Michael The Black Robed The Ohio Anglican.blog

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Michael The Black Robed The Ohio Anglican.blog
lived in the ninth century, and came from the city of Edessa
(Mesopotamia) of Christian parents. He was a zealous disciple of St
Theodore of Edessa (July 9). He distributed to the poor the
inheritance left him by his parents, then went to Jerusalem to
venerate the Holy Places.

Jerusalem at the time was under the control of the Mohammedans. St
Michael remained in Palestine and settled in the monastery of St Sava.
Once, he was sent from the monastery to Jerusalem to sell goods for
the monks. At the marketplace, the eunuch of the Mohammedan empress
Seida, seeing that the monastery goods were both fine and well-made,
took him along to the empress.

The young monk caught the fancy of the empress, who tried to lead him
into sin, but her intent proved to be in vain. Then by order of the
enraged Seida they beat the monk with rods, and then accused him of
being an enemy of Islam.

Having interrogated the monk, the emperor began to urge him to accept
the Moslem faith, but St Michael answered, "I implore you, either send
me back to the monastery to my instructor, or be baptized in our
Christian Faith, or cut off my head, and then I shall go to Christ my
God." The emperor gave the saint a cup with deadly poison, which St
Michael drank and remained unharmed. After this the emperor gave
orders to cut off his head.

The death of the martyr occurred in Jerusalem, but the monks of the
monastery of St Sava took the body of the saint to their Lavra and
buried it there with reverence. At the beginning of the twelfth
century the relics of the holy martyr were seen there by Daniel, the
igumen of the Kiev Caves monastery, while on pilgrimage to the Holy
Places.

http://ohioanglican.blogspot.com/2013/05/michael-black-robed.html