The Archangels Part II of III: St. Michael, Warrior and Protector
By Fr. Marion Charboneau, OSB
Part II of III on the subject of the angels named in scripture — the Archangels. In the September edition, Fr. Marion reflects on St. Michael, the vanguard of the heavenly host and a powerful intercessor in our spiritual battles.
This article was originally published in our September 2024 Kansas Monks newsletter. See our Newsletter Archive at www.kansasmonks.org/newsletter to read the rest of the September issue.
This month, we continue our examination of the archangels, turning our attention now to St. Michael from last month’s look at St. Raphael. Most of our knowledge of Michael, whose name means Who is like God?, comes from the books of Daniel and Revelation. However, Michael, often called the “Chief Angel,” receives also a tiny but crucial mention in the Letter of Jude, where he is specifically identified as an archangel.
St. Jude’s reference comes as he deals with false teachers whose sins included reviling “glorious beings,” likely the fallen angels. Recalling an old apocryphal tale, Jude references the Assumption of Moses, when Michael argues with Satan over Moses’ body. In that dispute, Michael refused to revile even the Devil, instead saying to Satan simply, “The Lord rebuke you!”
It’s a passage worth noting in our day as people publicly revile one another for the slightest transgressions. Jude reminds us with this story of St. Michael that nothing of God’s creation is to be reviled, and certainly not persons made in the image and likeness of God. Our baptismal vows instead govern our attitudes toward the Devil: we are called to reject Satan, all his ways, and all his empty promises. Baptismal faith is believing in Jesus as the Son of God and loving him single-heartedly. Faith does not lead one to revile Satan or anything or anyone else of God’s creation. Faith teaches that Satan is to be entirely ignored, and his ways and works utterly renounced.
Turning from Jude, the tenth chapter of Daniel retells how the prophet received a vision from an angel, likely St. Gabriel, explaining that the vision had been delayed for three weeks because of an interfering malevolent guardian spirit of the Kingdom of Persia. At that point, Michael came to the angel’s aid, opposing the evil spirit and allowing the angel to come to Daniel with his prophecy. The angel foretells terrible wars fought by people often noted in history: successors of the Persian King Cyrus, Darius I, Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies of Egypt, Cleopatra, and the especially unsavory Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a tyrant, blasphemer, and persecutor of the Jews.
Raphael, circa 1504-1505, Saint Michael, oil
The last mention of Michael in Daniel presents these conflicts as preliminary skirmishes of the Great Tribulation at the end of time — but in that future era, Michael will arise as Israel’s protector, the sufferings of God’s people will end, and all those written in the Book of Life will receive salvation.
In the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation, we see the first stage of that ultimate victory has already taken place in a story likely familiar to many of us: Michael and faithful angels war against the dragon, Satan, and the other fallen angels, driving them out of heaven to the earth as Jesus himself declared, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.”
It is a story that reminds us that Satan’s defeat has already begun. Jesus, of course, completely rejected him in the desert and on the cross, and, entirely victorious in the Resurrection and the Ascension, he communicates the grace of victory to us in the sacraments. God deserves every praise for that, and, as for Michael, the Church honors him as the protector of the New Israel, just as he was rightly honored by the first Israel down to the present day. As a Church, we honor Michael through our annual Feast of the Archangels on September 29th (this year it falls on a Sunday). As one heading celestial armies, he is venerated by the Church with soldiers and law enforcement under his particular protection. (Radiology and the nation of Italy also fall under his patronage.) Yet Michael’s service is to the whole people of God, and we can all give thanks to God for him.
May the name of St. Michael be revered and honored, and may all the faithful praise God for his great archangel’s help and protection!
About Fr. Marion Charboneau, OSB
Fr. Marion is a priest and a fly fisherman. His passion for fishing started early in life; his passion for the faith came later on. He is an adjunct instructor of history for Benedictine College.