Michael the Hermit

Michael the Hermit was a simple and zealous monk who lived in the wilderness between Katounakia and Karoulia, in the Great Lavra part of the Holy Mountain. The dates of his life are not known.

A conversation with him, published by Monk Moses the Athonite, shows a man whose simplicity and goodness touched everyone who passed by his hut. He called himself "the sinner, the despicable, the miserable." He lived alone with God and worked with his hands, making pressed crosses. Of fasting he said that it is not only abstaining from food but chiefly the deadening of the passions and the stilling of the senses. Of obedience, that it is not the duty of monks alone but of every Christian: a married man too must yield in the name of love and not impose his view harshly on his family. Of the world he said that where sin has increased, grace has increased too. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.