Joakim Krčovski

Saint Joakim Krčovski was a monk, priest, teacher and enlightener of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, linked to the Osogovo Monastery near Kriva Palanka. He reposed around 1820.

He was born about 1750, perhaps in the Kičevo region, and studied at Constantinople. From 1787 he was a priest and taught in several towns, among them Kratovo, Kriva Palanka, Štip, Samokov, Melnik and Kyustendil. He had two sons, Georgi and David. About 1807, after his wife's death, he became a monk, and in 1819 he was ordained hieromonk. He wrote books for the faithful in a language the people could understand, printed at Buda, among them "A Word Spoken on Account of Dying" (1814), "A Tale of the Second Coming of Christ" (1814), "The Toll-⁠Houses" (1817) and "The Wonders of the Most Holy Mother of God" (1817). He is the author of the first book printed in the vernacular Macedonian language, in 1814.

The Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church canonized him on 10 May 2022, and the liturgical glorification took place on 22 May 2022 at the Monastery of Saint Joachim of Osogovo, where his relics are kept. His commemoration is on 23 May.