Prochorus of Pčinja

Venerable Prochorus of Pčinja was a hermit of the eleventh century, from the Pčinja region, venerated by Serbs, Macedonians and Bulgarians. He fell asleep on 14 September 1067, and the Pčinja monastery keeps his feast on 19 September.

Youth and the wilderness

He was born at the beginning of the eleventh century to pious parents, John and Anna, in the Ovče Pole region, in today's North Macedonia. According to his life he learned letters early and surpassed those of his own age in everything. Seized with spiritual zeal, he went to the cave near Nagoričino (east of Kumanovo, near Staro Nagoričino, opposite the church of Saint George), where he lived for many years as a hermit. According to tradition, a vision showed him a place near the river Pčinja where he would struggle. No one disturbed him for a long time, until one day a hunter chasing a deer came upon the saint at prayer. The hunter talked with the monk for hours. As he prepared to leave, he asked for his blessing, and Prochorus foretold that great glory awaited him: “You will be emperor; remember me too when you are.” The hunter was Diogenes, later the Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes.

Because of the danger of attacks by “wild people” (perhaps Pechenegs or Cumans), Prochorus moved to Mount Kozjak, above the river Pčinja, near today's Vranje, into a small cave. There he struggled for thirty years and passed to the Lord after sixty-⁠two years of hermit life. Wild animals approached him without fear.

Relics and monastery

After thirty years the saint appeared in a dream to the emperor Diogenes and said: “Why, Diogenes, have you forgotten your former garments and me, the old man? Take care to build me at least a small church.” The emperor was seized with fear and, with the patriarch and his retinue, set out for the Žegligovo region, to Nagoričino, to seek the old man Prochorus. Not finding him there, he crossed to Mount Kozjak. After many days of search they found the cave and in it the relics of the venerable one. On that spot the emperor built a church in honour of the Holy Apostle Luke, and to the right of the river Pčinja he built a church dedicated to the saint. The relics were laid to the right of the altar, and holy myrrh flowed from them. The emperor took a part of the relics to Constantinople, another part later reached Ljubostinja, and the rest is still in the monastery of Saint Prochorus of Pčinja, under Mount Kozjak. According to some sources the monastery was renewed by King Stefan Milutin. An icon in the monastery church shows Prochorus' meeting with the future emperor and wild beasts approaching him. His earliest images are at Staro Nagoričino and at Lesnovo.