The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan (1636), Guido Reni · public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Who he is
Michael (Hebrew Mi-ka-El, "Who is like God?") appears in Daniel 10:13, 21 and 12:1 as a great prince who protects God's people, in Jude 9 disputing with the devil, and in Revelation 12:7–9 leading the angels against the dragon. Christians, Jews and Muslims all honour him.
Path to sainthood
Michael is not a canonised human but one of the three archangels named in the Catholic canon (with Gabriel and Raphael), venerated since the earliest centuries. Since the 1969 calendar reform the three share the feast of 29 September.
Patronages
Soldiers, police officers, paramedics, the sick, and a good death.
Trivia
- Pope Leo XIII added the short Prayer to St Michael in 1886 to the prayers he had ordered said after Low Mass in 1884. The famous story that he wrote it after a vision of Satan during Mass first appeared in the 1930s, with conflicting details and no contemporary evidence, so treat it as legend.
- Michaelmas was one of the four "quarter days" when rents were due in England, and it gave its name to Oxford and Cambridge's autumn Michaelmas term.
- English folklore: don't pick blackberries after Michaelmas, because the devil, cast out of heaven, landed in a bramble bush and spoiled them.
Shrines: see St Michael's Line.
Sources
- Vatican News: St Michael the Archangel
- Catholic Encyclopedia: St Michael the Archangel
- Britannica: Michael
- Wikipedia: Prayer to Saint Michael (history & sources)
Fact-checked on October 15, 2026 against New Advent (Catholic Encyclopedia), Vatican documents and news reports. Britannica links are given for further reading. Feast days follow the General Roman Calendar.
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