Michael of Alexandria

Michael of Alexandria, also called Michael the Younger, was a Mamluk official who tried to return to Christianity and was put to death. In the Orthodox Church he is reckoned one of the new martyrs. The year of his death is not known precisely.

According to his life, he was captured in his youth in a "barbarian" attack on Smyrna, probably in the 1290s. The culprits were probably either those of the emirate of Aydin or Menteshe or else the Catalan Grand Company. They are thought to have sold him to the Mamluks in Egypt. He became a Muslim and received an education, becoming an official in the Mamluk army in Alexandria. After some years he wished to return to his earlier faith. Seeing an opportunity in the arrival of a Byzantine embassy, he disguised himself as a monk and boarded a Byzantine ship. He was, however, denounced and arrested. Muslim officials tried to change his mind with soft words and with threats, but he refused and was thrown into prison. Remaining steadfast in his new faith, he was beheaded. This took place in the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos, probably between about 1311 and 1325.

Theodore Metochites wrote a biography of Michael soon after his death, in an Atticizing Greek aimed at an educated audience. It is an oration delivered before the emperor Andronikos, probably between 1305 and 1324. The years given for his death and for the oration do not fit entirely, and the source does not resolve this.