Michael
An archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings, he is viewed as the leader of the army of God against the forces of evil.
- Antiquity
- Celestial
- Feast day September 29
- Archangel
Michael is one of the three archangels named in Scripture. His name is a question turned battle cry: "Who is like God?" The book of Daniel makes him the guardian prince of Israel; Revelation shows him at the head of the heavenly host casting out the dragon and the rebel angels; the Epistle of Jude reports that he disputed with the devil over the body of Moses. Tradition gives him three offices: to fight evil, to escort the dying, and to weigh souls at the Judgement — hence the scales he holds in iconography, facing the dragon he tramples. His cult in the West arose from the apparition at Monte Gargano in Apulia at the end of the fifth century; it then reached Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, founded in 708 after an apparition to the bishop of Avranches, and St Michael's Mount in Cornwall. Patron of soldiers, police officers and paramedics, he is also honoured as protector of the universal Church. His feast, on 29 September, has since 1969 gathered the three archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
Patronage
Sayings for the day — September 29
- Quand le vent est au nord le jour de la Saint Michel, le mois d'octobre est au sec.
- Toutes les pluies perdues, à Saint Michel rendues.
- Bise à la Saint Michel, octobre sec.
- Pluie de Saint Michel sans orage, d'un hiver clément le présage.
- Quand l'hirondelle voit la Saint Michel, l'hiver ne vient qu'à la Noël.
- Au Québec, les gens qui vivent dans la région de l'Estrie, notamment près du mont Orford ont l'habitude de dire: A la Saint Michel, le mont se couvre de gel.