SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL AS A PATRON SAINT

A particular and pious feature of authentic Christianity is belief in the intercession of saints – that is, that the saints in Heaven can and do pray to God. Being as they are in Heaven, and beyond the temptations of the world and Sin, their prayers are particularly pleasing to the Lord. Since the earliest days of the Church, the intercession of saints – both those saints who are holy men and women who have gone to Heaven after their death and other saints such as the holy angels and archangels – has been of great value to the Body of Christ.

A patron saint is a saint who has a particular affinity with either a group of people, a profession or a concept or subject. Often, the patronage stems from an incident in the life or death of the saint (Saint Lawrence – who was martyred by being roasted alive – is the patron saint of cooks, for example) while other connections are more obscure (Saint Fiacre is the patron saint of taxi drivers, supposedly because the first hansom cabs in Paris were outside the Hotel Saint-Fiacre). Some patron saints have no clear connection with their patronage (Saint George, for example, is the patron of England and the English – yet he was a Roman knight stationed in Libya). Often, Catholics will choose a personal patron saint, even if they are not a member of the profession or group normally associated with that saint. These personal patrons are often chosen because the person admires the saint's life, writings, actions or works – or sometimes just because the saint's feast falls on the person's birthday!

Prayers said with an appropriate patron saint are thought to be more efficacious than other prayers, and it can be very comforting to know that the saint with whom one is praying is connected with the matter in hand, and perhaps even had experience while alive of the problem or suffering the Christian is undergoing.

The feast day associated with a saint is often marked by those who have the saint as patron; this is especially the case with the national patron, whose feast day may be a public holiday in that country. Saint Patrick's day is marked in Ireland and in Irish communities, for example – often by a great deal of partying and celebration!

Michael the Archangel is titled “Saint” not because he has died and gone to Heaven, but rather because he is a citizen of Heaven. As one of the Most Holy Princes of the Celestial Host, his prayers are completely unclouded by personal desire or wandering thoughts, and as such are a source of exceeding joy to the Lord. As the first of the angelic host and the Prince of the Angels, Michael has a number of patronages – but regardless of your personal affiliation or the nature of problem that besets you, you can rely on the prayers of Archangel Michael to strengthen you in the spiritual war.

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL AS A PATRON OF HEALING

It would have been natural to Saint Michael, the champion of the Jewish people, to be the champion also of Christians, giving victory in war to those who venerated him. The early Christians, however, regarded some of the martyrs as their military patrons: Saint George, Saint Theodore, Saint Demetrius, Saint Sergius, Saint Procopius, Saint Mercurius, etc.; but to Saint 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 center of the true cult of the holy angels, particularly of Saint Michael.

Still more famous are the springs which Saint Michael is said to have drawn from the rock at Colossae (Chonae, on the Lycus). A legend tells that – in the middle of the first century AD - the pagans directed a stream against the sanctuary of Saint 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. All the sick who bathed there, invoking the Blessed Trinity and Saint Michael, were cured. Also at Pythia in Bithynia and elsewhere in Asia the hot springs were dedicated to Saint Michael.

Saint Michael was also venerated as the great heavenly physician at Constantinople. His principal sanctuary, the Michaelion, was at Sosthenion, some fifty miles south of the great city. In here, the sick would sleep at night waiting for an apparition of Saint Michael.

In Rome as well Saint Michael's role was that of a healer. When the city of seven hills suffered under a great plague, Pope Saint Gregory I the Great (r. 590-604) held a procession against the pestilence and gave fervent prayers that the scourge should cease. During this procession, Saint Michael appeared, sword in hand, over the mausoleum of Hadrian. In honor of the miracle and occasion, the Pope took to calling the mausoleum the Castel Sant'Angelo (Castle of the Holy Angel), by which name it is still known. Boniface IV (r. 608-15) built on the the mausoleum of Hadrian a church in honor of him, which was called Saint Michaelis inter nubes (in summitate circi).

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL AS PATRON OF THE MILITARY

The oldest shrine in Western Europe dedicated to the archangel Michael, Monte Sant'Angelo sul Gargano, is located on Monte Gargano, a mountain in Apulia, Italy. It was here that the original glory of Saint Michael as patron in war was restored to him, following an apparition on 8 May around the year 500 AD. Because of the significance of this date, it was to the intercession of Saint Michael that the Lombards of Sipontum attributed their victory over the Greek Neapolitans on 8 May 663, leading to the institution of a feast dedicated to the archangel on this date.

