Michael of Klopsk

Venerable Michael of Klopsk was a Russian monk and fool for Christ of the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Klopsk, near Novgorod, on the river Veryazha. He died in 1453 or 1456 and is remembered on 11 January.

As to his origin, according to the historian Valentin Yanin he was the son or grandson of Dmitry Mikhailovich Volyn-⁠Bobrok, the hero of the Battle of Kulikovo, and of Anna, daughter of Grand Prince Ivan II of Moscow and sister of Dmitry Donskoy. According to other versions he was an illegitimate son of Donskoy's brother Andrey, or a son of Simeon the Proud. Renouncing wealth and power, Michael took on the labour of foolishness for Christ, left Moscow and came in rags to the Klopsk monastery in the Novgorod Republic. His Life, written in 1478-1479 and revised in the 1490s and in 1537, although folkloric in nature, is the earliest written testimony of his deeds in the monastery.

During the Muscovite-⁠Lithuanian wars a nameless fool for Christ appeared at the monastery of the Holy Trinity. Later, accepted by the monastery but still unknown to the brothers, he was recognized by Prince Constantine Dmitrievich, who visited the monastery with his wife in 1413, as “our Michael.” For forty-⁠four years he was, at Klopsk, an example of monastic struggle and strict keeping of the rule, and according to his life he had the gift of prophecy and foresight. He rebuked the sins of the powerful of this world, without respect of persons. In 1419, on the blessed one's counsel, Prince Constantine built in the monastery the first stone cathedral, which, being dilapidated, was replaced by the present one in 1562 or 1569. Among the miracles attributed to him in life are the conversion of robbers, one of whom became the monk Dorofey, the discovery of an inexhaustible spring, the foretelling of weather and other visions of the future. A Serbian source adds that he foretold the archbishopric of little John, later Jonah of Novgorod.

He died in 1453 or 1456 and was numbered among the saints at the Council of Makarios in 1547. His relics are venerated at the Klopsk monastery. In 1985-1992 archaeological study of the underground parts of the monastery's cathedral brought to light a stone sarcophagus with the venerable one's relics.