Michael, Archangel

MICHAEL, ARCHANGEL. - I. IN SACRED SCRIPTURE. - M. (Heb. Mīkhā'el, "Who [is] like God?") appears four times in the Bible. In Dan. 10:13, 21 he is presented as "one of the chief princes" and as the particular protector of the Jewish people (tarkhem). In Dan. 12:1 the character of "M. the great prince, who stands guard over the sons of the people" of Israel is specified more clearly; to him is assigned the task of defending the elect at a dramatic moment which, as emerges from the context, coincides with the general resurrection connected with the judgment of God. In the New Testament M. is spoken of in Jude 9 (where he is named archangel, a greater specification than the periphrasis used by Daniel) and in Rev. 12:7.

Jude alludes to a struggle between M. and Satan over the body of Moses. The episode is ignored by the Old Testament, and today it is commonly admitted, as Origen did (De principiis, III, II, 1: CB, V, 244), that the inspired author refers to the account of the apocryphal Assumption or Ascension of Moses. Whether or not one acknowledges the literary dependence, it may be held that Jude uses a Jewish tradition as an argumentum 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. (Dēbharim) Rabbā' 11 (207 c) speaks of an altercation prior to the death of Moses.

In Rev. 12:7 another struggle between M. and Satan is described, more fierce and demanding. M. is generally identified with the archangel who in I 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 "obstacle" (ὁ χάτζησις; II Thess. 2:7) that opposes the activity of the Antichrist.

In the Jewish tradition much insistence is placed on the character of M. as protector of Israel (Ethiopic Enoch, 20:5; Assumption of Moses, 10:2) and as intercessor before God (Ethiopic Enoch, 40:9; Testament of Levi, 5:6; Testament of Dan, 6:2). He is the chief of the archstrategoi of the armies of the Lord. He is "revealer, avenger and also guardian of Israel" (G. Bonsirven, Il giudaismo palestinese al tempo di Gesù Cristo, Ital. trans., Turin 1950, p. 30). Sometimes he is also called teacher of Moses and high priest; much more often he is presented as guide of souls after death or psychopomp (ψυχοσχετὰς).

M. receives similar attributions in the Christian tradition. For example, already in the Epistola Apostolorum he is called ἀρχιστράτηγος, or chief of the heavenly strategoi (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 the tomb of Jesus, and in the Transitus b. Mariae Virg., 16 (C. Tischendorf, Apocalypses apocryphae, Leipzig 1866, p. 135) he performs the same gesture with regard to the tomb of Mary.

Angelo Penna

II. THE CULT OF ST. MICHAEL

The Catholic Church's cult of St. Michael is an inheritance from the Synagogue, in which he enjoyed a particular veneration, above all as protector of the chosen people. In

Sacred Scripture he is named expressly only three times, always in the attitude of defender and warrior: Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1 ("princeps magnus," in contrast with the prince of the Persians); Jude 9 (dispute with the devil); Apoc. 12:7 (battle with the "dragon"). From these hints the particular character of the cult of St. Michael subsequently developed.

1. The East

The first Christian center of the cult of St. Michael was located in Asia Minor, in Phrygia, at Cheretopa (near Colossae), which may go back to the first centuries; in the same region there was also the sanctuary of Chonae, known from the 4th century onward.

On the Bosporus arose the sanctuary of Sosthene, while in the new capital Constantinople Constantine himself built the Michaelion, which was followed by at least 15 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 linked with the rising of the Nile, a fact of the greatest importance for the life of the country. The Copts and the Syrians also venerate St. Michael; the former have noted him in their calendar no fewer than 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 onward, are found in Italy; for example, at Milan, Piacenza, Genoa, Ravenna, Perugia, Spoleto and above all at Rome. The present feast of September 29 is precisely a feast of Roman origin.

The Leonine 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 mile (Castel Giubileo). In the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries, on the other hand, the anniversary of the dedication is found under September 29. The Hieronymian Martyrology also notes under September 29 the dedication of the basilica on the Salaria; under the same date it is found in the Mozarabic calendars and in the Neapolitan marble Calendar.

The sanctuary of the Salaria is also mentioned in the itinerary 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 vico Patricio (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 (608-15) in honor of St. Michael. A deaconry "in foro piscium" near the portico of Octavia was erected by Theodore, uncle of Hadrian I (between 755-70; Lib. Pont., I, p. 514, n. 2).

An oratory in his honor from the 8th century onward was also in the vestibule that joined the Vatican Basilica with the mausoleum transformed into the church of St. Petronilla (ibid. p. 97). St. Michael "de portico" near St. Peter's, of the Schola Frisorum, mentioned in a bull of Leo IV of 854; today called Sts. Michael and Magnus.

