MICHAEL, Archangel. —
I. IN HOLY SCRIPTURE
M. (Heb. Mikhā'ēl, “Who [is] like God?”) appears four times in the Bible. In Dan. 10:13, 21 he is presented as “one of the first princes” and as the particular protector of the Hebrew people (sarkhem). In Dan. 12:1 his character is further specified as “M., the great prince, who stands guard over the children of the people of Israel”; to him is assigned the task of defending the elect at a dramatic moment, which, as the context shows, coincides with the general resurrection connected with the judgment of God. In the New Testament M. is mentioned in Jude 9 (where he is called archangel, a specification greater than the periphrasis used by Daniel) and in Apoc. 12:7.Jude alludes to a struggle between M. and Satan over the body of Moses. The episode is not found in the Old Testament, and it is now commonly admitted, as Origen did (De principiis, III, 11, 1: CB, V, 244), that the inspired author refers to the account in the apocryphal Assumption or Ascension of Moses. Whether or not literary dependence is recognized, it may be held that Jude employs a Jewish tradition as an argument ad hominem, without pronouncing on its historical value. The episode is also affirmed by the Slavonic recension of the Wisdom of Moses (16), while the midrash Deut. Rabbah 11 (207c) speaks of a quarrel prior to the death of Moses.
In Apoc. 12:7 another struggle between M. and Satan is described, more fierce and demanding. M. is generally identified with the archangel who, in 1 Thess. 4:16, is described as the great summoner of the dead on the day of resurrection and judgment. A smaller number of biblical scholars see the work of this archangel mentioned in the famous “hindrance” (ὁ κατέχων; 2 Thess. 2:7) that opposes the activity of the Antichrist.
In Jewish tradition great stress is laid on M.’s character as protector of Israel (Ethiopian Enoch, 20:5; Assumption of Moses, 10:2) and as intercessor before God (Ethiopian Enoch, 40:9; Testament of Levi, 5:6; Testament of Dan, 6:2). He is the chief of the aristocrats of the armies of the Lord. He is “revealer, executor of justice, and also guardian of Israel” (G. Bonsirven, Il giudaismo palestinese al tempo di Gesù Cristo, Italian trans., Turin 1950, p. 30). At times he is also called teacher of Moses and high priest; more often he is presented as the guide of souls after death or psychopomp (ψυχοπομπός).
Similar attributes are given to M. in Christian tradition. For example, already in the Epistola Apostolorum he is called ἀρχιστράτηγος or chief of the celestial strategists (C. Schmidt, Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern nach der Auferstehung [Texte und Untersuchungen, 43], Leipzig 1919, p. 285). He is the protector of the Church. In the Ascension of Isaiah, 53:16 M., defined as prince of the angels, removes the stone from Jesus’ tomb, and in the Transitus b. Mariae Virg., 16 (C. Tischendorf, Apocalypses apocryphae, Leipzig 1866, p. 135) he performs the same act regarding the tomb of Mary.
II. THE CULT OF ST. MICHAEL. — The cult of St. Michael in the Catholic Church is an inheritance from the Synagogue, in which he enjoyed particular veneration, especially as protector of the chosen people. In Holy Scripture he is expressly named only three times, always in the role of defender and warrior: Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1 (“princeps magnus,” in contrast to the prince of the Persians); Jude 9 (dispute with the devil); Apoc. 12:7 (battle with the “dragon”). From these hints there developed in time the particular character of the cult of St. Michael.
1. The East
The first Christian center of the cult of St. Michael was located in Asia Minor, in Phrygia, at Cherotopa (near Colossae), which may go back to the early centuries; in the same region was then the sanctuary of Chonae, known since the 4th century.On the Bosporus arose the sanctuary of Sosthene, while in the new capital Constantinople Constantine himself built the Michaeion, followed later by at least fifteen other churches dedicated to the holy archangel. His feast was celebrated on November 8. Another very ancient center in the East was Egypt, especially Alexandria, where the feast on June 12 was connected with the rising of the Nile, an event of great importance for the life of the country. Both Copts and Syrians venerate St. Michael; the former have noted him in the calendar as many as seven times; the latter on September 6.
