St. Michael the Archangel
(Michael in Hebrew “who is like God”)
St. Michael is one of the principal angels; his name was the war-cry of the holy & good angels in the battle fought in heaven against the enemy and his followers. His name is recorded four times in Scripture.
Daniel 10:13, Daniel 12, Jude 1:9, Apocalypse 12:7
Following these Scriptural passages, Christian tradition gives to St. Michael four offices:1
- To fight against Satan.
- To rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death.
- To be the champion of God’s people, the Jews in the Old Law, the Christians in the New Testament; therefore, he was the patron of the Church, and of the orders of knights during the Middle Ages.
- To call away from earth and bring men’s souls to judgment
To protect the Church against Satan Pope Leo XIII in 1886 ordered the prayer to St Michael to be said after every low Mass in all the Catholic churches throughout world.
The feast day of St. Michael is celebrated on 29th September. Traditionally known as “Michaelmas,” during the middle ages the Church considered the feast so important that it was a holy day of obligation, but since the eighteenth century the feast day of St Michael ceased to be venerated as such.
Historically in the Liturgy of the Church prior to the year 1960, there were two feasts in honour of St. Michael, the other being celebrated May 8th. These feasts link back to the apparitions of St. Michael Archangel at Monte Gargano Italy, traditionally dated around AD 490-494.
The first apparitions of the archangel Michael in Western Europe were granted to the Bishop of Sipontum in Apulia. Three times the Archangel appeared, nightly, the last time on September 29, 493. The Archangel indicated the transformation into a Christian church of a grotto sacred to Mithras, on Monte Tumba. Miraculously, when the bishop and companions arrived, they found that a primitive altar had already been erected, covered with a vermilion altar cloth and surmounted by a Cross; moreover, according to the legend, they found the footprint of Saint Michael in the rock. With immense joy the holy bishop offered the first divine Sacrifice. It was 29th September.
The grotto itself is the only place of worship not consecrated by human hand and over the centuries has received the title of “Celestial Basilica”
At the entry to the Basilica and shrine-built centuries ago we can read the inscription:
“This is the House of God, the Gate of Heaven, St Michael himself consecrated.”
Pope Gelasius I (reigned 492-496) directed that a basilica be erected enclosing the space. The Basilica di San Giovanni in Tumba is the final resting-place of the Lombard king Rothari (d. 652).
The Lombard’s of Sipontum attributed their victory (May 8, 663) over the Greeks loyal to the Byzantine emperor to the dramatic intercession of St Michael who appeared with a flaming sword atop the mountain, in the midst of a storm on the eve of the battle, In commemoration of this victory, the church of Sipontum instituted a special feast honouring the Archangel, on May 8, which then spread throughout the Catholic Church all over the world. Since the time of Pius V it has been formalized as Apparition S. Michaelis.
Sanctuary of St. Michael: http://www.santuariosanmichele.it/?lang=en
