Dedication of St. Michael

Dedication of St. Michael – September 29th

There are more than ten Roman churches dedicated to St. Michael. To-day’s feast celebrates the consecration in 530 by Boniface II of the venerable sanctuary seven miles from the city on the Salarian way. The Mass now used for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost was composed for the occasion, which accounts for its many references to the consecration of a church. To-day’s Mass has much in common with that of the Guardian Angels, the two feasts having long been celebrated together.

The Name Michael means, in Hebrew, “who is like to God?” and recalls the battle in heaven between “the prince of the heavenly host”* and the devil, a battle which began with Lucifer’s rebellion and continues down the ages. In this tremendous struggle Michael and his angels together with the Church and her saints are Christ’s allies against Satan and his devils with all their henchmen. We are all involved in this fight, and St. Michael and the angels help us so that we may not perish in the day of God’s judgment (All.). When a Christian dies, the Church prays that God’s standard-bearer may lead him into heaven**, and so he is often represented bearing the scales of divine justice in which souls are weighed. St. Michael also presides over our worship of God, for he is the angel whom St. John saw in heaven near God’s altar, a golden censer in his hand, offering the fragrant incense of the prayers of the saints. (1st Ant. At Vespers; Off.; cf. the blessing of incense at the Offertory in the ordinary of the Mass). St. Michael’s name is mentioned in the Confiteor after that of Mary, the Queen of the angels. He is the angel protector of the Church as he formerly was of the Jewish people. The liturgy identifies him with the angel who gave God’s revelation to St. John in the Apocalypse (Ep.).

* Prayers for the agonizing and prayers after low Mass.

** Offertory of the Requiem Mass.