Pope Michael I

Overview

Pope Michael I, commonly called Kha’il I in the historical sources, was the forty-sixth patriarch of the See of Saint Mark, with a patriarchate dated 744–767. Before his election he was a monk and presbyter of the Monastery of Saint Macarius, or Dayr Anba Maqar, in Wadi al-Natrun. The Coptic Encyclopedia identifies him as a saint and records his feast on 16 Baramhat.¹²

His patriarchate crossed the transition from the last Umayyad rulers to the early Abbasid caliphs. The patriarchal chronology places his tenure under al-Walid ibn Yazid, Yazid III, Ibrahim, Marwan II, al-Saffah, and al-Mansur. The surviving accounts describe financial demands, conversions associated with tax exemptions, competition over churches, imprisonment, and intervention in a dispute involving Nubia.^39111213

Michael’s historical importance also rests on the unusually extensive account of his life. Yuhanna the Deacon, a contemporary associated with the circle that promoted his election, assembled a biography described as one of the fullest in the History of the Patriarchs. Its interests extend beyond Michael himself to Egyptian society, political affairs, and relations with other churches.⁴

History and origins

Monastic formation and Menas of Tmuis

Michael’s principal biography identifies him as a monk and priest of Saint Macarius at the time of his selection. Other passages preserve an earlier connection with the Monastery of Saint Antony. Its chronology places Michael and Menas, the future bishop of Tmuis, there before 690.¹⁵

The life of Menas connects these two monastic settings: Menas met the future patriarch at Saint Antony, and the two subsequently went to the Monastery of Saint Macarius in Scetis, where Abraham and George had become renowned. Thus the references to Saint Antony and Saint Macarius need not represent competing accounts of Michael’s formation; the life of Menas explicitly describes movement between them.⁶

Menas became Michael’s spiritual father and participated in his consecration. His biography places Michael among four patriarchs upon whom Menas laid hands: Alexander II, Cosmas I, Theodorus, and Michael himself. The account of Tmuis also names Menas among the bishops attending the election in 744.⁶⁷

Michael’s origins at Saint Macarius belong to a wider institutional pattern. The monastery’s history describes it as an occasional patriarchal seat and a major center of church activity, and credits it with supplying patriarchs and scholars from Michael’s period through that of Shenute I. Michael’s successor, Mina I, was likewise a monk of Saint Macarius and had been his disciple there.⁸²⁹

Election and consecration

After the death of Theodorus, the assembled bishops, Alexandrian clergy, and Coptic archons appointed an episcopal delegation to seek the governor’s permission to choose a patriarch. Hafs ibn al-Walid al-Hadrami granted permission on condition that the selected candidate appear before him before consecration.¹

The delegation also presented a complaint about the previous governor, Abu al-Qasim. According to Michael’s biography, he had doubled the kharaj tax and extracted money when famine, pestilence, and a low Nile had already depleted the country’s resources. Although Hafs authorized the election, the delegation obtained no relief from those financial burdens.¹

Deliberations in Alexandria continued for several days without agreement. The narrative says that a deacon, following a dream, proposed Michael as a worthy candidate. Bishops then went to Wadi Habib, brought him back, and arranged his consecration after his introduction to the governor.⁹

Other notices identify participants in the wider electoral process. Jacob of Abusir Bana attended the synod that selected Michael; Abraham of Bilbeis and Menas of Tmuis are also named as participants in a synod held in Cairo in 744. The metropolitan history additionally names Theodorus, bishop of Misr, as assisting in the election, but dates that involvement to 743.¹⁰⁷³⁰

These notices preserve a chronological and geographical difficulty rather than a fully harmonized itinerary. The principal biography describes deliberations in Alexandria, while the local episcopal histories refer to a Cairo synod, and the notice concerning Theodorus of Misr gives 743 rather than 744. They may concern different stages, but the supplied accounts do not establish their precise relationship.^1910730

Umayyad upheaval and financial pressure

Michael’s biography places his election within rapid changes of government. It reports that al-Walid ibn Yazid recruited forced labor to build a city bearing his name, and attributes his death to Ibrahim, who released the laborers and attempted administrative reform. After Ibrahim’s flight to Damascus, Hafs resumed the governorship.⁹

