Prince of the Lord's host of angels, protector of God's people, angel of healing, angel of death... that's the archangel Michael, our patron here at the Parish of Saint Michael, who we call upon for assistance and guidance. His statue (shown above) may be seen over the altar of our church in Bedford, Massachusetts. Many stories describing our patron come down to us through scripture and tradition.

Scripture

The word angel comes from the Greek "Angelos," meaning a messenger. In the Catholic Bible angels are mentioned nearly 300 times, but only Michael and Gabriel are mentioned by name (likewise in the Qur'an).

Angels were present at the beginning of time when they engaged in a great battle in heaven. As told in the Bible, the powerful angel Satan fancying himself to be like unto God had rebelled against the Creator. "Who is like God?" was the war cry of the host of good angels led by the archangel Michael, who overcame Satan and his followers and cast them out of heaven. "Who is like God?" is the English translation of the Hebrew "Mikha El," and is the source of Michael's name. In paintings and statues, the Latin equivalent "Quis ut Deus" is often inscribed on Saint Michael's shield.

Michael is considered a principal angel and guardian of the Church. In the Prophecy of Daniel, Chapter 10, the angel Gabriel, appearing to Daniel, refers to Michael as a chief prince called upon to settle a dispute between angels. At the end of the same chapter Gabriel refers to "Michael your prince," in the sense of a guardian of God's people.

Michael continues the fight against evil. According to an ancient Jewish tradition, which is referred to in the Epistle of St. Jude the Apostle (Jude 1: 9), Michael protected the dead body of Moses from the devil, who wished to use it to tempt the Jewish people into the sin of hero worship. The Dead Sea Scroll "The War of The Sons of Light and The Sons of Darkness," describes Michael as the prince of light leading the forces of good against the darkness of evil. Other evidence to the continuing battle fills tradition down through the ages.

Michael will save God's people from the Antichrist when the world comes to an end. This is foretold in the Old Testament (Dan. 12: 1) "at that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people," and in the New Testament (Rev. 12: 7-9) where St. John the Apostle, in telling of Michael and his angels fighting the dragon, alludes to a great confict at the end of time which will reflect the battle in heaven at the beginning of time.

Asia Minor, First Century A.D.

Michael's original reputation was as champion and protector of the Jewish people and the Church at the time of the Apostles. However, early Christians also regarded him as a healer of the sick. He was given the title "Angel of Healing" in the middle of the first century when he caused a medicinal spring to spout at Chairotopa in the land of Phrygia, now a part of Turkey. Tradition relates that all the sick who bathed in that spring, invoking the Blessed Trinity and St. Michael, were cured.

Even more famous are the springs which Michael is said to have drawn from the rock at Colossae, not far from Chairotopa. The pagans 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 that flow through that gorge. The Greeks instituted a feast (September 6) in commemoration of this event.

Unfortunately, these apparitions inspired a little too much zealousness in parts of the young Christian community. In violation of the First Commandment, self-appointed teachers began promoting angel worship. St. Paul countered this false teaching in his Epistle to the Colossians, in which he says "Let no one cheat you who takes pleasure in self-abasement and worship of the angels, and enters vainly into what he has not seen, puffed up by his mere human mind." (Col. 3: 18)

Constantinople, 337 A.D.

At Constantinople Michael was considered both a heavenly physician and a military protector. The Emperor Constantine the Great attributed his brilliant victory over the pagan Emperor Maxentius to the assistance of Saint Michael, and in gratitude built a magnificent church in Sosthenion, some 50 miles south of Constantinople. He dedicated it to the archangel and called it the Michaelion. In 337 Michael appeared to Constantine at this sanctuary, saying: "I am Michael, the chief of the angelic legions of the Lord of hosts, the protector of the Christian religion, who whilst thou wast battling against godless tyrants, placed the weapons in thy hands." The Michaelion became the scene of many miracles and a place of pilgrimage. Many sick and infirm were cured in it. The sick often slept in this church at night waiting for a manifestation of the archangel.

Monte Gargano, Italy, 493 A.D.

Another apparition of the archangel occurred at Monte Gargano (since renamed Monte Sant'Angelo) in the kingdom of Naples. It is said he showed himself there to the Bishop of Siponto in the year 493 and produced another spring of curative waters. In this apparition, "St. Michael intimated to the bishop that the place was under his protection and that it was his will that God should be worshipped there, in honor of himself and the angels." It is also said that the archangel left his red cloak there when he departed.

A sanctuary, the Santurio di San Michele, was built over the caverns where Michael had appeared. In this sanctuary the Lombards of Sipontum (now called Manfredonia) proclaimed that their May 8, 663 victory over the Greek Neapolitans was due to Michael's intercession.

Today in Gargano the Santurio (also known as the Basilica of St. Michele Arcangelo) remains a place of devotion and a pilgrimage site. The small fountain in the grotto (actually a small opening in the rocks) is said to still retain its miraculous powers.

Rome, 600 A.D.

During a plague which greatly depopulated the city of Rome, Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) ordered a penitential procession in which he himself carried a statue of the Blessed Virgin. As the procession reached the bridge across the Tiber, the singing of angels was heard. Suddenly Gregory saw an apparition of a gigantic archangel, Michael, descending upon the mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian. In his right hand, Michael held a sword, which he thrust into its scabard. Gregory took the vision as an omen that the plague would stop, which it did, and so he renamed the mausoleum the Castel Sant' Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel) in Michael's honor.

Avranches, France, 708 A.D.