An oratory S. Angeli de Augusta was also built on the summit of the mausoleum of Augustus, as is attested by bulls of 951, 962 and by catalogues of churches down to the 15th century. Another oratory was on the Janiculum near St. Peter in Montorio, mentioned by a bull of Callistus II of 1123 and by the Catalogues down to the 16th century. There is furthermore a church S. Angeli da Renicco or prope montem Iordanum which occurs in a bull of Urban III of 1186, today Sts. Celsus and Julian. 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 recensions of the Hieronymian Martyrology introduce the notice of the sanctuary of St. Michael on Monte 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 feast of precept; Ethelred, king of England, prescribed for it (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 May 8, was in origin a purely local feast of the Church of Siponto, today Manfredonia, and concerned a rustic sanctuary, situated within one of the many caverns of Monte Gargano. It is certain that on May 8, 663, near Siponto, a naval battle took place between Lombards and Saracens; the victorious Lombards ascribed the victory to St. Michael, much venerated in these parts, precisely in his Garganic sanctuary. A fabulous legend, which later passed also into the various medieval martyrologies (the primitive Hieronymian Martyrology knows nothing at all of a feast of St. Michael on May 8), narrates the "inventio basilicae S. Angeli," which was subsequently traced back to May 8, 492, or 494. But, as everything leads one to believe, it is simply the anniversary of the dedication of the Garganic sanctuary, which certainly existed in the 6th century. This local feast subsequently spread, through the Lombards, into Lombardy and beyond, and thus became a universal feast. Benedict XIV, in his attempted liturgical reform, was determined to reduce this feast once again to a local Sipontine feast. The present Roman Martyrology, in dependence on the medieval martyrologists, confuses everything, attributing to May 8 an apparition of St. Michael, and to September 29 the anniversary of the dedication of the church on Monte Gargano; the memory of the Roman feast has been lost. Finally, one must recall another very important center of the cult of St. Michael, on Monte Tumba, in Normandy, famous under the name of Mont-St-Michel. The sanctuary, in imitation of that of Gargano, was founded in 709, and became the radiating center of that cult in all the Germanic countries and peoples, where it subsequently had an immense diffusion. It may be affirmed that in general the churches of St. Michael are among the most ancient churches.

St. Michael is venerated as 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 vanquish the infernal dragon; no wonder, therefore, that the Christian people too consider him in a particular way as warrior, defender, protector, in the first place against the infernal powers, then, in any case, against the enemies of the Church in general (in the Middle Ages, for example, the Normans, the Magliari, then the Hussites, the Turks, etc.). The liturgy alludes several times to the protection of St. Michael: art represents him almost always as a heavenly knight; the Germanic peoples especially venerate him as a special patron, and placed his image on their banners; he was made special protector of France and of Germany. The missionaries sought to replace the numerous sanctuaries of Woran and of Thiu, situated above the hills and mountains, with those of the warrior archangel; meanwhile in medieval castles the chapels placed at the top of the towers were often dedicated to St. Michael; very many mountain sanctuaries were also dedicated to him. Thus the little church of St. Angelo in a natural cavern in the cliff that overlooks Lake Nemi to the northeast, already mentioned in a bull of Alexander IV of January 12, 1255. There the archangel Michael was represented in a marble bas-relief, which disappeared in the 19th century, and in a rough fresco (A. Galietti, 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 up above the pronaos, 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 Low Masses, consecrated the common conviction of the Christian people concerning 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 the heavenly 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 above all in the solemn incensation of the altar in the solemn Mass ("Per intercessionem sancti Michaelis arcangeli..."). It should be noted, however, that in that prayer St. Gabriel was originally named (Lk. 1:11-18). But since in the feast of St. Michael, in the Mass and in the Office, this archangel appears (antiphon and offertory) as that heavenly thurifer, he too slowly took his place in the prayer at the incensation. In the Middle Ages, the legend that St. M. would celebrate Mass in heaven every Monday (a day sacred to the angels in the Middle Ages) contributed to his veneration.

