Michael of Pereslavl

Blessed Michael of Pereslavl (Misha-⁠Samuil, Michael Vasilievich Lazarev in the world) was a fool for Christ at Pereslavl. He was born in 1848 into a peasant family in the village of Yam, near Pereslavl, and reposed on 23 February (8 March by the new calendar) 1907 in Troitskaya Sloboda. He is a locally venerated saint of the Yaroslavl diocese, where since 2004 he has been honoured as a servant of God.

From childhood Misha was a fool for Christ. At eight he was driven out of his native village. The hieromonk Samuel of the Saint Nicholas Monastery took him into his cell and became his spiritual father. After Samuel's death, the name Samuel was added to Misha's name in his honour. He spent all his life wandering through the town of Pereslavl and its surroundings. He often visited Troitskaya Slobodka, where he liked to stay in the house of the legless peasant Simeon Vukolov (today house no. 21). Some townspeople who honoured him asked him for counsel. Misha made prophecies.

All the money given to him he offered to God or gave to the poor. Most of it he put into the box at the church of Saint Prince Andrew, in the chapel of Venerable Daniel, in the cathedral box, and in the Sergievskaya, Troitsko-⁠Slobodskaya and Nikitskaya chapels. In February 1907 he fell ill. In the last days of his life the nuns of the Saint Nicholas Monastery cared for him. He reposed on 23 February (8 March) 1907, at three in the afternoon, in Troitskaya Sloboda. He was buried on 25 February, to the right of the altar of the Trinity church.

During the celebration of three hundred years of the House of Romanov, the imperial family made a journey through Russia. On 23 May 1913 the emperor Nicholas II, with his four daughters, came by automobile to Pereslavl-⁠Zalessky. On the way back to Petrovsk, he stopped by the church of Troitskaya Sloboda and gave the church an icon of the Saviour Not Made by Hands in a polished case. At his request a memorial service was served at the grave of Misha-⁠Samuil.

His commemoration is kept on 23 February by the old calendar, 8 March by the new (7 March in leap years). In 2000 an icon of the blessed one was painted and a kontakion and troparion were composed, and in 2002 an akathist.