Страдание святого преподобномученика Михаила Черноризца

The Holy Martyr Michael came from the city of Edessa 3409 and was the son of Christian parents. After their death, he distributed to the poor all the property he had inherited from his parents and went to Jerusalem to visit the holy places. At that time, Jerusalem already belonged to Muslims. Having venerated the holy places, he retired to the monastery of Saint Sava and took monasticism here. After some time, he was sent by his mentor to Jerusalem to sell the monks' products. He was met here by the eunuch 3410 of the Muslim queen Seida, who took him with him, since the vessels he sold were very beautiful and well made, and brought him to his queen. The queen, seeing a young monk, handsome in face, but skinny from fasting, was seduced by him, began to seduce him into adultery and said: - Be obedient to me, and if you are sick, I will cure you of your illness. To these words of the blessed queen, Michael responded as follows: – I worry about my sins; I serve my Lord, Jesus Christ, and I don’t want to listen to you. The queen in every possible way forced the saint to lawlessness, just as once in Egypt the wife of Pentephria forced Joseph the Beautiful to lawlessness (Gen. 39:1-23); but the chaste Michael did not agree to lawlessness, thus convincing the queen: “I can’t do this, because I am a monk and have made a vow to God to immaculately preserve the purity of my body until the end of my days.” That wicked woman, convinced that the chaste monk would never want to agree to her lawless request, filled with shame and anger, ordered the saint to be beaten with sticks. Then she sent a monk, as if he were a critic of their faith, to the king, who was at that time not far from Jerusalem. The king, having questioned the saint, ordered him to be untied and convinced him to convert to the Mohammedan faith. “I cannot leave my God and become a follower of the demon.” The king again began to seduce him: “Ask me what you want, and you will reign with me.” “I ask you one of three,” the saint said to him, “either let me go to my mentor, or be baptized in the name of my God, or send me by beheading of the sword to Christ, my God.” But the king ordered to give the saint a cup of deadly poison. The saint, having drunk the poison, remained unharmed, according to the word of Christ spoken in His Holy Gospel: “If they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them” (Mark 16:18). The shamed king ordered the head of Christ's servant to be cut off with a sword in the middle of Jerusalem 3411. The monks of the monastery of Saint Sava, taking the body of the holy martyr, carried it to their monastery and with honors laid the martyr of Christ together with the holy fathers, glorifying Christ God, wondrous in His saints. Amen. Edessa is a city located in ancient times in the northern part of Mesopotamia. A eunuch is a castrated servant, usually destined for service in the harems of the east. The death of the holy martyr followed in the 9th century. You might be interested in: