St. Michael

St. Michael the Archangel is not a canonized human saint but one of the three archangels named in Scripture, venerated from the earliest centuries as the great defender of God's people. His name in Hebrew—Mi-ka-El, 'Who is like God?'—is itself a battle cry against the pride of Satan. In the Book of Daniel he appears as 'the great prince' who stands guard over God's people; the Letter of Jude describes him contending with the devil; and the Book of Revelation portrays him leading the angelic host in the war in heaven, casting down the dragon (Revelation 12:7-9). From these texts Christian tradition drew Michael's fourfold role: captain of the heavenly armies, champion of the Church against the powers of evil, protector of the dying whom he escorts to judgment, and—in medieval iconography—the weigher of souls, often depicted in armor with sword and scales. Devotion to him is ancient: a famous sanctuary, the Michaelion, stood near Constantinople by the fourth century, and in the East he has long been honored as the 'Archistrategos,' commander of the hosts of heaven. In the West, veneration flourished around celebrated apparitions preserved in tradition: at Monte Gargano in southern Italy around 490, where the cave sanctuary of Monte Sant'Angelo became one of medieval Europe's great pilgrimage goals; at Rome, where St. Gregory the Great was said to have seen Michael sheathing his sword above Hadrian's mausoleum—thereafter Castel Sant'Angelo—as a plague ended; and in Normandy, where the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel rose on its tidal island after a reported apparition in the early eighth century. These shrines still draw millions of pilgrims. The feast of September 29, Michaelmas, originated in the dedication of a basilica of St. Michael near Rome; since 1969 the day has celebrated the three archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael together. In 1886 Pope Leo XIII composed the Prayer to St. Michael, still widely recited for protection against evil. Michael is invoked as patron of soldiers, police officers, and the sick and dying, and as guardian of the whole Church.