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St Michael in Scripture
According to the Fathers there is often question of St. Michael in Scripture
where his name is not mentioned. They say he was the cherub who stood at the
gate of paradise, "to keep the way of the tree of life" (Genesis 3:24), the
angel through whom God published the Decalogue to his chosen people, the angel
who stood in the way against Balaam (Numbers 22:22 sqq.), the angel who routed
the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35).
The Miracle of St. Michael at Chonae, an early 15th-century Russian icon.It
would have been natural to St. Michael, the champion of the Jewish people, to be
the champion also of Christians, giving victory in war to his clients. The early
Christians, however, regarded some of the martyrs 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 first venerated, in Phrygia, his prestige as angelic healer obscured his
interposition in military affairs. It was from early times the centre of the
true cult of the holy angels, particularly of St. Michael. Tradition relates
that St. Michael in the earliest ages caused a medicinal spring to spout at
Chairotopa near Colossae, where all the sick who bathed there, invoking the
Blessed Trinity and St. Michael, were cured.
Still more famous are the springs which St. Michael is said to have drawn from
the rock at Colossae (Chonae, on the Lycus). A legend tells that 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 which came from the gorge. The Greeks claim that
this apparition took place about the middle of the first century and celebrate a
feast in commemoration of it on 6 September (Analecta Bolland., VIII, 285-328).
Also at Pythia in Bithynia and elsewhere in Asia the hot springs were dedicated
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. He supposedly visited Emperor Constantine the Great at
Constantinople, intervened in assorted battles, and appeared, sword in hand,
over the mausoleum of Hadrian, in apparent answer to the prayers of Pope St.
Gregory I the Great (r. 590-604) that a plague in Rome should cease. In honor of
the occasion, the pope took to calling the mausoleum the Castel Sant'Angelo
(Castle of the Holy Angel), the name by which it is still known. The sick slept
in this church at night to wait for a manifestation of St. Michael; his feast
was kept there 9 June.
Archangel Michael as represented on a
coin of Emperor Michael V.Another famous church was within the walls of the
city, at the thermal baths of the Emperor Arcadius; there the synaxis of the
archangel was celebrated 8 November. This feast spread over the entire Greek
Church, and the Syrian, Armenian, and Coptic Churches adopted it also; it is now
the principal feast of St. Michael in the Orient. It may have originated in
Phrygia, but its station at Constantinople was the Thermae of Arcadius (Martinow,
"Annus Graeco-slavicus", 8 Nov.). Other feasts 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.
The Christians of Egypt placed their life-giving river, the Nile, under the
protection of St. Michael; they adopted the Greek feast 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 a holiday
of obligation the feast of St. Michael "for the rising of the Nile".
At Rome the Leonine Sacramentary (sixth century) has the "Natale Basilicae
Angeli via Salaria", 30 September; of the five Masses for the feast three
mention St. Michael. The Gelasian Sacramentary (seventh century) gives the feast
"S. Michaelis Archangeli", and the Gregorian Sacramentary (eighth century), "Dedicatio
Basilionis S. Angeli Michaelis", 29 Sept. A manuscript also here adds "via
Salaria" (Ebner, "Miss. Rom. Iter Italicum", 127). This church of the Via
Salaria was six miles to the north of the city; in the ninth century it was
called Basilica Archangeli in Septimo (Armellini, "Chiese di Roma", p. 85). It
disappeared a thousand years ago. At Rome also the part of heavenly physician
was given to St. Michael. According to an (apocryphal?) legend of the tenth
century he appeared over the Moles Hadriani (Castel di S. Angelo), in 950,
during the procession which St. Gregory held against the pestilence, putting an
end to the plague. Boniface IV (608-15) built on the Moles Hadriani in honour of
him, a church, which was styled St. Michaelis inter nubes (in summitate circi).
A 13th-century Byzantine icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.Well
known is the apparition of St. Michael (a. 494 or 530-40), as related in the
Roman Breviary, 8 May, at his renowned sanctuary on Monte Gargano, where his
original glory as patron in war was restored to him. To his intercession the
Lombards of Sipontum (Manfredonia) attributed their victory over the Greek
Neapolitans, 8 May 663. In commemoration of this victory the church of Sipontum
instituted a special feast in honour of the archangel, on 8 May, which has
spread over the entire Latin Church and is now called (since the time of Pius V)
"Apparitio S. Michaelis", although it originally did not commemorate the
apparition, but the victory.
In Normandy St. Michael is the patron of mariners in his famous sanctuary at
Mont-Saint-Michel in the Diocese of Coutances. He is said to have appeared
there, in 708, to St. Aubert, Bishop of Avranches. In Normandy his feast "S.
Michaelis in periculo maris" or "in Monte Tumba" was universally celebrated on
18 Oct., the anniversary of the dedication of the first church, 16 Oct., 710;
the feast is now confined to the Diocese of Coutances.
In Germany, after its evangelization, St. Michael replaced for the Christians
the pagan god Wotan, to whom many mountains were sacred, hence the numerous
mountain chapels of St. Michael all over Germany. He is also known as the patron
saint of the German Nation. His picture bedecked the war standard of the old
German Empire (Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation).
The hymns of the Roman Office are said to have been composed by St. Rabanus
Maurus of Fulda (d. 856). In art St. Michael is represented as an angelic
warrior, fully armed with helmet, sword, and shield (often the shield bears the
Latin inscription: Quis ut Deus), standing over the dragon, whom he sometimes
pierces with a lance. He also holds a pair of scales in which he weighs the
souls of the departed (cf. Rock, "The Church of Our Fathers", III, 160), or the
book of life, to show that he takes part in the judgment. His feast (29
September) in the Middle Ages was celebrated as a holy day of obligation, as he
was the patron of knights, but along with several other feasts it was gradually
abolished since the eighteenth century. Michaelmas Day, in England 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, most
families had one dressed on Michaelmas Day. In some parishes (Isle of Skye) they
had a procession on this day and baked a cake, called St. Michael's bannock.
