Our Venerable Father and Confessor Michael, Bishop of Synnada.
Michael, this holy and learned
hierarch, dedicated himself to the service of Christ from early
childhood. Together with St. Theophylact of Nicomedia, he lived a
life of asceticism. At one time during a period of drought, these two
saints, by their prayers, brought forth abundant rain on the earth.
Because of his ascetical and chaste life from his early youth, he was
chosen and consecrated bishop of Synnada by Patriarch Tarasius. He
participated in the Seventh Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 783 A.D.]. At
the request of the emperor, he went to Caliph Harun-al-Rashid to
conduct negotiations for peace. During the reign of the nefarious Leo
the Armenian, Michael was removed from his episcopal throne because
of his veneration of icons and was banished into exile, where in
misery and poverty and, remaining faithful to Orthodoxy, died in the
year 818 A.D. and took up habitation in the kingdom of Christ the
King.
The Venerable Euphrosyne, Hegumena of the Monastery of our Holy Savior in Polotsk.
Euphrosyne was the daughter of Prince
Vseslav of Poltsk. When her parents wanted to betroth her, she fled
to a convent and was tonsured a nun. An angel of the Lord appeared to
her three times and revealed to her where she must establish a new
convent for virgins. She even attracted her sister Eudocia to the
monastic life and many other maidens from the ranks of the
aristocracy. Her cousin, Zvenislava, by birth Princess Borisov,
brought all of her riches, clothes and precious stones and said: "All
the beauty of this world, I consider vanity and these adornments
prepared for my marriage, I give to the Church of the Savior and I,
myself, wish to be betrothed to Him in a spiritual marriage and place
my head beneath His good and easy yoke." Euphrosyne also
tonsured her a nun and gave her the name Eupraxia. In her old age,
Euphrosyne desired to die in Jerusalem and for that she prayed to
God. God heard her prayers and, indeed, when she visited Jerusalem
she died there. Euphrosyne was buried in the monastery of St.
Theodosius on May 23, 1173 A.D.
Michael, this holy and learned
hierarch, dedicated himself to the service of Christ from early
childhood. Together with St. Theophylact of Nicomedia, he lived a
life of asceticism. At one time during a period of drought, these two
saints, by their prayers, brought forth abundant rain on the earth.
Because of his ascetical and chaste life from his early youth, he was
chosen and consecrated bishop of Synnada by Patriarch Tarasius. He
participated in the Seventh Ecumenical Council [Nicaea, 783 A.D.]. At
the request of the emperor, he went to Caliph Harun-al-Rashid to
conduct negotiations for peace. During the reign of the nefarious Leo
the Armenian, Michael was removed from his episcopal throne because
of his veneration of icons and was banished into exile, where in
misery and poverty and, remaining faithful to Orthodoxy, died in the
year 818 A.D. and took up habitation in the kingdom of Christ the
King.
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