2. The West
The cult of St. Michael in the West was almost certainly imported from the East. Very ancient churches, attested from the 5th century, are found in Italy; for example, in Milan, Piacenza, Genoa, Ravenna, Perugia, Spoleto, and above all in Rome. The present feast on September 29 is precisely a feast of Roman origin.The Roman Sacramentary, under the date of September 30, offers five formulary Masses in memory of the dedication of a basilica of St. Michael on the Via Salaria, at the sixth milestone (Castel Giubileo). In the Sacramentaries of Gelasius and Gregory, however, the anniversary of the dedication is on September 29. The Germanician Matricologus also notes on September 29 the dedication of the basilica on the Salaria; under the same date it is found in the Mozarabic calendars and in the Marble Calendar of Naples.
The sanctuary on the Salaria is also mentioned in the Itinerarium de locis (R. Valentini and G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della città di Roma, II, Rome 1942, p. 117). In Rome Pope Symmachus (498-514) enlarged the basilica of the archangel Michael at the Vicus Patricius (Lib. Pont., I, p. 262). At the summit of the mausoleum of Hadrian an oratory would have been erected, according to Ado, by Boniface IV (608-615) in honor of St. Michael. A diaconia “in foro piscium” near the Portico of Octavia was erected by Theodotus, uncle of Adrian I (between 755-770; Lib. Pont., I, p. 514, n. 2).
An oratory in his honor from the 8th century was also in the vestibule that joined the Basilica of St. Peter to the mausoleum transformed into the church of St. Petronilla (ibid., p. 97). St. Michael “de porticu” near St. Peter, of the Schola Frisorum, is mentioned in a bull of Leo IV of 854; today it is called SS. Michael and Magnus.
An oratory of St. Michael de Augusta was also built on the summit of the mausoleum of Augustus, as attested by bulls of 951 and 962 and by church catalogs until the 15th century. Another oratory was on the Janiculum near St. Peter in Montorio, mentioned in a bull of Callistus II of 1123 and in catalogs until the 16th century. There is also a church of St. Michael da Reniccio or prope montem Jordanum, which appears in a bull of Urban III of 1186; today it is SS. Celso and Giuliano. In all these churches the feast of St. Michael is on September 29 and includes, in its formulary, besides St. Michael all the angelic choirs.
Later revisions of the Germanician Matricologus introduce the notice of the sanctuary of St. Michael on Mount Gargano. The Synods of Tours, 558 (can. 61) and of Mainz, 813 (can. 36), attest the feast in the Frankish and Germanic regions; in 995 it became a holy day of obligation; Ethelred, king of England, prescribed (1014) a vigil and a three-day fast. In 1917 the feast was raised to a double of the first class.
The second feast of St Michael, that of 8 May, was originally a purely local festival of the Church of Siponto, today Manfredonia, and concerned a rustic sanctuary situated within one of the many caves of Monte Gargano. It is certain that on 8 May 663, near Siponto, a naval battle took place between the Lombards and the Saracens; the victorious Lombards attributed their victory to St Michael, much venerated in those parts, precisely in his Garganic sanctuary. A fabulous legend, later incorporated into various medieval martyrologies (the primitive German Martyrology does not know of any feast of St Michael on 8 May), recounts the ‘inventio basilica S. Angeli’, which was later traced back to 8 May 492 or 494. But, as all evidence suggests, this is simply the anniversary of the dedication of the Garganic sanctuary, which certainly existed in the 6th century. This local feast later spread, through the Lombards, into Lombardy and beyond, and thus became a universal feast. Benedict XIV, in his liturgical reform, was determined to reduce this feast once more to a local Sipontine feast. The present Roman Martyrology, following medieval martyrologists, confuses everything, attributing to 8 May an apparition of St Michael, and to 29 September the anniversary of the dedication of the church on Monte Gargano; the memory of the Roman feast has been lost. Finally, mention must be made of another most important centre of the cult of St Michael, on Monte Tumba in Normandy, famous under the name of Mont-St-Michel. The sanctuary, similar to the Garganic one, was founded in 709, and became the radiating centre of that cult among all Germanic peoples, where it later enjoyed immense diffusion. It may be affirmed that, in general, churches of St Michael are among the oldest churches.
