Saint Michael Syncellus

Michael Synkellos (Greek: Μιχαήλ o σύγκελλος), also spelled Syncellus (c. 760 – 4 January 846), was a Greek Orthodox Arab Christian priest, monk and saint. He held the administrative office of synkellos of the patriarchate of Jerusalem (c. 811–815) and the patriarchate of Constantinople (843–846). He was involved in disputes over the filioque clause and over Byzantine iconoclasm, which landed him in prison for the period 815–843. He nevertheless wrote extensively, producing grammar, theology, hagiographies, hymns and poetry. He wrote in Greek and made at least one translation from Arabic. Michael was born in Jerusalem in or about 761. He was of Arab origin. He was the only son of his parents and had several older sisters. His mother dedicated him at the age of three to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where he was given the rank of anagnostes (reader). Around 786, when he was twenty-five, his father died, his mother and sisters entered a convent and he entered the lavra of Mar Saba as a monk. In 797 or 798, he was ordained a priest by the patriarch of Jerusalem. After two years in Jerusalem, he returned to Mar Saba. In 800, he accepted the brothers Theodore and Theophanes as his monastic disciples. The period following the death of the Abbasid caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd (809) until the accession of al-Maʾmūn (813) was one of unrest that greatly affected the churches of Palestine. Between 808 and 812, probably about 811, Michael was named synkellos of the patriarch of Jerusalem. With his two disciples, he moved into the monastery of the Spoudaioi near the Holy Sepulchre. Between about 811 and 813, he visited Edessa, where he wrote his treatise on syntax. In 812 or 813, Patriarch Thomas I of Jerusalem sent Michael on a mission to Constantinople and Rome, accompanied by his disciples Theodore, Theophanes and Job.