The same narrative reports that Hafs offered exemption from the jizyah, explicitly identified as the poll tax, to Copts who embraced Islam. It gives the number of converts as 24,000 and says that some entered military service. Michael is depicted as unable to prevent this development, which the ecclesiastical account presents as a grave loss to the Christian community.⁹

The distinction between kharaj and jizyah matters within the account: the first appears in the delegation’s complaint about increased fiscal demands, while the second is specifically associated with conversion and exemption. Financial policy consequently appears not only as an economic burden but also as a pressure affecting the community’s religious allegiance.¹⁹

Hafs was subsequently pursued by the new governor Hawtharah, who, according to the biography, burned him alive, killed many supporters, and confiscated their property. Yet the narrative does not portray Hawtharah’s relationship with Christians in uniformly hostile terms: it quotes the History of the Patriarchs as saying that he favored the Orthodox and consulted Abba Moses about the salvation of his soul while stationed at Wasim with his army for three years.¹¹

This contrast is important to the source’s portrayal of Michael’s political environment. Violent struggles among rulers coexisted with episodes of cooperation between individual officials and churchmen; the biography also reports a period of approximately five years of relative peace before renewed difficulties.¹¹¹²

Rival patriarchs and contested churches

During the caliphate of Marwan II, a Chalcedonian goldsmith named Theophylact obtained appointment as patriarch of the Greeks, taking the name Cosmas. Michael’s biography presents him as a rival to the Coptic Orthodox patriarch.¹²

The governor ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Musa ibn Nasir supported Cosmas’s efforts to recover Byzantine churches that had passed into Coptic possession after the Arab conquest. The contested properties included the cathedral of Saint Menas, or Abu Mina, at Mareotis, which the passage attributes to Emperor Arcadius. The account identifies Menas as an Egyptian martyr of the third century.¹²

A heated dispute followed between Michael and Cosmas. The Coptic account alleges attempted bribery by the Chalcedonian side and credits Michael’s reasoning and eloquence with prevailing. This is the source’s assessment of the controversy, not a surviving account from both parties.¹²

The same passage records prolonged discussions aimed at restoring unity between the churches. A pestilence diverted attention from these discussions, while extraordinary government demands eventually affected both patriarchs. Michael sought permission to travel to Upper Egypt to collect the required money.¹²

The narrative therefore distinguishes ecclesiastical rivalry from a shared vulnerability to government exactions. Michael and Cosmas could oppose one another over church property and unity while both facing substantial financial demands from the administration.¹²

Nubia, imprisonment, and the Bashmuric crisis

Michael intervened in a conflict between an unnamed king of Nubia and his bishop. After an extended exchange of letters between the king and patriarch, the Egyptian governor learned of the matter and seized Michael. The supplied extract breaks off before completing its account of the immediate consequences.¹³

A separate notice confirms that Michael was imprisoned with other church leaders. Among them was Peter of Abusir Bana, a pupil of Zacharias of Atrib, whose episcopate is placed shortly before 750.¹⁰

The account of the Bashmuric revolts supplies another setting for pressure on the patriarch. It describes repeated unsuccessful expeditions by Hawthara, followed by Marwan’s personal arrival in Egypt, an unsuccessful offer of an armistice, and the combination of troops from Damascus with forces already fighting in Egypt. The passage then introduces action against Michael as additional pressure on the Copts, but ends before specifying its full course.¹⁴

That discussion also preserves differing interpretations of the revolts. Arabic historians are said to have emphasized heavy fiscal demands, while the encyclopedia article additionally points to increasing intolerance. The exact beginning of the Bashmuric uprisings remains uncertain because the region’s boundaries and the relationship between its resistance and wider Egyptian revolts are difficult to establish.¹⁴

Theology and meaning

Canonical discipline and the independence of church office

A statement attributed to Michael presents adherence to ecclesiastical law as more important than personal safety. He declares that sword, fire, exposure to lions, exile, and captivity do not trouble him, but refuses to enter into an unlawful action or incur an excommunication that he had himself endorsed.¹⁵

