Michael the Sabaite

Venerable Martyr Michael the Sabaite, a monk of Edessa, lived in the ninth century. He came from the city of Edessa in Mesopotamia, of Christian parents, and was a zealous disciple of Saint Theodore of Edessa. After giving to the poor the property left by his parents, he set out for Jerusalem to venerate the holy places. Jerusalem was then held by Muslims. Saint Michael remained in Palestine and settled in the monastery of Saint Sabbas.

One day he was sent from the monastery to Jerusalem to sell the monks' handiwork. In the market a eunuch of the Muslim queen Seida, seeing that the monastery's wares were beautiful and well made, brought him to the queen. The young monk pleased her, and she tried to draw him into a sinful relationship, but her designs were in vain. Then, at the command of the angry Seida, the monk was beaten with rods, and then accused before the emir as an enemy of Mohammedanism. After questioning him, the emir tried to persuade him to accept the Mohammedan faith, but Saint Michael answered, "I ask you either to let me return to the monastery to my spiritual father, or be baptized into our Christian faith, or cut off my head, and then I shall go to Christ, my God." The emir ordered that he be given a cup of deadly poison; having drunk it, the saint remained unharmed, after which the emir ordered his head cut off. The martyr's end took place in Jerusalem, around the middle of the ninth century, but the monks of the monastery of Saint Sabbas carried his body to their lavra and buried it with honour. At the beginning of the twelfth century the relics of the holy martyr were seen there by Abbot Daniel of the Kiev Caves Monastery, then travelling to the holy places.

Michael is commemorated on 5 June and on 11 August, in the new style.