Patriarch
Saint Joachim was elected Patriarch of Alexandria in 1487 at the age of 38. During the capture of Egypt by the Turkish Sultan Selim I, he secured a guarantee for the preservation of patriarchal privileges and maintained contact with the royal court of Russia, from where he received financial assistance.
At the initiative of the Constantinople Synod of 1544, he established the order of appointing Sinai archbishops by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Under his leadership, the patriarchal monastery of Saint Savva the Sanctified was restored in Alexandria.
Saint Joachim is associated with the legend of the great miracles performed by God through his prayers. When a plague ravaged Egypt, a physician, an enemy of Christianity, spread a rumor that Christians were bewitching the water. The Sultan, hearing this, summoned the patriarch for explanations. After a long discussion about faith, the Sultan demanded that the patriarch move a mountain located near Cairo. The saint, asking for a few days for prayer, with faithful Christians through fasting and prayers, appeased the Lord. At the appointed time, in the Name of Christ, the mountain moved from its place and received the name 'dur-dago' ('become a mountain'). This miracle astonished the enemies of the Christian faith.
Malicious individuals, not knowing how to harm the Orthodox, prepared poison and convinced the Sultan to make the patriarch drink it. The saint, making the sign of the cross over the cup, drank the poison and remained unharmed. The physician, who drank the remaining water, immediately died. Upon learning of the miracles, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Saint Niphont, sent the Bishop of Randinia, Akakios, and the venerable Theophilus to Alexandria to confirm the events, and the envoys confirmed the miracle.
Saint Joachim passed away in 1567 at the age of 119. He was glorified by the Alexandrian Orthodox Church, and on May 7, 2003, his memory was included in the diptych of saints of the Russian Orthodox Church.
