Michael Galushko

Venerable Confessor Michael Galushko, schema-⁠archimandrite, in the world Maxim Kuzmich Galushko, was a monk of the Holy Mountains and is venerated as a local saint of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. He was born in 1877 in the village of Polnaya, Kharkiv governorate, and fell asleep on 24 March 1961 at Kharkiv.

He finished the village (zemstvo) school. On 5 March 1893 he became a novice in the hermitage of the Holy Mountains. After tonsure he received the name Michael and was ordained hieromonk. In 1922, after the closing of the Holy Mountains monastery, the remaining monks settled near the former monastery cemetery church of All Saints. The hieromonk Michael became the head of the community. On 24 February 1924 he was raised to the rank of hegumen by the holy bishop Onuphrius (Gagalyuk), and on 21 February 1935 to that of archimandrite by the holy metropolitan Constantine (Dyakov).

On 1 July 1942, at a gathering of the monastics in the Trinity cathedral of Sloviansk, it was decided to begin the restoration of the Holy Mountains monastery, at first as a parish. The deputy of the abbot was to be Archimandrite Michael. In 1943, with the return of Soviet power, the monastery was closed again. Archimandrite Michael was accused of treason and of collaboration with the Germans, was beaten and spent some time in prison. At the end of 1943 he settled in Kharkiv. He fell asleep on 24 March 1961 and was buried in the cemetery on Lysa Hora.

On 22 September 2001 his relics were found and carried to the Dormition cathedral of the Holy Mountains monastery. On 8 May 2008 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church decided on his local canonization in the diocese of Donetsk, in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Holy Mountains. The glorification service took place on 12 July 2008, during the visit of Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv, in the Dormition cathedral of the Lavra. He is venerated only locally.