St Michael is venerated as a warrior, defender, and protector. Already in the Old Testament he appears as defender of the chosen people; the New Testament then presents him at the head of the angelic hosts to defeat the infernal dragon; it is no wonder, therefore, that the Christian people consider him in a special way as warrior, defender, protector, first of all against the infernal powers, and then, in any case, against the enemies of the Church in general (in the Middle Ages, for example, the Normans, the Magyars, then the Hussites, the Turks, etc.). The liturgy repeatedly alludes to the protection of St Michael: art almost always represents him as a heavenly knight; the Germanic peoples in particular venerate him as their special patron, and carry his image on their banners; he was created special protector of France and Germany. Missionaries sought to replace the numerous sanctuaries of Wotan and T'hitu, situated on hills and mountains, with those of the warrior archangel; meanwhile, in medieval castles, the highest points of the towers were often dedicated to St Michael; many mountain sanctuaries were also dedicated to him. Thus the little church of St Michael in a natural cave in the cliff overlooking the north-east of Lake Nemi, already mentioned in a bull of Alexander IV of 12 January 1235. There the archangel Michael was depicted in a marble bas-relief, now lost since the 19th century, and in a rough fresco (A. Galieti, Il romitorio di S. M. Arcangelo al lago di Nemi, in Bollettino di archeologia, storia ed arte, 3 [1940], pp. 5-16 and 33-34). In Romanesque churches it was customary to dedicate to him the chapel situated high above the narthex, between the two bell towers. In any case, even today St Michael is the protector and defender of the Church, and Leo XIII, in the well-known prayer prescribed after Masses, consecrated the common conviction of the Christian people regarding the defender of Christendom. Pius XII declared St Michael patron and protector of radiologists (AAS, 33 [1941], p. 128).
Another specific aspect of St Michael is his quality as celestial thurifer. The angel of the Apocalypse (8:3), who carries the golden censer of prayers before the heavenly altar, was later identified with St Michael. As such he appears especially in the solemn incensation of the altar at High Mass (‘Per intercessionem sancti Michaelis archangeli...’). It should be noted, however, that in that prayer originally St Gabriel was named (Lk 1:11-18). But since on the feast of St Michael, in the Mass and Office, this archangel appears (antiphon and offertory) as that celestial thurifer, he gradually took his place in the prayer at the time of incensation. In the Middle Ages, the legend that St Michael would celebrate Mass in heaven every Monday (a day sacred to angels in the Middle Ages) contributed to his veneration.
Finally, St Michael appears in the liturgy and popular belief as guide of the souls of the departed. In the Hellenistic age, the idea of ‘psychopompoi angels’, supernatural guides of souls, was widespread as a result of various currents in the religions of the mysteries. The rabbis also attributed to St Michael, protector of their people, the task of guiding souls beyond. Even Jesus seems to allude to this popular belief, when he has the soul of the poor Lazarus carried by angels into the bosom of Abraham. It was therefore natural that many apocryphal texts and then liturgical texts continued to cultivate the idea of St Michael as guide of the souls of the departed, and thus guardian of paradise. In the Mass and Office, St Michael was invoked ‘ut non pereamus in tremendo iudicio’. In the commendation of the soul, which in substance dates back to the 7th-8th century, St Michael (and the angels) are invoked precisely for the passage of the soul. The chapels (ossuaries) of cemeteries are ordinarily dedicated to him.
But the most explicit expression of St Michael as guide of souls is found in the Offertory of the Masses for the Dead: ‘Signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam’; the great celestial standard-bearer saves the souls from infernal assaults and leads them into paradise.
### III. ARCHAEOLOGY
The name of the Archangel Michael is invoked repeatedly in inscriptions. Thus, it is read in a 6th-century inscription from Rouis, now in the Museum of Tebessa (S. Gsell, *Inscriptions latines de l'Algérie*, Paris 1922, no. 3670); in a *tabella defixionis* discovered in Carthage (E. Diehl, *Inscriptions latinae christianae veteres*, Berlin 1924–31, no. 2388 a); in an inscription from Sorrento (CIL, X, 761); on a slab from Sofia (E. Diehl, *loc. cit.*, no. 2430); and in the dedication from the year 545 of the church erected by Bacauda and Julian the silversmith in San Michele in Africisco in Ravenna (CIL, XI, 288). In Egypt, an inscription from the year 409 in Alexandria (G. Lefebvre, *Recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes d'Égypte*, Cairo 1907, no. 49); on Coptic stelae from Thebaid (C. M. Kaufmann, *Handbuch der altchristlichen Epigraphik*, Freiburg in Br. 1917, p. 150); on a Greek inscription from Egypt now in the British Museum (ibid., loc. cit., p. 279 and fig. 186); and on a Coptic stele in the Cairo Museum (W. E. Crum, *Coptic Monuments*, Cairo 1901, pl. 56).
