St. Michael the Archangel

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(Hebrew "Who is likeGod?").

St. Michael is one of the principalangels; his name was the war-cry of thegood angels in the battle fought inheaven against theenemy andhis followers. Four times his name is recorded inScripture:

(1)Daniel 10:13 sqq.,Gabriel says toDaniel, when he asksGod to permit theJews to return toJerusalem: "The Angel [D.V. prince] of thekingdom of the Persians resisted me . . . and, behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me . . . and none is my helper in all these things, but Michael your prince."

(2)Daniel 12, theAngel speaking of theend of the world and theAntichrist says: "At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people."

(3)In theCatholic Epistle of St. Jude: "When Michael the Archangel, disputing with thedevil, contended about the body ofMoses", etc.St. Jude alludes to an ancientJewishtradition of a dispute between Michael andSatan over the body ofMoses, an account of which is also found in theapocryphal book on the assumption ofMoses (Origen,De Principiis III.2.2). St. Michael concealed thetomb ofMoses;Satan, however, by disclosing it, tried to seduce theJewish people to thesin of hero-worship. St. Michael also guards the body ofEve, according to the "Revelation of Moses" ("Apocryphal Gospels", etc., ed. A. Walker,Edinburgh, p. 647).

(4)Apocalypse 12:7, "And there was a great battle inheaven, Michael and hisangels fought with thedragon."St. John speaks of the great conflict at the end oftime, which reflects also the battle inheaven at the beginning oftime. According to theFathers there is often question of St. Michael inScripture where his name is not mentioned. They say he was thecherub who stood at the gate ofparadise, "to keep the way of the tree of life" (Genesis 3:24), theangel through whomGod published theDecalogue to hischosen people, theangel who stood in the way againstBalaam (Numbers 22:22 sqq.), theangel who routed the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35).

Following theseScriptural passages,Christian tradition gives to St. Michael four offices:

Regarding his rank in the celestialhierarchy opinions vary;St. Basil (Hom. de angelis) and otherGreekFathers, alsoSalmeron,Bellarmine, etc., place St. Michael over all theangels; they say he is called "archangel" because he is the prince of the otherangels; others (cf. P. Bonaventura, op. cit.) believe that he is the prince of theseraphim, the first of the nineangelic orders. But, according toSt. Thomas (Summa Ia.113.3) he is the prince of the last and lowest choir, theangels. TheRoman Liturgy seems to follow theGreekFathers; it calls him "Princeps militiae coelestis quem honorificant angelorum cives". Thehymn of theMozarabicBreviary places St. Michael even above the Twenty-four Elders. TheGreek Liturgy styles himArchistrategos, "highest general" (cf. Menaea, 8 Nov. and 6 Sept.).

Veneration

It would have been natural to St. Michael, the champion of theJewish people, to be the champion also ofChristians, giving victory inwar to his clients. The earlyChristians, however, regarded some of themartyrs as their military patrons:St. George,St. Theodore,St. Demetrius,St. Sergius, St. Procopius, St. Mercurius, etc.; but to St. Michael they gave the care of their sick. At the place where he was firstvenerated, in Phrygia, his prestige asangelic healer obscured his interposition in military affairs. It was from early times the centre of thetrue cult of theholy angels, particularly of St. Michael.Tradition relates that St. Michael in the earliest ages caused a medicinal spring to spout at Chairotopa nearColossae, where all the sick who bathed there, invoking theBlessed Trinity and St. Michael, were cured.

Still more famous are the springs which St. Michael is said to have drawn from the rock atColossae (Chonae, the present Khonas, on the Lycus). Thepagans directed a stream against the sanctuary of St. Michael to destroy it, but the archangel split the rock by lightning to give a new bed to the stream, and sanctified forever the waters which came from the gorge. TheGreeks claim that thisapparition took place about the middle of the first century and celebrate afeast in commemoration of it on 6 September (Analecta Bolland., VIII, 285-328). Also at Pythia in Bithynia and elsewhere inAsia the hot springs werededicated to St. Michael.

