St Michael the Confessor, Bishop of Synadon
Commemorated May 23
St Michael was from Synnada in Phrygia of Asia Minor. In Constantinople, he met St Theophylact (commemorated March 8); the holy Patriarch Tarasios, learning that Michael and Theophylact desired to become monks, sent them to a monastery on the Black Sea. Because of their great virtue, St Tarasios afterwards compelled them to accept consecration, Theophylact as Bishop of Nicomedia, and Michael as Bishop of his native Synnada. Because St Michael fearlessly confessed the veneration of the holy icons, the Iconoclast Emperor Leo V the Armenian, who reigned from 813 to 820, banished him. After being driven from one place to another, in many hardships and bitter pains, St Michael died in exile.
Dismissal Hymn (Plagal of the Fourth Tone)
You are a guide of Orthodoxy, a teacher of piety and modesty, a luminary of the world, the God inspired pride of monastics. O wise Michael, you have enlightened everyone by your teachings. You are the harp of the Spirit. Intercede to Christ our God for the salvation of our souls.
Kontakion (Fourth Tone)
Having dawned upon the world like a great daystar, you shine upon all men with your great virtue as with light and with the rays of your miracles, namesake of Angels and worker of miracles.