Right-believing Prince Michael of Tver (+1318)
The right-believing Prince Michael of Tver was the nephew of Saint Alexander Nevsky (commemorated 23 November). He was born in 1272. After the death of his father, the Grand Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavich, Michael’s mother Xenia entrusted the care of the saint’s upbringing and education to Archbishop Clement of Novgorod.
Michael succeeded his brother Sviatoslav on the princely throne of Tver. Prince Yuri of Moscow, envious of the holy prince’s God-pleasing life and blinded by his own ambitions, first started a war against the principality of Tver, and then, embittered by defeat, denounced Saint Michael to the Golden Horde with slanderous accusations. The enraged khan summoned the saint to him. The Lord’s chosen one did not wish to shed the blood of Russian soldiers in an unequal struggle with the khan, and set out in obedience for the Golden Horde, where certain death awaited him. Before leaving he took leave of his family and the people of Tver, and asked his spiritual father, Hegumen John, for a blessing on the struggle of martyrdom. “Father,” said the saint, “I have laboured much to establish peace among Christians, but because of my sins I could not put an end to the internal wars. Now bless me, so that, if I must shed my blood for the people, they may breathe a little more freely, and the Lord may forgive me my sins.”
In the Horde the holy prince was accused of disobedience to the khan and sentenced to death. In prison Michael, as was his custom, read the Psalms unceasingly, thanked the Lord for the sufferings sent to him, and asked Him for help in the martyr’s struggle that lay ahead. The captive holy prince bore beatings and insults patiently. He was even offered escape, but the blessed one answered boldly: “Never in my life have I fled from enemies! If I save myself and misfortune befalls my people, what name will be left to me? Let God’s will be done!” Orthodox clergy often visited Saint Michael. Every week the blessed one made his confession and received Communion. One evening murderers burst in on the captive saint. They ran him through with a sword and cut out his heart (+1318). That same night many clearly saw two clouds of light stand over the place where the martyr lay. From the Horde the body of Saint Michael was carried to Moscow and buried in the Kremlin Church of the Saviour. Only a year later, in 1319, did the people of Tver learn what had become of their prince. At the wish of the saint’s wife, Princess Anna (commemorated 2 October), and at the request of the people of Tver, the holy relics of the blessed Michael of Tver were buried on 6 September 1320 in his native city, in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, which he himself had built. The right-believing prince was numbered among the saints in 1549, and on 24 November 1632 his incorrupt relics were uncovered.
In 1912 a church dedicated to the right-believing Prince Michael of Tver was built in Tbilisi.
