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St
Michael the Archangel
Saint
Michael, first champion of the Kingship of Christ, pray for us.
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle, that we perish
not in the fearful judgment.
Skelling Michael, Ireland
The feast of the glorious St Michael, observed on 29 September, originates in the dedication of the church in honour of this great archangel on Mt Gargano in Italy in the year 493, when St Michael himself performed the ceremony in this miraculous church. The existence of the angels is proven throughout the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments. They appeared to Abraham, Jacob, Josue, David, the Maccabees, and nearly all the prophets. Both St John the Baptist and Our Lord Jesus Christ were foretold by angels; and the Apostles frequently speak of angels in their epistles. By nature, the angels are entirely spiritual and without corporeal matter – spirits without bodies, unlike man who is composed of both soul and body. When angels appear to men, they must use a body made of air, which is neither living nor animated. Being spiritual beings, the angels have far subtler intellects than men, for they know things in their essences and without needing senses; thus the angelic knowledge is more pure, simple, perfect and penetrating than is human knowledge. Instead of reasoning and discoursing as men do, the angels know the conclusions in their principles in a single glance. Likewise, because they are purely spiritual beings, the angels have a far more perfect will than man. Their will grasps a good in a single moment, and is unable to change its choice, so strong is their will. Thus the angels merited either an eternal reward or eternal punishment in a moment. Sacred Scripture itself tells us that the angels are above men: “Thou hast made man a little less than the angels” (Ps 8). However, thanks to Jesus Christ having become man, Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary are both above the angels and far surpass them in grace. The number of the angels is not known; it cannot be infinite, yet Job says that they “are a number without number”. St Denis assures us that they surpass in number all material things. Considering that every man has his own guardian angel, their number must be truly immense. Amongst themselves, the angels have a wonderfully organised hierarchy: there are nine choirs of angels – seraphim, cherubim, thrones; dominations, virtues, powers; principalities, archangels and angels. The higher angels, receiving their commands directly from God, communicate them to the lower angels, who execute the divine commands upon creation. However, not all the angels remained good. Because they possess free will, a trial was set for them that they might prove their loyalty to their sovereign Lord and Creator. But a third of the angelic army, taken up with what they esteemed to be their own excellence, followed Lucifer, the highest of the seraphim, and said, “I will not serve!” At that moment, St Michael, the second of the seraphim, rose up to defend the honour of the Most High, replying, “Who is like God?” – which is the meaning of the name Michael. Through his obedience, the great archangel defeated Lucifer and his minions, who were cast into hell. According to Pantaleon of Constantinople, it was St Michael who instructed and encouraged Adam after his fall; who stayed the hand of Abraham from slaying his son Isaac; and who lead the Hebrew people through the Red Sea. Other authors say that St Michael was the angel whom Jacob fought; that it was through him that God gave the Commandments to Moses; and who took up Elias in a fiery chariot. As St Michael protected the Hebrew people throughout the Old Testament, so he has been the protector of the Catholic Church since the time of Christ. Many authors believe that it was St Michael who comforted Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane; who announced the Resurrection to St Mary Magdalene; who appeared to the Roman centurion Cornelius and commanded him to go in search of St Peter; and who appeared to St John in order to unfold to him the mysteries of the Apocalypse. Since the fall of Lucifer, St Michael has become the chief of the angelic armies, and it is to him that dying persons are recommended, that the great archangel may lead them safely to the judgment seat of their Creator and Saviour. Let us remember to call frequently on St Michael, for he is powerful with God in driving away the devils and in protecting the faithful from the temptations of the infernal spirits.† Britain’s own St Michael’s Mount
Britain has its own Holy Rock rising from the sea and dedicated to St Michael. Since the Archangel appeared to fishermen in Cornwall in 495 AD, St Michael’s Mount has been a place of pilgrimage. In the ages of Faith a Benedictine monastery was built upon it. After the Reformation the buildings became the fortified castle home of a wealthy family. At high tide the Mount is surrounded by water and can only be reached by small ferry boats from the nearby town of Marazion. When the tide is out, the Mount can be reached on foot along a granite causeway.
Mont St Michel was not the only church ordered to be built by St Michael. He appeared at Monte Gargano in southeastern Italy where, not unlike Mont-St.-Michel, “a mountainous promontory juts out into the Adriatic Sea.” In his The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Fr Gihr writes: “On Monte Gargano St. Michael appeared with a censer in his hand, on the spot where a church was to be built; hence it is said of him in the office of the Church: ‘The angel stood before the altar of the temple, having a golden censer in his hand’; an unmistakable allusion is here made to the vision of the heavenly altar which St. John saw.” Interestingly, the church was built not to commemorate the Archangel’s apparition, but his intercession in the Italians’ military victory over the Greek Neapolitans in 663. Holy Michael, Archangel, defend us in the day of battle!
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