Category:Early Life

Psaras was born in Antioch in the spring of 1708, at the family villa then owned by his grandfather Matthew. His mother, Anna, died in childbirth the following year, and Psaras' father Andronikos was a distant figure for much of the boy's youth. Michael was always close to his great uncle, Basil, then in retirement, as well as to his grandparents, who acted almost as surrogate parents to him.

He graduated from the University of Nicopolis in 1733 with honours, and thereafter was generally expected to go into politics, but instead became a civil servant in Taprobane. Shortly before the outbreak of the Hundred Days War, Psaras settled in a manor in Larisa, from where he observed the Hungarian invasion of Greece, and participated in its defence. The invasion profoundly shook him, however, and he blamed much of it for the behaviour of the then Grand Logothete, Andronicus Strateios. Psaras' faith in the Imperial League was thereafter broken forever.