Finally, St. M. appears, in the liturgy and in popular belief, as a guide of the souls of the dead. In the Hellenistic age, the idea of "psychopomp angels," of supernatural guides of souls, was very widespread as a consequence of the various currents of the mystery religions. The rabbis too attributed to St. M., protector of their people, the task of guiding souls to the beyond. Jesus himself seems to allude to this popular belief, when he has the soul of the poor Lazarus carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. It was therefore natural that many apocryphal and later also liturgical texts should continue to cultivate the idea of St. M. as guide of the souls of the dead, and hence as guardian of paradise. In the Mass and in the Office, St. M. is still invoked "ut non pereamus in tremendo iudicio." In the recommendation of the soul, which goes back in substance to the 7th-8th century, St. M. (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 concerning St. M. as guide of souls is found in the Offertory of the Masses for the dead: signifer s. Michaël repræsentet eas in lucem sanctam: the great celestial standard-bearer saves the souls from the assaults of hell and leads them into paradise.

Giuseppe Löw

III. ARCHAEOLOGY

The name of the archangel M. is invoked several times 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 found at Carthage (E. Diehl, Inscriptiones 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); in the dedication of the year 545 of the church built by Bacaudia and Julianus urgentarius in S. Michele in Frigiselo at Ravenna (CIL, XI, 288). In Egypt, in an epigraph of the year 409 in Alexandria (G. Lefebvre, Recueil des inscriptions chrétiennes d'Égypte, Cairo 1907, no. 49); on a Coptic stele from the Thebaid (C. M. Kaufmann, Handbuch der altchristlichen Epigraphik, Freiburg im Br. 1917, p. 150); in a Greek inscription from Egypt now in the British Museum (id., loc. cit., p. 279 and fig. 186); on a Coptic stele in the Cairo Museum (W. E. Crum, Coptic Monuments, Cairo 1901, pl. 56). Several times on monuments of Syria, Egypt and Rome the letters X, M, Γ are found engraved, that is Χριστός, Μύχαηλ, Γεβριήλ, Christ, M., 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 series, 1 [1870], p. 7 ff. and pl. 3,2). In Egypt, terracotta lamps were found with the Greek inscription: S. M. (H. Numier, in Annales des Antiquités de l'Égypte, 17 [1917], pp. 160-61).

G. B. De Rossi illustrated a "bell with a dedicatory epigraph of approximately the eighth or ninth century found near Canino" (N. bull. d'arch. crist., 5 [1887], pp. 82-87, today in the Christian Museum of the Lateran); on it is engraved a votive inscription in honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of St. M. the archangel, to whom a bell was also dedicated in the abbey of Fontanelle in the 8th century. G. De Jerphanion saw the origin of the type of St. M. treading on 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 are found in the Ravenna mosaics of the 6th century, specifically in those of S. Michele in Africisco, later transferred to Berlin, and in the others of S. Apollinare in Classe, where he is beardless, haloed, winged, wearing a chlamys, and holds in his right hand the labarum on which the word "holy" (ATIOC) is written three times in Greek. In the Treasury of St. Mark's in Venice, a precious bas-relief in enamels and gold depicts the archangel standing, haloed, with spread wings and a youthful head in high relief; he grasps a sword in his right hand and supports the globe with his left (10th-11th century); the archangel also appears standing and haloed in the upper part of the golden altarpiece of 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 11th century, in SS. Giovanni e Paolo he flanks the Savior together with St. Gabriel; he is identified by the inscription S. MIHAEL AR(cangelus) (Wilpert, Mosaiken, pl. 243); likewise in S. Clemente near the ancient tomb of St. Cyril (Wilpert, Le pitture della basilica primitiva di s. Clemente, in Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist., 26 [1906], p. 260 ff., pl. 11), in the great fresco of Christ enthroned between Michael, Gabriel and the popes Clement I and Nicholas I (Wilpert, Mosaiken, p. 546 and pl. 242), and in S. Angelo in Formis near Capua.

In the church of the abbey of St-Chef in the Dauphiné, an altar was dedicated to the Redeemer, to the three archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and to St. George, as attested by the inscription still preserved from the second half of the 11th century, contemporary with the frescoes depicting them in the apse.

