The life of St Micah
The polish of his writing suggests a man of some education, perhaps from a family of standing rather than humble origin. For more than fifty years he traveled through Judah, charging its people with having broken their covenant with God and rebuking the false prophets of his day who spoke comforting fortunes for pay rather than the truth they were meant to carry.
His best remembered prophecy names the small town of Bethlehem as the birthplace of the coming Messiah, a word later ages read as fulfilled in Christ's own birth there. Micah also foretold the destruction that unfaithfulness would eventually bring on both Samaria and Jerusalem. It is not certainly known whether he died at the hands of his own people or lived out his years in peace; an old tradition outside Scripture claims he was thrown from a cliff and buried far from home, though this account is remembered as tradition rather than settled fact. He is honored on two separate days of the Church's calendar, a rare double commemoration for a single prophet.
