Saint Michael is venerated as the first Metropolitan of Kiev, the hierarch who organized the Church among the people of Rus' in the years immediately following their baptism under Prince Vladimir in 988. According to tradition he arrived at Korsun in 989 with clergy who had accompanied the prince, and from there set about establishing the new Church across the recently converted land. He is commemorated on June 15, the day held to be his repose, and on September 30, associated with the transfer of his relics.
Accounts of his origin differ. The Joakimov Chronicle describes him as Syrian by birth, while other sources variously identify him as Bulgarian, Serbian, or Greek. By tradition the Ecumenical Patriarch Nicholas II Chrysoberges selected him to lead the Church of Rus' on account of his wisdom and his manner of life, sending him accompanied by several bishops and a body of clergy. He is described in the sources as a wise and gentle, though also strict, hierarch.
As metropolitan, Michael labored to preach the Gospel throughout the newly enlightened land, baptizing and teaching the people and founding the first churches and religious schools. The tradition relates that he oversaw the baptism of the population of Kiev at the Dnieper, then carried his work to Novgorod and to Rostov, where pagan idols were destroyed and clergy ordained. In Rostov he is said to have established the first wooden church in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and to have installed Theodore the Greek as bishop there.
Saint Michael died in 992 and was buried in the Desyatin, or Tithe, church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Kiev. By tradition his relics were transferred around the year 1103 to the Near (Antoniev) Cave of the Kiev Caves Lavra; on October 1, 1730, they were moved to the Great Church of the Caves. The historical record concerning him is fragmentary, and the foundational accounts of his life rest on later chronicle tradition rather than contemporary documentation.