The letters X, M, I—i.e., Χριστός, Μίχαηλ, Ταβράη—are incised repeatedly on monuments in Syria, Egypt, and Rome, signifying "Christ, Michael, Gabriel" (G. B. De Rossi, *Di un curioso sigillo impresso su un frammento di mattone trovato nell'emporio romano*, in *Bull. d'arch. crist.*, 2nd ser., 1 [1870], pp. 7 sq. and pl. 3,2). In Egypt, terracotta lamps bearing the Greek inscription "S. M." were also found (H. Numeri, in *Annales des Antiquités de l'Égypte*, 17 [1917], pp. 160–61).
G. B. De Rossi illustrated a "bell with a dedicatory inscription from approximately the 8th or 9th century found near Canino" (*N. bull. d'arch. crist.*, 5 [1887], pp. 82–87, now in the Lateran Christian Museum); on it is inscribed a votive dedication to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to St. Michael the Archangel, to whom a bell was also dedicated in the abbey of Fontanelle in the 8th century. G. De Jerphanion traced the origin of the type of St. Michael trampling the dragon in Coptic art (G. De Jerphanion, *L'origine copte du type de st Michel debout sur le dragon*, in *Comptes-rendus de l'Acad. des Inscr. et belles lettres*, 1938, pp. 367–81).
Enrico Josi
### IV. ICONOGRAPHY
In Italy, images of St. Michael appear in the 6th-century mosaics of Ravenna, specifically in those of San Michele in Africisco (later transferred to Berlin) and in those of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, where he is depicted beardless, nimbed, winged, and clad in a chlamys, holding in his right hand a labarum inscribed in Greek three times with the word "holy" (ΑΠΟC). In the Treasury of San Marco in Venice, a precious gold and enamel bas-relief depicts the archangel standing, nimbed, with outstretched wings and a youthful head in high relief; he holds a sword in his right hand and supports a globe in his left (10th–11th century). The archangel also appears standing and nimbed in the upper part of the Pala d'Oro in the same basilica (C. Diehl, *Manuel d'art Byzantin*, 2nd ed., Paris 1926, p. 727, fig. 356; p. 348, fig. 701).
At the end of the 6th century in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, he is depicted alongside St. Gabriel and the Saviour; he is distinguished by the inscription S MIHAEL AR(Cangelus) (Willett, *Mosaiken*, pl. 243). The same iconography appears in San Clemente near the ancient tomb of St. Cyril (Willett, *Le pitture della basilica primitiva di s. Clemente*, in *Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist.*, 26 [1906], pp. 260 sq. and pl. 11), in the great fresco of Christ in Majesty between Michael, Gabriel, and the popes Clement I and Nicholas I (Willett, *Mosaiken*, p. 546 and pl. 242), and in Sant'Angelo in Formis near Capua.
In the church of the abbey of St-Chef in the Dauphiné, an altar was dedicated to the Redeemer, the three archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, and St. George, as attested by an inscription from the second half of the 11th century, contemporary with the frescoes depicting them in the apse.
The Louvre Museum preserves two bas-reliefs of the same scene, one from the 12th century and the other from the 14th. A Byzantine banner depicts St. Michael with the prostrate figure of Manuel, son of Eudoxia, before him (G. B. De Rossi, in *Bull. d'arch. crist.*, 4th ser., 6 [1888–89], p. 82). In Constantinople in the 13th century, a bronze group showed Michael VIII Palaiologos at the feet of the archangel. In the East, he appears very frequently during the early Middle Ages, and his image also begins to appear in Carolingian and Ottonian art as a warrior in the act of slaying the dragon.
**MICHAEL, ARCHANGEL** = Triumphant Archangel Michael chains the Demon. Painting by G. Reni – Rome, church of the Capuchins.