In France, Saint Michael is the patron of mariners. His statue atop Mont Saint-Michel on the Normandy coast is visible far out to sea. In the year 708 the archangel is said to have appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, three times in the bishop's dreams. Each time he commanded Aubert to erect a monastery on a rocky outcrop that rose from the sea a mile off the beach. Aubert obeyed: the site was named Mont-Saint-Michel and the famous sanctuary was built there. Inspired by this famous sight twelve centuries later, Henry Adams wrote in his best-selling book "Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres," that "the Archangel loved heights. Standing on the summit of the tower that crowned his church, wings upspread, sword uplifted, the devil crawling beneath, and the cock, symbol of eternal vigilance, perched on his mailed foot, Saint Michael held a place of his own in heaven and on earth. . . . His place was where the danger was greatest."

Council of Rome, 745 A.D.

Again a tendency towards angel worship was growing within the Church. Pope St. Zachary responded by convening a synod to clarify the Church's teaching on the subject of angels. It condemned obsession with angelic intervention and angelolatry, the worship or adoration of angels, but reaffirmed its approval of reverence toward angels. It struck many angels' names from the list of those eligible for veneration, but due to references to him in the Bible, St. Michael's name survived this process.

Italy, 1274

Saint Thomas Acquinas, the "Angelic Doctor," greatly clarified the Church's understanding and teachings about angels in his famous work, the Summa Theologica.

France, 1429

In Fifteenth Century France, Joan of Arc was inspired and urged on to otherwise impossible feats by "voices" coming out of a blaze of light which she identified as those of St. Michael and other angels and saints. It was in vain that she resisted them, saying: "I am a poor girl; I do not know how to ride or fight." The voices only reiterated: "It is God who commands it." She went into battle and was supposedly guided by Michael in her brilliant campaign against the English during the Hundred Years' War.

Mexico, 1531

On December 12, 1531, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, appeared to a native named Juan Diego at Tepeyac Hill, which is now part of Mexico City. An image of the apparition was miraculously imprinted on Juan's tilma (a kind of cloak). The famous tilma remains on display to this day in the Basilica of Guadalupe. At the bottom of the image it may be observed that Our Lady is standing on the crescent moon supported by an angel, identified as Michael.

France, 1612

Almost four centuries ago St. Francis de Sales wrote: "Veneration of St. Michael is the greatest remedy against despising the rights of God, against insubordination, skepticism and infidelity."

Mexico, 1631

In April, 1631, Saint Michael visited Tlaxcala, Mexico. On three separate occasions he appeared there to a local Indian, Diego Lazaro by name, and commanded him to "Make my message known." The message was an announcement of a new spring of water, infused and aglow with the "virtue of God." The story handed down to us tells that Diego overcame his initial reticence with difficulty and finally carried out the angel's request. The water soon became famous for its miraculous curative powers. Pilgrims still visit this holy water well, and the statue of Saint Michael (see picture), both of which are located at the basilica in the Nativitas district of San Miguel del Milagro (Saint Michael's Miracle), about 40 miles east of Mexico City.

The Vatican, 1902

One day, after celebrating Mass, the aged Pope Leo XIII was in conference with the Cardinals when suddenly he sank to the floor in a deep swoon. Physicians who hastened to his side could find no trace of his pulse and feared that he had expired. However, after a short interval the Holy Father regained consciousness and exclaimed with great emotion: "Oh, what a horrible picture I have been permitted to see!" He had been shown a vision of the activities of evil spirits and their efforts against the Church. But in the midst of the horror the archangel Michael appeared and cast Satan and his legions into the abyss of hell. Soon afterwards the pope composed the following prayer to Saint Michael:

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in praelio. Contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur. Tuque princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo divina virtute in infernum detrude.

The well-known English translation appears at the top of this web page. The Pope ordered this prayer to be recited daily after Low Mass in all the churches throughout the Christian world. And so it was. However this practice was swept away in the 1960s by liturgical changes made in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, except in a few churches (for example in the Archdiocese of Boston the traditional Low Mass in Latin, followed by the prayer to Saint Michael in English, is still said in the Holy Trinity Church at 140 Shawmut Ave., Boston, on Sundays starting at 12:00 noon).

Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

A primary source of information concerning Saint Michael is the Catholic Encyclopedia. The 1913 version summarizes scripture and tradition concerning St. Michael, telling us that he serves God in the following ways:

• fighting against Satan
• being the champion of God's people
• rescuing souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death
• calling souls from this earth and leading them to judgment after death

Because of the last two of these roles, Michael is also known as the Angel of Death and is sometimes depicted with the Book of Life, or holding scales for the weighing of souls. Images of the Angel of Death decorate many gravestones.

The Vatican, 1950

In a most singular honor, Pope Pius XII named St. Michael the patron of policemen.

Garabandal, Spain, 1961

In an alleged apparition still being investigated by the Church, St. Michael is reported to have appeared in 1961 to children in the Spanish village of San Sebastian de Garabandal to announce Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is said that he appeared as "a most beautiful figure with a great deal of light," strong of build, with the face of a 9-year old boy and large halo-like wings with light streaming out from behind them.

The Vatican, 1969

In 1969 the Church instituted extensive reforms to the Roman calendar. As one of the changes, September 29 became the feast of the archangels, honoring Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. This day of the year has historical significance: from the sixth century through the Middle Ages, September 29 was the feast of St. Michael (Michaelmas), which was celebrated with remarkable hospitality and as a holy day of obligation. Many popular traditions grew up around the day. In England it was the custom to eat a goose on Michaelmas to protect against financial need for another year. In Ireland, finding a ring hidden in a Michaelmas pie meant that one would soon be married. In some parishes (Isle of Skye) they had a procession on this day and baked a cake called St. Michael's bannock. Starting in the eighteenth century, this and several other feasts were gradually abolished.

The Vatican, 1997

On Easter Sunday, 1997, the Vatican's web site officially went on-line with three computers (web servers), named Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

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