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Michael of Synnada or Michael the Confessor ( Greek: Μιχαὴλ ὁ ὁμολογητής; died 23 May 826) was a metropolitan bishop of Synnada from 784/7 to 815. He represented Byzantium in diplomatic missions to Harun al-Rashid and Charlemagne. He was exiled by Emperor Leo V the Armenian because of his opposition to iconoclasm, and died on 23 May 826. He is honoured as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, his feast day is May 23.

Life

Nothing is known about Michael's early life. He was much influenced by Tarasios ( Patriarch of Constantinople in 784–806), who tonsured him. Tarasios sent Michael, along with Theophylact of Nicomedia, to him to a monastery that Tarasios himself had founded on the shores of the Bosporus. [1] By 787, when he attended the Second Council of Nicaea, Michael was already metropolitan bishop of Synnada, having been named to the position by Tarasios. [1] Michael is recorded in all sessions of the council. [1]

He is commonly identified with the Michahel episcopus who was one of the leaders (along with Petrus abbas, identified with Peter of Goulaion) of an embassy sent by Emperor Nikephoros I to Charlemagne in 802/3, to ratify the peace treaty between the two. [2] Nikephoros used Michael and Peter, along with Gregory, the steward of Amastris, again as peace envoys in 806, when the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid launched a large-scale invasion of Asia Minor by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. [2] [3]

In 811/2 he led another embassy to Charlemagne, along with the protospatharioi Arsaphios and Theognostos, on behalf of Michael I Rangabe, in order to renew the peace treaty and negotiate a possible marriage of Michael's son Theophylact and one of Charlemagne's daughters. Despite a warm reception at Aachen and the ratification of a peace treaty between the two realms, Charlemagne, perhaps wary after the repeated failures of successive efforts to that effect over the previous decades, hesitated to agree to such a match. [1] [4] On their way to Charlemagne's court, the embassy passed through Rome, where Michael handed over the synodika (enthronement letter) of Tarasios' successor, Patriarch Nikephoros I, to Pope Leo III. [1]

He clashed with the Emperor Leo V the Armenian over Leo's re-adoption of iconoclasm in 815. He was arrested and exiled to Eudokias. [1] He died there on 23 May 826. [1]

Veneration

He is praised in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy of 843, and is venerated as a saint by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches on 23 May. [1] [5] [6] He is invoked for protection of crops from pests. [7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h PmbZ, Michael (# 5042).
  2. ^ a b PmbZ, Michael (# 5042); Petros (# 6066).
  3. ^ Treadgold 1988, p. 145.
  4. ^ Treadgold 1988, pp. 179, 182.
  5. ^ Saint of the Day, May 23
  6. ^ "St Michael the Confessor the Bishop of Synnada", Orthodox Church in America
  7. ^ "List of Saints Called Upon for Special Purposes", Orthodox Prayer

Sources

  • Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.
  • Treadgold, Warren (1988). The Byzantine Revival, 780–842. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN  978-0-8047-1462-4.
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