Venerable Prohor of Pčinja, also known as Saint Prohor Pčinjski, was a Christian monk and contemporary of St. Gavril of Lesnovo and St. John of Rila who lived in the eleventh century Bulgaria and after its conquest in the Byzantine Empire. Prohor Pcinjski was born into a Bulgarian family in the

Ovče Pole Ovče Pole ( mk, Овче Поле, literally 'sheep plain') is a plain near Sveti Nikole's River, which is a tributary of the Bregalnica River in east-central North Macedonia. History The Battle of Ovche Pole occurred during the First World Wa ...

area, then in the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europ ...

, today in

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

. According to tradition, the young ascetic Prohor was shown in a vision a place near the

Pčinja River Pčinja () may refer to: *Pčinja District, a district of Serbia *Pčinja (river) The Pčinja (Serbian and Macedonian Пчиња ) is a 135 km long river in Serbia and North Macedonia, a left tributary of the Vardar river. Serbia The Pčin ...

where he would be a hermit. For many years, nobody disturbed him, until one day a hunter chasing a deer came across the saint, who was in prayer. The hunter engaged the monk in conversation, which went on for hours. As he prepared to take his leave, the hunter asked for the saint's blessing, upon which St. Prohor foretold that greatness awaited him. The hunter, Romanos Diogenes, became

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

in 1068. The emperor sought out the prophetic hermit but found his grave instead. The church of the St.

Prohor Pčinjski Monastery The Monastery of Venerable Prohor of Pčinja ( sr, Манастир Преподобног Прохора Пчињског, Manastir Prepodobnog Prohora Pčinjskog), commonly known as Prohor Pčinjski ( sr, Прохор Пчињски, Prohor Pči ...

was built by the generosity of the emperor, as a sign of his thanksgiving to God and the saint. There is an icon in the monastery church that shows St. Prohor's encounter with Emperor Romanos Diogenes. Also shown are wild animals approaching him without fear such as a deer. Hermits before Prohor of Pčenja, John of Rila, Joachim of Osogovo, Peter of Koriša and those after them have exerted an influence both social and cultural on the people of the Balkan Peninsula during the Middle Ages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prohor of Pcinja Medieval Bulgarian saints Serbian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church 11th-century Christian monks 11th-century Byzantine monks 1067 deaths