The specific issue in the quotation is the elevation of a bishop to the patriarchate: Michael refers to a prohibition “that no bishop shall become patriarch.” He connects this with the fathers’ condemnation of obtaining hierarchical rank through governmental help or favor.¹⁵

The passage thus links two concerns: fidelity to a rule governing ecclesiastical advancement, and resistance to the use of political patronage to obtain church office. Its force lies in Michael’s willingness to accept coercion rather than abandon the obligation he believed himself to have undertaken.¹⁵

Read alongside his election narrative, the statement also reveals a distinction between acknowledging civil authority and accepting civil control over ecclesiastical eligibility. Michael appeared before the governor before consecration, but the canonical statement rejects governmental favor as a means of acquiring rank contrary to church law.¹⁹¹⁵

Liturgical and practical use

Commemoration

Michael’s feast is listed on 16 Baramhat, under the name Kha’il I or Michael. The encyclopedia’s index explicitly identifies him as a saint and patriarch, while its saints list directs readers from Michael I to Kha’il I.²

Prayer for the Nile

The history of Memphis records that Bishop Mennas assisted Michael in a prayer service for the rising of the Nile. This is a specific instance of the patriarch’s participation in worship addressing an urgent material concern of Egyptian life.¹⁶

A later biography, that of Peter VII, describes a tradition in which a failed inundation was followed by a patriarchal celebration of the Eucharist, the washing of sacramental utensils, and the sprinkling of that water into the river, after which the Nile rose. It states that a similar episode was recorded during Michael’s patriarchate. The comparison connects Michael with a recurring narrative of patriarchal intercession, but does not reproduce the details of his own episode.¹⁷

Texts, names, and historical testimony

Michael, Kha’il, and Mikha’il

The principal biography explicitly gives “Kha’il, or Michael,” while the index groups the first three patriarchs called Mikha’il under Kha’il I, II, and III. These are alternative forms used for the same series of patriarchal names in the reference work.¹¹⁸

Michael I must be distinguished from Mika’el I, the Ethiopian metropolitan active in the early twelfth century. That prelate was originally named Habib al-Atfihi and received the name Mika’el upon elevation to the Ethiopian see by Macarius II; he is not the eighth-century Alexandrian patriarch.¹⁹

Yuhanna the Deacon and the patriarchal biography

Yuhanna the Deacon, also called Yuhanna ibn Moesis, was the spiritual son of Moses, bishop of Awsim. His biography of Michael drew on contemporary knowledge, and the account of Yuhanna credits both him and Moses with important roles in securing Michael’s selection from the monks of Saint Macarius.⁴

The study of the History of the Patriarchs identifies this author as John, a native of Giza, a monk and deacon, and a close companion of Michael. It suggests that he later became a bishop, although his see is unknown. It attributes to him patriarchal lives 43–46, covering 705–768, and notes that the contributions of two men named Maqarah mentioned in an editorial notice remain unclear.²⁰

The title History of the Patriarchs commonly designates the work whose actual title is Siyar al-Bi‘ah al-Muqaddasah, translated as “Biographies of the Holy Church.” The encyclopedia emphasizes that it is a continuing tradition of historical writing rather than a single uniformly composed book: some lives focus closely on a patriarch, while others use a patriarchate to organize political and social events.²¹

This distinction is especially useful for Michael’s life, since episodes assigned to his reign do not necessarily describe actions in which he personally participated. The work’s study also questions the traditional role assigned to Sawirus ibn al-Muqaffa‘ and presents scholarship identifying a later collection and translation process, whereas the separate article on Yuhanna retains the older description of Sawirus using Yuhanna’s work.²⁰²¹⁴

Church figures and communities connected with Michael

Beyond Menas of Tmuis and Moses of Awsim, Michael’s period is associated with Epimachus of Arwat, later bishop of Pelusium or al-Farama. The life preserves information about his earlier leadership of Dayr Mart Maryam near Bilbeis, a monastery plundered before Michael’s election by the commander and brothers of a large Bedouin force. The account links that community with Saint Macarius through Epimachus and through Menas, the future bishop of Memphis.²²