Devotion to Michael as a warrior was popular in many of the northern European pagan cultures evangelized during the first centuries of Christianity. As a powerful, masculine figure he enjoyed great devotion among many warrior societies, and supplanted the worship of pagan deities with similar characteristics. Many of these gods were venerated on mountaintops and high places – which lead to a large number of shrines and churches dedicated to the archangel being built in these locations. In Germany, for example, devotion to Michael replaced for Christians the pagan god Wotan, hence the numerous mountain chapels of St. Michael all over Germany.

Since antiquity, the Germanic peoples of central Europe have been known as fine warriors and possessors of a great military culture; it is no surprise that Michael's imaged bedecked the war standard of the old German Empire (Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) and that he is considered the patron Saint of the German nation.

Devotion to Saint Michael was also common among the early Roman converts to Christianity – many of whom were members of the Roman Legions (witness the number of Centurions mentioned in the Gospels who become followers of Christ). Saint Michael was a popular patron for them, and he is often depicted in art in Roman or quasi-Roman armor – his weaponry is often shown as being Roman in style.

In late medieval Christianity, Michael together with St George became the patron of chivalry, and the patron of the first chivalric order of France, the Order of Saint Michael of 1469. In the British honors system, a chivalric order founded in 1818 is also named for these two saints, the Order of St Michael and St George.

It is certainly as a result of his patronage of military men and women that he was one of the saints who appeared to Saint Joan of Arc and encouraged the young peasant girl to resist the English during the Hundred Years War (1337-1455).

Modern military patronage is also bestowed upon Michael; in 1950 Pope Pius XII named him patron of policemen, and many modern soldiers consider him their patron saint. The modern military group which offers him the greatest veneration is American paratroopers – perhaps because of the imagery of descending from on high!

OTHER PATRONAGES ASSOCIATED WITH SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

Michael the Archangel is venerated by disparate groups of people and is held to be the patron of many different causes and concepts. As a powerful military figure, he is a popular choice for national patrons. Although modern-day Israel is a primarily Jewish state and so does not recognize a “patron saint” as such, we read in the book of Daniel that Michael “stands for your people [the tribes of Israel]”.

Other nations and cities have also claimed Michael as their patron saint – the German nation (famed for its martial prowess throughout its history) bestows this honor on Michael. Also, the country of Portugal and the archdiocese of Seattle have the Archangel Michael as their patron. The former Soviet republic of Ukraine and its capital Kiev are under the protection of Michael – overlooking Independence Square in the city of Kiev is a dramatic statue of the archangel, shown to the left.

In Normandy, France, Saint Michael is the patron of mariners in his famous sanctuary at Mont-Saint-Michel in the Diocese of Coutances. His patronage of mariners probably dates from the foundation of this sea-side shrine in 710 following an apparition in 708.

Another “water” connection is found in the Egyptian church – since antiquity, the river Nile has been the life-line of this mostly-desert country. Most of Egypt lies on a flood-plain and only thanks to the annual flooding of the Nile is agriculture possible in Egypt.

The Christians of Egypt placed this life-giving river under the protection of St. Michael. Owing to the connections between the Egyptians and the Greeks (thanks to the Ptolemaic Dynasty installed by Alexander the Great) 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 begins to rise, they keep the feast of St. Michael "for the rising of the Nile" as a holy day of obligation; euche eis ten symmetron anabasin ton potamion hydaton.

Michael has been known as the patron of the military – but in recent years the imagery of the “go-to guy” has seen him adopted by police officers, paramedics, EMTs and other emergency workers as their patron saint; in 1950, Pope Pius XII officially named him as the patron of the police.

It may also seem strange to some that Saint Michael is known as the Angel of Peace – but this is not so odd when the Christian concept of peace is considered in light of the “spiritual war”. Christian peace is achieved through victory over the evils of the world – it is in defeating Sin that we know peace. Of course, this is not a peace we can truly know while we are on earth – and it is perhaps significant that Christian tradition gives Michael the office of escorting the dead to Heaven.

Michael is also the patron saint of grocers – thanks to his depiction in art and tradition as bearing a set of scales with which he weighs the souls of the dead.

Michael is also honored with the title Angel of the Eucharist – as the greatest defender of the Church it is no surprise that he is tasked with the defense of Her most sacred elements. This duty also ties in with his protection of the Church as a whole – for the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. A commonly-held belief is that Michael was the Guardian Angel of Jesus in His humanity (and Gabriel was the Guardian Angel of the Blessed Mother) – which brings all of these patronages together in a cohesive whole.

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