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Michael, a former pupil of Worsthorne Primary School, and St Theodore's RC High School, Burnley, was murdered last November while doing voluntary work in Dharamsala among the poor and destitute.
And on Saturday, amid biting winds and flurries of snow, his heartbroken family, led by his parents, Paul Blakey and Mary Whitford, elder brother Christopher, and step-family, watched as this young man, whose greatest joy was helping others, found peace.
The tiny church was packed with mourners coming from all over the British Isles and messages of sympathy coming from all over the world.
The vicar of St John's, the Rev.
Lawrence Laycock, explained that the many coloured flags which bedecked the church had been sent by a Tibetan monk, Lobsang Jamyang, with whom Michael worked for the charity Tong-Len. He had wanted to be at the funeral, but had had to return to India. The flags had Buddhist prayers on them.
The choir and congregation then rose to sing "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling".
Michael was a recent graduate of Swansea University and a coach with more than 30 people from the university, together with many from Wales who had made the trip independently, swelled the congregation.
Among these was the Rev.
Richard Hall, Methodist chaplain at the university, and a friend. He took the first reading from St Paul's letter to the Romans: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Mr Laycock then talked about Michael's life and all he had packed into it.
He brought laughter to everyone when he quoted Michael's family who had said everyone thought their son a quiet, shy young man.
This was probably because for the first three months of his life he screamed incessantly, and probably got all the noise out of his system!
A very independent child he was, nevertheless, absolutely devoted to his elder brother, Christopher, now serving with the British Army.
A diligent student who loved school, enjoyed reading and never lost his temper, when he came home he loved to walk in Hurstwood - "his spirit will always be there", added Mr Laycock.
A second piece of music, "Caanan's Land", was chosen by the family before his cousin, Andrew Mews, relived childhood memories of holidays in Scotland and the excitement of Christmas Days when the youngsters all played together with their presents.
As the rousing words of "Jerusalem" ended, Richard Hall, shared his very poignant memories of a young man whose opening words to the minister on his arrival in Swansea were: "I'm not a Christian.
I'm on a journey, searching and looking for the truth".
"He was always questioning everything. Easy answers were never acceptable", said Mr Hall.
"He could be quite exasperating to a chaplain at times. In the end , all I could say to him was: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck!", he added.
He went on to explain that while at university Michael had won a top award for his work and, in the words of his head of department: "He was the best student I ever had".
As the service was being conducted in Worsthorne, a Mass was being said simultaneously in a convent in Swansea, and the Dalai Lama was also offering his own prayers.
"He was compassionate, modest and unassuming; and he could also be grumpy and stubborn!
But his faith and anger at injustice should be a challenge to all of us to shake off our complacency and self-satisfaction," concluded Mr Hall.
How appropriate that Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" should be the next choice of music.
The charity for which Michael worked so hard was represented by its director and co-founder, Mrs Anna Owen, who had made the journey from her home in Edinburgh for the service.
"I wonder if Paul and Mary had some foresight of what their son would be like when they chose his name?" she asked. "In Hebrew, Michael means 'one who is like God' or 'one who has seen God'.
How appropriate are they both."
She spoke of his work in India, his dynamism, his battle against injustice, and the fact that he had crammed a lifestime into 23 years.
Mrs Owen explained that her daughter, Rachel, in India working for Tong-Len, had introduced Michael to Jamyang, and the work they did to provide a safe haven and an education for displaced children in particular.
Michael had sponsored a child and it is an ambition of his family that money, in lieu of flowers, will help to pay for a permanent residential home for these children in Michael's name.
She added that Rachel was unable to fly to England because of complications in her pregnancy, but her daughter had requested that Christina Rossetti's poem "Remember" be recited. The service ended with "The day thou gavest, Lord is ended" before the mourners made their way to the crematorium.
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