St Michael (Boris), King of Bulgaria.

Commemorated May 2 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

Born and brought up as a pagan, Boris was baptised under the guidance of uncle, Boyan, and his own sister. At his baptism, he received the name Michael. Patriarch Photius sent him priests, who little by little baptised the whole Bulgarian people. Many of the nobles opposed this new Faith, but it was victorious, and the Cross glittered on many churches built by the devout King Michael. The Faith among the Bulgarians, as among the Serbs, was especially strengthened by the Five Followers of Ochrid, disciples of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who preached the knowledge of Christ to the people in the vernacular Slavonic language. Michael became a monk in old age, and withdrew to a monastery. But when his son Vladimir began to ruin his father's work and exterminate the Christians, Michael again put on his military uniform, took his sword, threw Vladimir down from the throne and replaced him with his younger son Simeon. He then put on his monastic habit again and withdrew to tranquillity, where, in asceticism and prayer, he finished his earthly course peacefully, 'in good faith and a true confession of our Lord Jesus Christ, great and honoured', and went to the heavenly world on May 2nd, 906.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK