Michael of Vyazniki

Venerable Michael of Vyazniki (called Verizhnik, "the chain-⁠wearer", or the Hermit, about 1362 to 1367 to 1333 or 9 November 1422, more probably 1422) was a lay brother and wonderworker who lived by the Dormition monastery at Vyazniki (today the village of Stanki), in the Vladimir province. He was canonized in 1982, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir, at the initiative of Archbishop Serapion; so he is a locally venerated saint. His commemoration was set on 23 June (6 July); our record has 23 July.

Life

He was born at Yaropolch Zalessky (today the town of Vyazniki) in the years 1362 to 1367 (according to D. Obidin and Yu. Vasishchev). The nickname Verizhnik comes from the iron chains he wore on his legs to humble his body, which was regarded as a Christian ascetic labour. He lived more than fifty years. He died, according to some mistaken views, in 1333, or, more probably, on 9 November 1422. He was buried in the church of the abolished Dormition monastery in the village of Stanki, or, according to another view, under the foundation of the church of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God (the village of Pustynka, Kovrov district).

A description of him says he was "elderly in appearance, beardless, tall, in a hair shirt, of the rank of lay brother", and that he lived more than fifty years. A letter of Deacon Fyodor Ivanov from exile at Pustozersk, to the family of Archpriest Avvakum, of 1669, says that in the Suzdal land there was a hermit, Michael, a holy man, who died before the plague, and that now a hermitage has been raised there over his relics. The "Book on the Russian Saints" mentions him as a new wonderworker at the Dormition and Saint Nicholas monastery on the Klyazma, ten versts from Vyazniki. In archaeological excavations at the site of old Yaropolch the skeleton of a big man in chains was found; Yaropolch is mentioned in documents of 1390, the time of Michael's labours.

Disagreements

The sources do not agree on the place: some local researchers from Vyazniki (Donat Obidin, Yuri Vasishchev) think that different persons may be in question, because the hermit of Kovrov and that of Vyazniki are described with differences of detail. The exact place of the grave is not known; several are indicated: the Kineshemsky Pogost district, the church of Saint Nicholas; the Dormition monastery at Stanki; and, less probably, the hermitage at Pustynka, Kovrov district. Researchers of Kovrov mistakenly took the saint of Vyazniki for one of Kovrov, starting from I. F. Tokmakov's book of 1903.