Joseph Kharlamov

Joseph Kharlamov was a Russian schemamonk, a Don Cossack, a hermit on Karoulia on Mount Athos for almost thirty years. The date of his repose is not known; he is venerated by the faithful, without a synodal canonization.

Named Alexander Petrovich Kharlamov in the world, he was born in the Don Host region and came to Athos in 1874. From then on he lived alone in a hermit's hut on Karoulia. He earned his living making shoes for Russians and Greeks, but his chief work was the Jesus Prayer, said without ceasing day and night, sitting, working, in church and on the road.

The monk Denasios (Yushkov) relates that he heard him hammering from afar and that the old man received him joyfully with the greeting Christ is in our midst. A Russian pilgrim, the state councillor Hippolytus Fedorovich Kraskovsky, later described him sitting on a small stool at the window, white-⁠haired, preparing with care his meagre meal, which he kept on a strict diet on Karoulia. He gave visitors little cypress crosses and spoons carved by himself from hard wood. The pilgrim could give him only half a rouble, as to the other hermits, and all were glad, for the lamp oil had run out on all of Karoulia.