Michaelmas

September 29th – Feast of St. Michael and All Angels

Today is the feast of my patron, Michael. Michael is one of the few angels mentioned by name in scripture, and by tradition holds four primary offices:

(1) Battle leader in the heavenly war against Satan
(2) Rescuer of souls from the power of Satan, especially at the moment of death.
(3) Champion and Protector of God’s people – that is, of both Israel and the Church.
(4) Caller of men’s souls from earth to judgment.

Although his actual position in the choirs of angels has been a disputed point since antiquity, he is generally regarded as the captain of the Heavenly Host, the Archistrategos (I never can get Greek to come out right on Blogger) or chief general, of heaven.

The following prayer, a simplified version of the original, was instituted by Leo XIII after an 1884 vision. What the Pope apparently saw, as described later by those who talked to him at the time of his vision, was a period of about one hundred years when the power of Satan would reach its zenith. That period was to be the twentieth century. Leo was so shaken by the spectre of the destruction of moral and spiritual values both inside and outside the Church, that he composed a prayer which was to be said at the end of each Mass celebrated anywhere in the Catholic Church. Given the subsequent events of the Twentieth Century, it is more than a little difficult to dismiss Leo's visionas anything but real.

Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in this day of battle;
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
And do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
By the power of God,
cast into Hell, Satan And all the evil spirits,
who prowl the world Seeking the ruin of souls.