shown openly is lost like a treasure seen by all. At night he slept standing, hung by ropes under the arms, with a Gospel book open before him.

Though he could not read, he understood Holy Scripture and the writings of the Fathers so well that the Metropolitan of Patras of the time, Parthenios V (1750 to 1770), a very learned man, came to him for counsel. Around the middle of the eighteenth century, sensing the hour of his departure, he called the fathers of the monastery, urged them to live in peace according to the monastic rule, made the sign of the Cross, said "Into Your hands, Christ, I commit my spirit", and fell asleep in the Lord. He was buried in the narthex of the monastery church.

Three years after his repose (ten, according to other sources) Metropolitan Parthenios wished to raise his relics. While the grave was being dug, one of the workers pulled carelessly and brought up the saint's right arm, detached at the shoulder, with its flesh and skin. Those present then cleared the earth with care, and the whole body came out, fragrant, and standing upright in a way, like that of Saint Spyridon. The news spread, and many came to venerate and to be healed, not only Christians but also Turks.

A few years later, in the great raid of the Turco-⁠Albanians on the Morea after the failed uprising of 1770, the holy relics were scattered and the saint's head was stolen along with other treasures of the monastery. Today a few relics from his body are kept at the Notena Monastery, where they are said to give off fragrance and to grant healings, and a church bearing his name stands in front of the cave where he struggled. Parts of the relics are also at Chrysopigi. He is commemorated on 3 July, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style).