In the Louvre Museum two bas-reliefs with the same scene are preserved, one from the 12th and the other from the 14th century. A Byzantine banner offers the image of St. Michael, before which Manuel, son of Eudoxia, is prostrate (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. d'arch. crist., 4th series, 6 [1888-89], p. 82). In Constantinople in the 13th century a bronze group was to be seen with Michael VIII Palaiologos at the feet of the archangel. In the East he is found very frequently during the early Middle Ages, when his image also began to appear in Carolingian and Ottonian art as a warrior in the act of striking down the dragon. And again as a combatant of the dragon he appears on the door of the sanctuary of S. Michele on Monte Gargano, cast in Constantinople in 1076 on behalf of Pantaleone of Amalfi, and on that of S. Zeno in Verona ca. 1100. Images of St. Michael striking down the dragon were frequent in France. A fresco of the second half of the 11th century depicts him in the cathedral of Puy; at the end of the 11th century in the portico of the church of St-Savin-sur-Gartempe; later in the church of St. Martin at Vic (Indre) from the beginning of the 12th century (P. Deschamps, La date des peintures de St-Savin-sur-Gartempe, in Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres, 1949, pp. 73-80). Romanesque art and then that of the Gothic period have left numerous images of the archangel Michael. It suffices to mention the fresco by Cimabue in the basilica of Assisi, the sculpture by Giovanni Pisano for the pulpit of the cathedral of Pisa, and the images in the portals of the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, of Autun, of Amiens, of Bruges. But the iconographic type did not change.

The iconography, in introducing St. Michael into the scenes of the Last Judgment, was inspired especially by Thess. 4:16; and by Apoc. 12:7-9 for the victorious combat of Michael against the great dragon "serpens antiquus qui vocatur diabolus et Satanas."

St. Michael as weigher of souls and in conflict with Satan appears on a capital from the beginning of the 12th century in the Museum of Toulouse, on another in the church of St. Eutropius at Saintes, and on a third in the abbey of St-Pons; on a fourth in S. Nettario in Auvergne (E. Mâle, L'art religieux du XIXᵉ siècle en France, 3rd ed., Paris 1928, p. 413). In the 14th and 15th centuries such representations are very frequent in Italian and German art (wooden statues in the Museum of Lübeck). In the Middle Ages Michael was also chosen as patron of merchants and pharmacists.

Among the best-known and most beautiful images of the archangel Michael, one must recall for the Renaissance that of Raphael (Louvre) and for the Baroque age that of Guido Reni (church of the Capuchins, Rome) and the other cast in bronze by Werschaffei at the summit of Castel Sant'Angelo (Rome).

Emilio Lavagnino

V. FOLKLORE

The sanctuary of the archangel on the Gargano is still the destination of crowded pilgrimages, especially on the days of the two feasts: May 8 and September 49 [sic]. The pilgrims, organized into "companies" led by a lay "prior" or by the parish priest, come flocking from all of central-southern Italy, covering very long distances on foot, sometimes barefoot and with little food. The "company" of Potenza, famous for its intense devotion, has the privilege of being greeted, upon its arrival, by the sound of bells. According to a very ancient custom, on climbing to the Sanctuary the faithful rest their foot or open hand on the steps and trace their precise outlines, marking there the date and the initials of their first and last names, so that the whole staircase is covered with these outlines of feet and hands: this in memory of the imprint of the foot that, according to legend, St. M. left in his apparition to the Sipontines who had defeated the Goths. Also characteristic are the crossed staffs topped with tufts of pine leaves (mazzareddi): in years of fervor more than 15,000 pilgrim staffs have been purchased. The faithful also bring back, among other souvenirs, statuettes of the Archangel in Gargano stone or alabaster, made by local craftsmen called precisely sammecalere. The spectacle offered by the multitude of the faithful dressed in their characteristic regional costumes in bright colors is among the most picturesque. Through the influence and after the example of the sanctuary of the Gargano, in localities presenting similar features there followed the dedication to the saint of mountain peaks, caves, chapels and temples: in Abruzzo alone there are 7 caves of St. M.: famous for popular worship is the one in the vicinity of Civitella del Tronto.

The contrast between St. M. and the devil is a motif that inspires many popular and popularizing sacred representations of Irpinia and Apulia. Also in Campania, where an apparition of the Archangel in the sky of Naples is recounted, there are spectacles held in his honor: at Arzano the popular drama in prose is performed; at Ottaiano, on May 8, in the square, the traditional flight of the angels takes place, which draws great crowds also from the Vesuvian towns. In Sicilian popular tradition St. M. is as much beauty in stature of person and nobility of form as can be imagined, whence it is said: "he is a St. Micheli arcancilu." Caltanissetta venerates him as its principal protector and recounts an apparition of his that saved the city from the plague. Numerous are the popular prayers invoking the Saint to obtain liberation from earthly ills and the salvation of the soul. There also circulates among the common people an apocryphal prayer of St. M. of a superstitious character and therefore condemned by the Church (Appendix to the Index of Prohibited Books of Clement XI). Of a devout character, on the other hand, is a Istoria bellissima dove si tratta di quando l'arcangelo M. discacciò Lucifero, spread through popular prints of the early nineteenth century. - See pl. LXI.

Paolo Toschi