At Constantinople likewise, St. Michael was the great heavenly physician. His principal sanctuary, the Michaelion, was at Sosthenion, some fifty miles south of Constantinople; there the archangel is said to haveappeared to theEmperor Constantine. The sick slept in thischurch at night to wait for amanifestation of St. Michael; hisfeast was kept there 9 June. Another famouschurch was within the walls of the city, at the thermal baths of the Emperor Arcadius; there thesynaxis of the archangel was celebrated 8 November. Thisfeast spread over the entireGreek Church, and theSyrian,Armenian, andCoptic Churches adopted it also; it is now the principalfeast of St. Michael in theOrient. It may have originated in Phrygia, but its station at Constantinople was the Thermae of Arcadius (Martinow, "Annus Graeco-slavicus", 8 Nov.). Otherfeasts of St. Michael at Constantinople were: 27 October, in the "Promotu" church; 18 June, in the Church of St. Julian at the Forum; and 10 December, at Athaea.

TheChristians of Egypt placed their life-giving river, the Nile, under the protection of St. Michael; they adopted theGreekfeast and kept it 12 November; on the twelfth of every month they celebrate a special commemoration of the archangel, but 12 June, when the river commences to rise, they keep as aholiday ofobligation thefeast of St. Michael "for the rising of the Nile",euche eis ten symmetron anabasin ton potamion hydaton.

AtRome the Leonine Sacramentary (sixth century) has the "Natale Basilicae Angeli via Salaria", 30 September; of the fiveMasses for thefeast three mention St. Michael. The Gelasian Sacramentary (seventh century) gives thefeast "S. Michaelis Archangeli", and the Gregorian Sacramentary (eighth century), "Dedicatio Basilionis S. Angeli Michaelis", 29 Sept. Amanuscript also here adds "via Salaria" (Ebner, "Miss. Rom. Iter Italicum", 127). Thischurch of the Via Salaria was six miles to the north of the city; in the ninth century it was calledBasilica Archangeli in Septimo (Armellini, "Chiese di Roma", p. 85). It disappeared a thousand years ago. AtRome also the part of heavenly physician was given to St. Michael. According to an (apocryphal?)legend of the tenth century heappeared over the Moles Hadriani (Castel di S. Angelo), in 950, during theprocession whichSt. Gregory held against the pestilence, putting an end to the plague.Boniface IV (608-15) built on the Moles Hadriani in honour of him, achurch, which was styledSt. Michaelis inter nubes (in summitate circi).

Well known is theapparition of St. Michael (a. 494 or 530-40), as related in theRoman Breviary, 8 May, at his renowned sanctuary on Monte Gargano, where his originalglory aspatron inwar was restored to him. To hisintercession theLombards of Sipontum (Manfredonia) attributed their victory over theGreekNeapolitans, 8 May, 663. In commemoration of this victory thechurch of Sipontum instituted a specialfeast inhonour of the archangel, on 8 May, which has spread over the entireLatin Church and is now called (since the time ofPius V) "Apparitio S. Michaelis", although it originally did not commemorate theapparition, but the victory.

InNormandy St. Michael is thepatron of mariners in his famous sanctuary atMont-Saint-Michel in theDiocese of Coutances. He is said to haveappeared there, in 708, to St. Aubert,Bishop of Avranches. InNormandy hisfeast "S. Michaelis in periculo maris" or "in Monte Tumba" was universally celebrated on 18 Oct., the anniversary of thededication of the firstchurch, 16 Oct., 710; thefeast is now confined to theDiocese of Coutances. InGermany, after its evangelization, St. Michael replaced for theChristians thepagan god Wotan, to whom many mountains were sacred, hence the numerous mountainchapels of St. Michael all overGermany.

Thehymns of theRoman Office are said to have been composed bySt. Rabanus Maurus ofFulda (d. 856). Inart St. Michael is represented as anangelic warrior, fully armed with helmet, sword, and shield (often the shield bears theLatin inscription: Quis ut Deus), standing over thedragon, whom he sometimes pierces with a lance. He also holds a pair of scales in which he weighs thesouls of the departed (cf. Rock, "The Church of Our Fathers", III, 160), or the book of life, to show that he takes part in thejudgment. Hisfeast (29 September) in theMiddle Ages was celebrated as a holy day ofobligation, but along with several otherfeasts it was gradually abolished since the eighteenth century (seeFEASTS). Michaelmas Day, inEngland and other countries, is one of the regular quarter-days for settling rents and accounts; but it is no longer remarkable for the hospitality with which it was formerly celebrated. Stubble-geese being esteemed in perfection about this time, mostfamilies had one dressed on Michaelmas Day. In someparishes (Isle of Skye) they had aprocession on this day and baked a cake, called St. Michael's bannock.

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