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Biography

Short Description

Saint Michael of Klopsk (Mikhail Klopsky) was a Russian Orthodox monk and fool-for-Christ of the fifteenth century whose life is known almost exclusively from a medieval hagiographical Life composed in the Novgorod region. Nothing verifiable can be established about his parentage, childhood, or the place and date of his birth. He first appears in the sources already of mature years, arriving unannounced at the Monastery of the Life-Giving Trinity at Klopsk, a short distance from Novgorod the Great, traditionally in 1412 during the abbacy of Theodosius. He entered the church in the midst of the Divine Liturgy. When the brethren afterward asked his name and origin, he replied only with verses drawn from the Psalms and the liturgical books. The abbot, judging him a man of God, received him into the community, where he remained for the rest of his life.

At Klopsk, Michael adopted the severe asceticism associated with the Russian yurodivye. He occupied a humble cell, kept prolonged fasts and night vigils, and for long stretches practiced silence. He went barefoot in every season, including the northern winters, and is said to have worn iron chains beneath his clothing. Although he sometimes assumed an appearance of simplicity or even foolishness in order to deflect praise and to teach humility, he displayed a thorough knowledge of Scripture and the Fathers. Contemporaries attributed to him the gifts of prophecy, clairvoyance, and wonderworking. He rebuked the pride and injustice of Novgorod boyars and visiting princes, often in enigmatic or provocative language characteristic of the fool-for-Christ.

Hagiographical tradition records several encounters in which Michael uttered predictions that later events appeared to confirm, including warnings connected with the political turmoil of the Novgorod Republic and the ambitions of Moscow. He is especially linked in the sources with prophecies concerning Prince Dmitry Shemyaka. Pilgrims came to the monastery seeking his counsel, yet he remained elusive, frequently answering in riddles or remaining silent. After more than four decades of monastic life he died on 11 January 1456 and was buried at the Klopsky Monastery. Miracles were soon reported at his tomb, and local veneration arose in the Novgorod lands.

Formal church-wide glorification took place at the Moscow councils of 1547 presided over by Metropolitan Macarius, when Michael of Klopsk was entered into the general calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church with his feast on 11 January. The historical core of his life rests on the fifteenth- or sixteenth-century Vita, a text that, like other works of the genre, mixes attested monastic practice with legendary embellishment. He remains a representative figure of Novgorodian monasticism and of the Eastern Orthodox tradition of holy foolishness.

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