Catholic and Orthodox Christians often refer to the angel Michael as "Saint
Michael", an honorific title that does not indicate canonisation. He is
generally referred to in Christian litanies as "Saint Michael the Archangel".
Orthodoxy accords him the title Archistrategos, or Supreme Commander, of the
Heavenly Hosts.
St. Michael's Victory over the Devil, sculpture above the main entrance to St.
Michaelis (Hamburg) in Hamburg, Germany.Michael was usually honored on mountain
tops and high places, and many famous shrines to him survive on those places,
often replacing shrines of pre-Christian gods concerned with weather, like Wotan.
In Greek folklore, Michael also assumed Hermes' role as the psychopomp who leads
souls to Hades, and in the role of weigher of souls on Judgment Day. A related
folk belief is that Michael's face can only be seen by the dead and those about
to die; for this reason some folk icons depict him without a face.
The Catholic Church honors Michael with four main titles or offices. He is the
Christian angel of death, carrying the souls of all the deceased to heaven,
where they are weighed in his perfectly balanced scales (hence Michael is often
depicted holding scales). At the hour of death, Michael descends and gives each
soul the chance to redeem itself before passing, thus consternating the devil
and his minions. Michael is the special patron of the Chosen People in the Old
Testament and is guardian of the Church; it was thus not unusual for the angel
to be revered by the military orders of knights during the Middle Ages. Last, he
is the supreme enemy of Satan and the fallen angels.
In the Roman Calendar of the Saints, his feast day, once widely known as
Michaelmas, is celebrated September 29 and was one of the four Irish Quarter
days on which accounts were settled and the third of the English quarter days
when university terms began. In Eastern Orthodoxy his principal feast day is
November 8 when he is honored along with the rest of the "Bodiless Powers of
Heaven" as their leader, and his miraculous appearance at Colossae (see below)
is commemorated on September 6.
His elevated position is made clear by his title of saint, by the number of
churches dedicated to him, and by his many appearances in history. He supposedly
visited Emperor Constantine the Great (d. 337) at Constantinople, intervened in
assorted battles, and appeared, sword in hand, over the mausoleum of Hadrian, in
apparent answer to the prayers of Pope St. Gregory I the Great (r. 590-604) that
a plague in Rome should cease. In honor of the occasion, the pope took to
calling the mausoleum the Castel Sant'Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel), the
name by which it is still known.
The last visit certified one major aspect involving Michael, namely his role as
an angel of healing. This title was bestowed at Phrygia, in Asia Minor, which
also propagated the cult of angels and became a leading center for their
veneration. Michael is reputed to have caused a healing spring to flow in the
first century at Colossae, and his churches were frequently visited by the sick
and lame. The angel is invoked additionally as the patron of sailors in Normandy
(the famous monastery of Mont Saint Michel on the north coast of France is named
after him). He is especially remembered in France as the spirit who gave Joan of
Arc the courage to save her country from the English during the Hundred Years'
War (1337-1455). Perhaps his most singular honor was given to him in 1950 when
Pope Pius XII (r. 1939-1958) named him patron of policemen. Michael is also said
to have announced to the Virgin Mary her impending death, declaring himself to
be "Great and Wonderful."
A monument to St. Michael, the patron of Kiev, with Independence Square in the
background.Medieval Christians considered St. Michael as the symbol or emblem of
the Church Militant and as the patron saint of soldiers, in the Roman Catholic
liturgy, Princeps militiae coelestis quem honorificant angelorum cives ("Prince
of the celestial army whom the city of angels honor").
According to legend, Michael instructed St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches to build
a church on the rocky islet now known as Mont Saint Michel in 708. Also
dedicated to Michael was the French Order of St Michel founded in 1469. Today,
however, he is more usually associated with police officers, paramedics, EMTs
and other emergency workers. He is also the patron of Ukraine and its capital
Kiev and of the archdiocese of Seattle.
Under the influence of the widely-read angelology of the Pseudo-Dionysius the
Areopagite, among Church fathers much time was spent allotting Michael a rank in
the celestial hierarchy: Salmeron, Cardinal Bellarmine, Basil the Great's homily
(De Angelis) and other Greek fathers place Michael over all the angels; they say
he is called "archangel" because he is the prince of the other angels. Others
(cf. P. Bonaventura, op. cit.) believe that he is the prince of the seraphim,
the first of the nine angelic orders. According to Thomas Aquinas (Summa Ia.
113.3), he is the prince of the last and lowest choir, the angels.
The hymn of the Mozarabic Breviary places St. Michael even above the Twenty-four
Elders.
A favorite angelic subject in art, matched only by Gabriel, Michael is often
depicted as winged and with unsheathed sword. In the Renaissance period, he is
shown as young, strong, and handsome, and is most often depicted as a proud,
handsome angel in white or magnificent armor or a splendid coat of mail and
equipped with sword, shield and spear. His wings are generally conspicuous and
very grand. He is usually shown holding in his hand a banner or the scales of
justice. Quite often he is seen, like St. George or some Madonnas, in conflict
with a dragon or standing upon a vanquished devil, who most of the time is
Satan.
Seraphim Angels
Seraphiel
Metatron
Michael
Vehuel Uriel
Nathanael Jehoel
Chamuel
Lucifer Abaddon
Asmodeus Astaroth
Leviathan Samael
Semyazza
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Angels
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