Saint Michael the Archangel

There is no historical biography of Michael. What is known about him belongs to religious tradition and to the history of his veneration. His name in Hebrew, Mikha'el, is built as a rhetorical question, usually translated "Who is like God?", which points to the incomparable greatness of God rather than describing the angel himself.

Michael first appears clearly in the Jewish tradition in the Book of Daniel. In chapter 10 he is called one of the chief princes of heaven, and he helps the angel who speaks with the prophet by opposing the prince of the kingdom of Persia. In the same chapter he is called the prince of Israel. In chapter 12, in the description of the final crisis, he is the great prince who stands guard over the people. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in Jewish works of the third and second centuries BC, and the Book of Enoch lists him as one of seven archangels. In later Jewish writings he is the chief of the angels, the commander of the heavenly armies, an advocate for Israel, and the one who accompanies the souls of the righteous dead to Paradise.

In the New Testament, the Letter of Jude is the only place that explicitly calls him an archangel. It tells of a dispute between Michael and the devil over the body of Moses, in which the archangel leaves the judgment to the Lord. The story comes from the Assumption of Moses, a Jewish work that has not survived in full, so it belongs to religious literature and is not a contemporary account of an event. In the Book of Revelation his role is even stronger. In a battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fight the dragon and its angels, and the dragon is identified with the devil and Satan.

His veneration is attested very early in Eastern Christianity and developed especially in Asia Minor and around Constantinople before spreading to the West. The Roman Martyrology keeps his feast on 29 September together with the archangels Gabriel and Raphael, the day on which a basilica of Saint Michael, built long ago at the sixth milestone of the Via Salaria near Rome, was dedicated. In art he is shown with wings and military dress, holding a sword or lance and a shield, and standing over a subdued dragon. Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy is among his best-known shrines, and countless towns and dioceses have taken him as their patron.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.