Micah of Radonezh

Venerable Micah of Radonezh was a disciple and cell-⁠attendant of Saint Sergius of Radonezh. Under the guidance of the great elder, struggling in simplicity of heart, Venerable Micah attained such a high degree of spiritual purity that, alone of Sergius's companions, he was found worthy to be present at the visit of the Mother of God to her chosen one.

Every day, after completing the evening cell rule, Venerable Sergius sang the akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God before her icon. Once, at night, after earnest prayer to the Mother of God for his monastery, the saint felt the approach of a heavenly appearance and said to his disciple Micah, "Keep watch, child: we shall have in this hour a wondrous visit." Hardly had he spoken when a voice was heard: "Behold, the Most Pure One comes." Then the elder rose and went quickly out into the entry; here a light brighter than the sun shone upon him and he saw the Most Blessed Virgin, accompanied by the apostles Peter and John the Theologian. The Mother of God promised not to depart from this place and always to cover it. The elder trembled with fear and joy, and when he came to himself he saw his disciple Micah lying on the floor as if dead: the great teacher had been able to see the Queen of Heaven and hear her voice, while the disciple, overcome by terror, could not see it all and saw only the heavenly light. When Venerable Micah came to his senses, he fell at the feet of Venerable Sergius and asked, "Tell me, Father, for God's sake, what is this wondrous vision? My soul almost parted from my body..." But Venerable Sergius could not yet speak either from the agitation of his soul, only his face bloomed with heavenly joy. "Wait, child," he said, "my soul too trembles at this vision." When he had somewhat calmed down, the elder sent Micah to call two reverent men from the brethren, Isaac the silent and Simon the sacristan, and all together they held a moleben to the Mother of God. According to the ancient church tradition, kept in the Nikon Chronicle, the heavenly visit was in the Nativity fast, in the night from Friday to Saturday, and it is thought in 1384; by another opinion, the event is linked to the Nativity fast of 1379, pointing out that in the hard circumstances of the summer of 1380 (the invasion of Mamai) the great protector of the Russian land, Venerable Sergius, himself needed special strengthening, and recalling that he sent to the field of Kulikovo precisely a prosphora of the Mother of God.

In grateful remembrance of this wondrous visit, it was appointed in the monastery of Venerable Sergius that every Friday evening an all-⁠night vigil with the akathist to the Mother of God be celebrated in the south-⁠west porch of the Trinity cathedral, on the place where, according to tradition, the cell of Venerable Sergius stood, and where there now stands a majestic icon depicting this coming of the Heavenly Guest.

The meek disciple of the meek elder reposed even in the lifetime of his abba, on 6 May 1385. His relics rest beneath the ground in a small church built and consecrated on 10 December 1734 by order of the Holy Synod, "in honour of the appearance of the Mother of God to Venerable Sergius", of which Micah was found worthy to be a witness. He is commemorated on 19 May and 19 July, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh, and on 5 September with the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow (a movable day).