The Appearance of Saint Michael by Develv on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Today, 21 November the Orthodox Church celebrates the Synaxis of Holy Archangel Michael and all the Bodiless Powers of Heaven.

In honor of the holiday, I decided to choose a famous legend in Byzantium, for the painting. It's about the st. archangel, who appeared to the boy (the son of an architect) in the form of a beautiful shining eunuch. His wings and halo are transparent to hint at his true nature.
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"One story involves the young son of Ignatios, the chief builder, who was left behind to watch over the construction workers’ tools while
the men went out to eat breakfast.

When the boy sat down, a eunuch appeared to him clad in a shining robe, and with a beautiful face, as if he had been sent from the palace, and said to the boy, “Why do the workers not complete the work of God quickly, but have abandoned it and gone away to eat?” The boy said, “My lord, they will be back soon.” When he said again, “Go and talk to them, for I am anxious for the work to be finished quickly,” and the boy told him that he would not leave lest all the tools disappear, the eunuch said, “Go quickly and summon them to come quickly, and I swear to you thus, my child: by the Holy Wisdom, the Word of God, which is now being built, I will not leave here – for I have been assigned to this place by the Word of God to work and to keep watch -, until you return.” When the boy heard this, he ran off, leaving the angel of the Lord to keep watch over the building site for the gallery. When the boy came down, he found his father, the master builder, together with the others and explained everything.
And his father took him to the emperor’s breakfast, for the emperor was eating there in the chapel of Saint John the Forerunner at the clock house. The emperor heard the boy’s words and summoned all the eunuchs, and showed the boy each of them, saying, “Isn’t it this one?” When the boy declared that none of them looked like the eunuch he had seen in the church, the emperor understood that he was an angel of the Lord, and this his word and oath were true. When the boy said that the eunuch was dressed in white and his cheeks sent out fire and his face was completely transformed, the emperor praised God greatly and said, “God is pleased with this work,” and “I was in great anxiety as to what name I should give the church,” and since then the church received the name ‘Holy Wisdom [Hagia Sophia]’, which is understood to be the Word of God.
And having considered the matter, the emperor said, “The boy is not to return to the construction site, so that the angel may be forever on guard, as he has sworn. For if they boy returns and is found in the building, then the angel of the Lord will leave.”"

- How Hagia Sophia was Built

"The boy guarding the tools in the story about the building of Hagia Sophia re-ferred to above clearly is playing a similar role, since he acts as an intermediary between St. Michael and the emperor. His presence in the narrative allows the emperor to outwit St. Michael and trap the angel into becoming the permanent guardian for Hagia Sophia. Since eunuchs were perceived to share so many attributes with both angels and boys, it is hard to avoid the inference that eunuchs were also assumed to have access to magical properties."

- The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium By Kathryn to Ringrose

"And it is recorded that one Sunday, when the laborers had left the worksite to go home for their dinners, they left a boy of fourteen there to guard their tools. The apparition of a eunuch materialized before him, "clad in shining garments, and fair to look upon, like one sent from the palace," and asked him "why the workmen do not quickly finish the work of God, but have left it and gone to eat?" The boy replied that they would soon be back. The eunuch commanded him: "Go quickly and summon them here, for I swear to thee, my son, by the Holy Wisdom, whose temple is now being built, I will not depart, since, by the command of the Word of God, I am to minister and guard here until you return."
The boy's father promptly took him to the emperor, who commanded all his eunuchs to appear before the youth. When he identified none of them, "the emperor knew that it was an angel of the Lord who had addressed the boy," and he "praised God, saying 'God has accepted my temple.— He would not allow the boy to go back to the church, "so that the angel may guard it for ever, as he promised by his oath. For if the boy returns, the angel will depart." The principal senators and bishops concurred with the emperor, "so that, by the grace of God, it should have a guardian till the end of the world." The boy meanwhile was "loaded with gifts and honors" and sent to the Cyclades."

- Hagia Sophia: A History, By Richard Winston