Joanicius of Rakotinci

Joanicius of Rakotinci (1847 to 1940) was a hieromonk and archimandrite, the founder or renewer of the monastery of Saint Elijah at Rakotinci near Skopje, venerated by the people as a physician and wonderworker. His veneration comes with a dispute over canonicity: he was proclaimed a saint in 2017 by the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which the other local Orthodox Churches do not recognise, and the sources do not mention a canonization by any canonical Church.

Life

According to his autobiography of 19 March 1930, he was born on 7 (20) January 1847 at Ohrid, to Georgi and Sofia Cheshmedzhiev, under Ottoman rule; the Serbian source gives the date as 20 January. He attended the Greek school of his native town and became a clergyman within the Bulgarian Exarchate. One source says that he was tonsured at Marko's Monastery, the foundation of the Mrnjavčević family. In 1875 Metropolitan Theodosius of Skopje ordained him hieromonk.

In either 1875 or 1880 he founded at Rakotinci, near Skopje, the monastery of Saint Elijah, consecrated by Metropolitan Theodosius; the Serbian source says he renewed it and was its archimandrite and abbot. He was a learned man, considered the best educated in the area, and travelled to holy places, including the Tomb of the Lord, whence the locals called him Dedo Adzhia, Grandfather Hajji. He taught at the Bulgarian school in the monastery courtyard, was at times a teacher and local judge, and people came to him for healing, since he knew medicine.

He was the spiritual father of Varnava Rosić, when the future patriarch was metropolitan of Skopje. A saying of Metropolitan Josif Cvijović about him is preserved: "I am a bishop by rank, and you by deeds." After Ohrid passed to the Kingdom of Serbia in 1913, Joanicius was harassed by the new authorities and by pro-⁠Serbian bishops because of his support for the Bulgarian Exarchate. In 1918 he received the Order of Saint Alexander. He died at Rakotinci, on 23 January 1940 by the Bulgarian source and 24 January by the Serbian one.

Relics and proclamation

The local people venerated him for many years as a saint. In 1986 his relics were found incorrupt in the village church of the Dormition. The Serbian source says that he was glorified by incorrupt relics and great healings, and so he is called the wonderworker of Rakotinci. His relics are kept in the church of Saint Clement of Ohrid in Skopje.

In 2017, in the cathedral of Skopje, Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid and Macedonia, together with the metropolitans of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, proclaimed Joanicius a saint, on the fiftieth anniversary of that Church's declaration of autocephaly, which the local Orthodox Churches do not recognise. His troparia were written by the hymnographer of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Father Athanasios Simonopetritis. Archbishop John VI of Ohrid, of the canonical Church, wrote that the proclamation should not be made, because Joanicius was a Serbian cleric and the Macedonian Church is in schism. The sources also contradict one another on his affiliation: the Serbian one calls him a hieromonk of the Serbian Church, the Bulgarian one a Bulgarian cleric from Macedonia.

A particle of his relics is at the monastery of Saint John the Forerunner in Veria, and in Greece he is venerated as a wonderworker and healer. Our sources give no feast day.