Another passage places Epimachus’s accession to the bishopric of Farama within Michael’s patriarchate and suggests that he had previously been called Moses at Scetis. The history of al-Farama records his confrontation with a Chalcedonian priest during the same period, providing a local counterpart to the disputes involving Michael and Cosmas.²³²⁴

Michael’s life also mentions Paul, bishop of Akhmim, as a former or current superior of the monastery of Saint Shinudah. The expression “second superior” is uncertain: it may refer to earlier service as deuterarios, or prior, or to a bishop who also headed the monastery. The oldest manuscript lacks the Arabic adjective al-thani, “second,” leaving the precise office unresolved.²⁵

For the wider monastic landscape, the notice on Michael reports thirty-five monasteries in the Fayyum. Abu Salih repeats this number, apparently for the same period, although he names or describes only eight. The figure is evidence preserved within Michael’s historical notice, not an indication that he founded those monasteries.²⁶

Historical traditions and variations

Miracle narratives associated with the period

The account of the Church of the Virgin Mary preserves a legend set during Michael’s patriarchate. A man mocked an icon of the Crucifixion and attempted to pierce Christ’s other side with a cane before a crowd described as ten thousand spectators. The narrative says that he felt himself pierced and suspended in the air, repented, and promised conversion if relieved; afterward he was baptized at Saint Macarius, became a monk, and died there.²⁷

Another narrative concerns Governor al-Qasim ibn ‘Ubayd Allah at the monastery of Saint Shinudah. Despite an elderly superior’s objection, the governor attempted to enter the church on horseback with troops and his concubine. The story reports falling horses and the woman’s death, followed by an offering of 400 dinars; when thirty men could not move a wooden chest he wished to take, he gave a further 300 dinars.²⁵

These stories belong to the religious narratives preserved under Michael’s name and reign. Neither passage describes Michael as personally performing the reported miracles; one centers on an icon, and the other on the sanctity of a monastery.²⁵²⁷

Febronia and the setting of civil war

A story about a nun named Febronia also appears in Michael’s patriarchal narrative. In the version attributed to Abu Salih, her convent was besieged by Bashmurites during Marwan’s conflict with the Abbasids. She pretended to possess an ointment making her invulnerable and offered a demonstration, accepting death by the sword and thereby saving her sisters.²⁸

The encyclopedia distinguishes this story from the fourth-century martyrdom of Febronia at Nisibis and identifies the later episode as a widespread folklore theme of uncertain origin. It also notes that Michael’s patriarchal narrative supplies no topographical details for the event, unlike Abu Salih’s identification of Dayr al-Hamidat.²⁸

The death of Marwan II

Michael’s life is an important witness to traditions about Marwan II’s death in 750, but the geographical evidence is inconsistent. Accounts associated with Abu Salih place the event at Busir Quridus, while another passage identifies the Cleopatra mentioned in Michael’s life with a town near al-Ashmunayn.³¹

The patriarchal life itself reports a Syrian stylite’s prediction that Marwan would die at Abu Abis, at Cleopatra, and subsequently places his defeat and death at the Mountain of Abah, or Babah, west of Cleopatra. It also names Dawatun as his place of capture, but manuscript variation makes that location uncertain. The encyclopedia therefore treats the account as preserving divergent testimony rather than establishing one secure identification.³¹

Succession and historical significance

Michael’s patriarchate is dated to 767, when Mina I succeeded him. Mina had been his disciple at Saint Macarius, and the account of his election describes agreement among bishops, Alexandrian clergy, and archons, followed by governmental approval and peaceful consecration. His biography contrasts the relative prosperity of his opening period with the burdens endured under preceding patriarchs.³²⁹

Michael’s remembered significance rests on the combination of monastic formation, defense of canonical obligations, intercession, and leadership under political pressure. His commemoration on 16 Baramhat preserves his place among the saints, while the unusually full contemporary biography makes his patriarchate an important source for the history of the Coptic Church and eighth-century Egypt.^2461516