He is also depicted as a dragon-slayer on the door of the sanctuary of San Michele al Monte Gargano, cast in Constantinople in 1076 for Pantaleone of Amalfi, and on that of San Zeno in Verona, ca. 1100. Images of St. Michael overcoming the dragon were common in France. A fresco from the second half of the 11th century depicts him in the cathedral of Le Puy; at the end of the 11th century, he appears in the porch of the church of St-Savin-sur-Gartempe; later, in the church of St-Martin at Vic (Indre) at the beginning of the 12th century (P. Deschamps, *La date des peintures de St-Sav-in-sur-Gartempe*, in *Comptes Rendus de l'Acad. des inscrip. et belles lettres*, 1949, pp. 73–80). Romanesque art, and later Gothic art, left numerous images of the archangel Michael. Notable examples include the fresco by Cimabue in the Basilica of Assisi, the sculpture by Giovanni Pisano for the pulpit of Pisa Cathedral, and the images on the portals of the cathedrals of Notre-Dame in Paris, Autun, Amiens, and Bruges. However, the iconographic type remained fundamentally unchanged.
The iconography introducing St. Michael into scenes of the Last Judgment was inspired especially by 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Revelation 12:7–9, depicting his victorious battle against the great dragon, "the ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan."
St. Michael as the weigher of souls and in opposition to Satan appears on a capital from the early 12th century in the Toulouse Museum, another from the church of St-Eutropius in Saintes, a third from the abbey of St-Pons, and a fourth from St-Nectaire in Auvergne (E. Mâle, *L'art religieux du XIIe siècle en France*, 3rd ed., Paris 1928, p. 413). In the 14th and 16th centuries, such representations became very common in Italian and German art (wooden statues in the Lübeck Museum). In the Middle Ages, Michael was also chosen as the patron of merchants and apothecaries.
Among the most renowned and beautiful images of the Archangel Michael is the Renaissance work by Raphael (Louvre) and, for the Baroque period, the painting by Guido Reni (church of the Capuchins, Rome) and the bronze statue by Werschaffelt atop Castel Sant'Angelo (Rome).
The sanctuary of the Archangel on Mount Gargano is still the destination of crowded pilgrimages, especially on the days of the two feasts: 8 May and 29 September. The pilgrims, organized into “companies” led by a lay “prior” or the parish priest, come from all over central and southern Italy, undertaking very long journeys on foot, sometimes barefoot and with little food. The “company” from Potenza, renowned for its intense devotion, has the privilege of being greeted, on its arrival, by the ringing of the bells. According to a very ancient custom, as they ascend to the Sanctuary the faithful place their foot or open hand on the steps and trace their precise outlines, marking the date and their initials, so that the whole staircase is covered with these outlines of feet and hands: this in memory of the footprint that, according to legend, St Michael left when he appeared to the Spontini who were victorious over the Goths. Also characteristic are the crossed staffs topped with tufts of pine leaves (mazzareddi): in years of fervour more than 15,000 pilgrim staffs have been purchased. The faithful also bring back, among other souvenirs, statuettes of the Archangel in Garganic stone or alabaster, made by local craftsmen known as sanmeccalere. The spectacle offered by the multitude of the faithful dressed in their distinctive regional costumes of bright colours is one of the most picturesque.
Under the influence and example of the Gargano sanctuary, there arose, in places that presented similar characteristics, the dedication to the saint of mountain peaks, caves, chapels and temples: only in Abruzzo are there counted seven caves of St Michael: famous for popular devotion is that near Civitella del Tronto.
The contrast between St Michael and the devil is a theme that inspires many popular and semi-popular sacred representations in Irpinia and Apulia. Even in Campania, where there is a story of an apparition of the Archangel in the sky over Naples, there are in his honour spectacular events: at Arzano a popular prose drama is performed; at Ottajano, on 8 May, in the square, the traditional flight of the angels takes place, which draws large crowds even from the towns around Vesuvius. In the Sicilian popular tradition St Michael is considered the most beautiful in person and noble in form that can be imagined, hence the saying: “he is a St Michael archangel.” Caltanissetta venerates him as its principal patron and tells of an apparition that saved the city from the plague. There are numerous popular prayers invoking the Saint to obtain deliverance from earthly evils and the salvation of the soul. Among the common people there also circulates an apocryphal prayer to St Michael with a superstitious character and therefore condemned by the Church (Appendix to the Index of Prohibited Books of Clement XI). Of a devotional character instead is a very beautiful Istoria where it is told how the Archangel Michael separated Luttero, spread through popular prints of the early nineteenth century. — See pl. LXII.