Michael the Synkellos

Our Venerable Father Michael the Confessor, Synkellos of Jerusalem

Confessor · Venerable · Priest · b. c. 761, Jerusalem — d. 846

Michael the Synkellos (c. 761–846) was a monk of the Lavra of St Sabbas and synkellos of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem who became one of the steadfast confessors of the second iconoclast crisis. Sent to Constantinople on the patriarch's business, he was caught in the icon controversy and, with his disciples the brothers Theodore and Theophanes — the "Branded" (Graptoi) — was beaten, imprisoned, and exiled under the emperors Leo V and Theophilus for his defence of the holy images. When the veneration of icons was restored under the empress Theodora in 843, he was offered the patriarchal throne of Constantinople but declined it, ending his days as synkellos and as abbot of the Chora monastery. He reposed in peace and is honoured as a confessor.

Origins and monastic beginnings

Michael was born about 761 at Jerusalem, of a devout Christian family, and gave himself to the monastic life at an early age. The tradition relates that after his father's death his mother and sisters entered a convent, while Michael was ordained priest. He became a monk of the Great Lavra of St Sabbas in the Judean desert, and was renowned as a powerful preacher; on that account the Patriarch Thomas I of Jerusalem took him into his service and advanced him to the office of synkellos — the cellmate and confidential deputy of the patriarch, charged with the affairs of church governance. Among his disciples at St Sabbas were the two brothers from a Palestinian family, Theodore and Theophanes, later famous as the Graptoi.

Confessor of the icons

Michael's confessorship belongs to the renewed iconoclasm that broke out under Leo V the Armenian (813–820). Sent from Jerusalem to Constantinople — on the patriarch's business, and in the hope of turning the emperor from his persecution of the Orthodox — Michael arrived to find the icon controversy at its height and refused to yield to the iconoclast party. He was beaten and driven into exile. He returned, only to suffer again under the emperor Theophilus (829–842), the last and harshest of the iconoclast rulers. His companions Theodore and Theophanes were subjected to a notorious cruelty: verses mocking them were branded with hot irons into the skin of their faces, whence their title "the Branded." Michael himself, again condemned, was confined with his disciple Job in the monastery of Prote (the OCA notice: the "Pabeida" monastery).

Vindication and repose

When Theophilus died and the empress Theodora (842–855), regent for her young son, restored the veneration of the holy icons in 843 — the event kept ever since as the Triumph of Orthodoxy — she recalled the confessors from banishment. Michael was offered the patriarchal throne of Constantinople in place of the deposed iconoclast John the Grammarian, but he refused it, and the throne passed to St Methodius. Michael spent his last years as synkellos of the Great Church and, by the received tradition, as hegumen of the celebrated Chora monastery in the capital. He reposed in peace in 846 (the OCA notice gives "about 845").

Hymnographic and literary legacy

Michael was a man of letters as well as a confessor. He is credited with a widely copied grammatical treatise, the Method concerning Syntax (a standard Byzantine schoolbook of grammar), with an Encomium of Dionysius the Areopagite, and with a Life of his disciples the Graptoi. His name is attached in the manuscript tradition to a well-known confession of the Trinitarian faith.

Feast and commemoration

December 18 (church date; Old Calendar civil December 31). Michael is kept in the Greek and Slavonic menaia among the commemorations of the day. His disciples the Graptoi keep their own feasts — Theophanes the Branded, the hymnographer, on October 11, and his brother Theodore on December 27 — so that the December calendar holds both the master and one of his most famous disciples within ten days.

Hymns

Troparion

Guide of Orthodoxy, teacher of piety and reverence, luminary of the world, God-inspired adornment of hierarchs: by thy teachings thou hast enlightened all, O all-wise Michael. O harp of the Spirit, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

No pre-modern icon securely identified as Michael the Synkellos has been located; he would be depicted as an aged monk-confessor in the monastic schema, or in the company of his branded disciples Theodore and Theophanes. The entry carries no stored image and is listed among the wanted icons.

Disputed questions

Year of repose. Scholarship generally gives 846; the OCA notice says "about 845." He was in his mid-eighties.
Place of exile. The OCA text names a "Pabeida" monastery; the Greek tradition places his last confinement on the island monastery of Prote in the Sea of Marmara.
Not to be confused with the other Michaels of the calendar — the Archangel, Michael of Chonae, or the various hierarchs and monastics of the name.