Michael II of Smolensk

Saint Michael II, hierarch, was bishop of Smolensk and died on 6 May 1402 at the Holy Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergius. He is honoured among the hierarchs and commemorated on 6 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Radonezh.

He was tonsured a monk at the Simonov monastery in Moscow, where he was known for his strict ascetic life. There he was a companion of Theodore, later archbishop of Rostov, and the teacher of Venerable Cyril of Beloozero. In 1383 he was ordained bishop of Smolensk.

At the beginning of 1389 he accompanied Metropolitan Pimen of Kyiv and all Rus to Constantinople, and in October of the same year Metropolitan Cyprian. The source says that he arrived in Moscow with Cyprian on 7 October 1397, but the date does not fit the rest of the account.

In 1396, to avoid the troubles in the principality of Smolensk, he left his see and withdrew to the Holy Trinity monastery of Saint Sergius, where he died on 6 May 1402. He was buried in the same monastery.