Venerable Michael the Confessor (+c. 845)

The Venerable Michael the Confessor was born in Jerusalem into a Christian family, and while still young devoted himself to the monastic life. After his father’s death the saint’s mother and sisters went to a convent. The Venerable Michael was ordained priest. The blessed father became famous as a powerful preacher, and so Thomas, Patriarch of Jerusalem, brought him close and appointed him synkellos (administrator of the affairs of church government). At that time the iconoclast Emperor Leo the Armenian (813–820) was reigning. The patriarch sent the Venerable Michael to him together with the holy brothers Theodore (commemorated 27 December) and Theophanes (commemorated 11 October), so that the lawless ruler would stop persecuting the Orthodox. The emperor tortured Saint Michael and exiled him. When the venerable father returned from exile, the Emperor Theophilus (829–842) again handed him over to torture for venerating icons. Saint Michael’s fellow strugglers, Saints Theodore and Theophanes, also endured cruel torments: the executioners burned insulting inscriptions into their faces with red-hot irons. Because of this the brothers were called “the Inscribed”. Tried a second time, Saint Michael was sent with his disciple Job to the monastery of Paveiada. After the death of Theophilus the Empress Theodora (842–855) restored the veneration of icons, brought back the Christians persecuted and exiled by the iconoclasts, and offered Saint Michael the patriarchal throne in place of the deposed heretic hierarch John the Grammarian. The saint refused, and then the hierarch Methodius was appointed helmsman of the Church.

The blessed Michael the Confessor served as synkellos until the day of his death. In 845 he committed his soul to the Lord in peace.