Michael

Saint Michael was a fool-⁠for-⁠Christ of the Russian town of Solvychegodsk, on the river Vychegda in the north of Russia. He is commemorated on 3 July, together with other blessed men of the same town who followed the same hard path of foolishness for Christ.

Very little of his life has been preserved. The list of the saints of Vologda compiled by Metropolitan Evgeny (Bolkhovitinov) counts him among the blessed ones who lived at Solvychegodsk: Thomas, Herodion, Michael, Basil and John, all fools-⁠for-⁠Christ. The same list notes that the time of their deaths is unknown, as is the place of the relics of each.

The old Russian iconographers' manual commemorates on 3 July the righteous Thomas, Michael, John and Basil, fools-⁠for-⁠Christ, as new wonderworkers of the Monastery of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple at Solvychegodsk. It adds that their bodies were buried in the monastery, outside the church. Some modern calendars place them in the seventeenth century.

Foolishness for Christ is one of the hardest struggles known in the Church: the saint hides his virtue under the appearance of a man without sense, accepts the mockery of people and lives in complete poverty, so as to humble himself and quietly rebuke the sins of the world. That Michael and the other blessed ones were counted as wonderworkers shows that the faithful honoured them as men well pleasing to God.

Saint Michael is venerated locally in the north of Russia, and the Great Synaxaristes of the Greek Church commemorates him on 3 July together with Blessed Thomas, as Saints Michael and Thomas the Fools-⁠for-⁠Christ of Solvychegodsk.