The relics of the Blessed Prince Mikhail of Tver were transferred to the restored Transfiguration Cathedral of Tver

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On the day of the Easter feast, June 12, 2024, the solemn transfer of the relics of the heavenly patron of Tver, the Blessed Grand Duke Mikhail Tversky, from the Resurrection Cathedral to the restored Transfiguration Cathedral, which is preparing for the great consecration.
In the morning, the Divine Liturgy of the Easter rite was celebrated in the Resurrection Cathedral of Tver, which was led by Metropolitan Ambrose of Tver and Kashinsky, co-served by Bishop Adrian of Rzhevsky and Toropetsky, Bishop Filaret of Bezhetsky and Udomelsky and the clergy of the Tver Metropolis.
The abbesses of Tver monasteries, Governor Igor Rudenya, deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Sergey Veremeenko and Yulia Saranova, Chairman of the regional parliament Sergey Golubev, heads of departments, heads of municipalities, clergy, families of participants in military operations and large families, representatives of public organizations of the region, residents and guests of Tver, guests from Moscow prayed at the service.
At a special litany, prayers were offered for the sick, for the Fatherland, and a prayer for Holy Russia was read.
After the Liturgy, the procession with the holy relics began, which passed through the main streets of Tver and ended in the Transfiguration Cathedral on the Cathedral Square of Tver. The relics were brought into the temple and placed in the middle of the cathedral. 

A prayer service was held in the Transfiguration Cathedral, at the end of which Metropolitan Ambrose addressed the audience with a welcoming speech, in which, in particular, he said:
"Today, by the grace of God, we have become participants in a great event — the transfer of the relics of the Holy Prince Mikhail of Tver to their historical place of presence — the Transfiguration Cathedral. This is not just a historical event, but also deeply spiritual and significant for all of us, for Orthodoxy in our land, for our city and the whole Russian land.
The Holy Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver is a man whose name evokes gratitude from all the inhabitants of our ancient and holy land. He was the first Russian prince who defeated the Horde in open battle, and his victory presented him with a difficult moral choice: to save his life or to save the inhabitants of his hometown from looting and violence. He chose the latter, sacrificing himself for the sake of his people, and with this feat he inscribed his name in the chronicle of the great Russian history.
Saint Michael of Tver stands on a par with such heroes of the Russian land as Saints Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy. His life and death are an example of dedication, courage and loyalty to his principles and beliefs. He averted the threat from Tver, paying for it with his life, and grateful descendants honor his name to this day. He lived as a Christian and died as a Christian martyr.
In 1549, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Mikhail Yaroslavich in the face of the faithful. This act of recognizing his holiness was an important milestone for all believers. The relics of the holy prince were a source of miracles and consolation for many generations of Tver residents, strengthening them in faith and giving them hope in difficult times.
Today we are returning his holy relics to the Transfiguration Cathedral, built by him, destroyed in the twentieth century by mad people, and now restored after many years of oblivion. This event not only symbolizes the revival of the ancient cathedral and the return of the remains of the blessed prince to it, but also closes the chain of history, informing us about the past circle of historical events, about the beginnings of the return of the spirit and faith of our pious ancestors to the Tver land and the restoration of unity of our community of people believing in Christ."
The Governor of the Tver Region congratulated everyone on the historic event.
At the end of the service, tents with a meal were opened on Cathedral Square for all participants of the event.
The akathist was continuously read in front of the relics in the cathedral, while the participants of the procession venerated the relics.


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After the murder of Prince Mikhail of Tver, the naked body of the martyr was thrown to be insulted, then he was covered with clothes and placed on a large board tied to a cart. At night, two guards were assigned to guard the body, but they were seized with fear and ran away. The next morning, his body was not found on the board. That same night, many, not only Orthodox, but also Tatars, saw two bright clouds shine over the place where the body of the martyr lay, and although many predatory animals roamed the steppe, none of them touched him.
The body of the Tver Prince, by order of the Moscow Grand Duke Yuri Danilovich, was initially taken to Moscow, placed in the Spassky Monastery and only at the request of Princess Anna, the widow of the deceased, was given to Tver. The remains of Mikhail Tversky were brought to his hometown in 1319 and were greeted by residents near the Arkhangelsk Monastery. The passion-bearer was buried with a large gathering of Tverites in the Transfiguration Cathedral — in the right part of the temple, next to Bishop Simeon (however, on the canopy, which was arranged over the relics of the saint in 1902, 1320 is indicated as the date of the transfer of his body from Moscow to Tver).
After burial, the body of the martyr remained under a bushel for almost a century, but around 1411 the relics were raised and placed in the temple for the worship of the faithful; official canonization had not yet taken place at that time, but the Tverites revered him as a locally venerated saint. At the Cathedral of 1549, an all-Russian celebration of the memory of the blessed Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver was established.
The found relics of the saint were for some time in a stone tomb. On September 30, 1654, they were transferred to a wooden shrine decorated "inside from the outside, as it should be."
In 1655, the city was affected by a pestilence that raged in the Russian state and caused a huge number of deaths. Archbishop Lawrence of Tver called on the people to fast for a week, repent and pray for deliverance from trouble, and on September 30, the day of remembrance of the transfer of the prince's body from Moscow to Tver, he transferred his relics to a new, specially arranged wooden shrine. After that, the holy remains were taken out of the cathedral, solemnly surrounded by a procession around the city, and according to the faith of the Tverites, a miracle happened: the epidemic began to wane. In memory of this event, Archbishop Lawrence established an annual all-night vigil for Mikhail Tversky in the city on September 30, and this custom was preserved in the pre-revolutionary era: on this day, a special polyeleic service was served in the temples of Tver.
In February and May 1919, at the initiative of the atheistic authorities in the Tver diocese, the infamous campaign for the autopsy and examination of relics took place, the results of which were covered in detail in the local press. The dates of the autopsy were kept secret by the local authorities for as long as possible, so that the religious community would not have time to mobilize and fight back against blasphemous actions. In a series of similar actions, on May 18, 1919, an inspection of the main shrine of the Tver Cathedral — the remains of the blessed Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver took place.
After the revolution and the tragic events of the Great Patriotic War, the relics of Prince Mikhail of Tver were lost. A silver shrine has been preserved, in which the relics of Mikhail Tversky rested for many years. This jewel of Tver land was kept in a museum in Soviet times.
The ark with the relics of the Blessed Prince Mikhail of Tver was returned to the Tver region by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on December 4, 2018.

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