Michael of Murom

Right-⁠believing Prince Michael of Murom was a son of the right-⁠believing Prince Constantine Svyatoslavich and brother of Prince Theodore, with whom he forms the trio of Murom wonderworkers. Constantine (Yaroslav Svyatoslavich) was a descendant of Saint Vladimir, equal to the apostles. He asked his father, Prince Svyatoslav of Chernigov, to give him as an inheritance the city of Murom, populated by pagans, so that he might enlighten that land with the light of the Christian faith. His father did not wish to let him go, for fear that he would be killed, but Constantine resolved to do everything for the holy faith.

In 1192, with his sons Michael and Theodore, with clergy, an army and servants from Kiev, he came to the land of Ryazan, near Murom. As he drew near the city he sent his son Michael to urge the people of Murom to receive the prince without resistance. The stubborn pagans killed the envoy and threw his body outside the city, then began to prepare for battle. When Constantine approached the city with his great army, the inhabitants wanted to fight, then humbled themselves and received the prince, but would not exchange their paganism for his faith. Without forcing them by strength to the faith of Christ, the prince did not give up the thought of enlightening them, and first built the church of the Annunciation on the place where his son had been killed, and soon another church, in honour of Saints Boris and Gleb. He often summoned the elders of the city and urged them to change their faith, and the clergy who had come with him preached Christ to the people of Murom.

Once a crowd of fierce pagans, displeased with the prince, approached his house, threatening him with death. After praying to God, the prince boldly went out before the rebels with an icon of the Mother of God. This astonished the pagans so greatly that they humbled themselves and wished to be baptized. The baptism of the people of Murom was carried out with solemnity, with the same rites as in the time of Saint Vladimir at Kiev, and the river Oka was the font for all the inhabitants of the city. Prince Constantine established the faith in Murom and ordered churches to be built in the city and the villages, with monasteries for men and women, and founded an episcopal see in his city. His son Theodore was his ardent helper.

Constantine reposed in 1129 (by the page's dating) and was buried at the church of the Annunciation, near his sons, the right-⁠believing princes Michael and Theodore. Later Prince George Yaroslavich renewed the church of the Annunciation, and from that time the Lord glorified the holy princes by the miracles that took place at their tombs. In 1553, when Tsar Ivan Vasilievich was marching with an army against the Tatars at Kazan, he stopped at Murom for two weeks; after a moleben at the tombs of the wonderworkers, he promised to build a stone church. When the trenches were dug for it, the relics of the holy princes were found whole and unharmed. After the church was finished, the relics were set in a niche in the wall, and the tsar commanded Bishop Gurias of Ryazan to consecrate the new church, sent various vessels and ordered a monastery to be established beside it. Michael is commemorated on 3 June, in the new style, and on 23 June with the Synaxis of the Saints of Ryazan.