June 5 / May 23
Saint Michael the Confessor, Bishop of Synnada (826)
Michael, a holy and learned hierarch, dedicated himself to the service of Christ from early childhood. Together with St. Theophylactus of Nico- media, he lived a life of asceticism. At one time during a period of drought, these two saints brought forth abundant rain on the earth by their prayers. Because of his ascetic and chaste life from his early youth, he was chosen and consecrated bishop of Synnada by Patriarch Tarasius. He participated in the Seventh Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 787]. At the request of the emperor, he went to Caliph Ha- run-al-Rashid to conduct negotiations for peace. During the reign of the nefarious Leo the Armenian, Michael was removed from his episcopal throne because of his veneration of icons and was sent into exile. There, in misery and poverty but in faithfulness to Orthodoxy, he reposed in the year 818, and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Christ the King.
The Venerable Martyr Michael “the Black-robed,” of St. Sabbas Monastery (9th c.)
After the death of his parents, Michael distributed all of his goods to the poor and went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thereafter he entered the Monastery of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, where he was tonsured a monk. Michael was quite young and handsome, but from much fasting, he appeared withered and pale. At that time the Arabs ruled Jerusalem. One day Michael was sent by his spiritual father to the city to sell his handiwork. He was met on the street by a eunuch of the Arabian queen, who brought him to the queen to display his handiwork. When the queen saw this handsome monk she became inflamed with unclean passion and proposed carnal sin to him, as the wife of Potiphar had once proposed to the chaste Joseph. When Michael rejected the impure offer and began to flee, the angry queen ordered that he be beaten with canes and brought before the king with the charge that he had blasphemed the faith of Mohammed. The king proposed that Michael embrace the Islamic faith, but he refused. He was then given a potent poison to drink. Michael drank the poison but nothing happened to him. Then the king ordered that Michael be beheaded in the center of Jerusalem. Monks discovered his body and removed it to the Monastery of St. Sabbas, where they honorably buried it. St. Michael suffered for Christ and was glorified in the ninth century.
The Venerable Euphrosyne, Princess and Abbess of Polotsk (1173)
Euphrosyne was the daughter of Prince Vseslav of When her parents wanted to betroth her, she fled to a convent and was tonsured a nun. An angel of the Lord appeared to her three times and revealed to her where she was to establish a new convent for virgins. She even attracted her sister Eudocia to the monastic life, together with many other maidens from the ranks of the aristocracy. Her cousin, Zvenislava, by birth Princess of Borisov, brought all of her riches, clothes and precious stones and said: “All the beauty of this world I consider vanity, and these adornments prepared for my marriage I give to the Church of the Savior. And I myself wish to be betrothed to Him in spiritual marriage and place my head beneath His good and easy yoke.” Euphrosyne tonsured her a nun and gave her the name Eupraxia. In her old age, Euphrosyne desired to die in Jerusalem, and she prayed to God for this. God heard her prayers and, indeed, when she visited Jerusalem she reposed there. Euphrosyne was buried in the Monastery of St. Theodosius on May 23, 1173.
- Holy Myrrh-bearer Mary, wife of Cleopas (1st ).
- Hieromartyrs Epitacius, bishop of Tuy (Spain), and Basil, bishop of Braga (Portugal) (1st ).
- Synesius, bishop of Carpasia on Cyprus (5th c.).
- Damian (King Demetrius) of Gareji, Georgia (1157).
- Uncovering of the relics (1164) of Leontius, bishop and wonderworker of Rostov (1070-1077).
- Uncovering of the relics (1176-1212) of Abramius, archimandrite, of Rostov (1173-1177).
- Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl.
- Ioannicius I, archbishop of Serbia (1270).
- Paisius, abbot, of Galich (1460).
- Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Thou Art the ”
HYMN OF PRAISE
The Venerable Martyr Michael
The evil empress accused Michael Of berating the Islamic faith.
To the monk, the emperor extended a strange proposal:
That he would adopt him as a son,
If only he would abandon the true Faith
And, as a Moslem, shave his head.
The monk warmed his heart with prayer
And laughed in the Sultan’s face:
“Do you think, O Emperor, that you are stronger than I?
For me, death means a new life.
My soul cares not for the world.
Behold, I propose three things to you:
Either be baptized with the Cross of true believers,
Or slay me with the bloodthirsty sword,
Or release me to my spiritual father,
That I may return to my monastery.”
The king was filled with fury:
With the flash of a sword, the saint’s head fell.
The angels took his holy soul
And conveyed it to the Kingdom of Christ.
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