The name Michael in Hebrew means “Who is like God?” The angel Michael appears four times in Sacred Scripture: twice in the Book of Daniel, where he is presented as one of the chief “princes” and protector of God’s chosen people (Dn 10:13; 12:1); in the Letter of Jude (v. 9), where he is called an archangel and described contending with Satan over the body of Moses; and in the Book of Revelation (12:7), which recounts Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. Many also identify him with the unnamed archangel mentioned by Saint Paul in 1 Thessalonians (4:16), whose cry will herald the general resurrection.
Michael as psychopompós—the one who accompanies souls (as recalled in the ancient Offertory of the Requiem Mass)—already appears in Jewish-Hellenistic liturgy. Highly venerated among the Jews, he was also early revered in Christian worship. By the 4th century at the latest, devotion to Saint Michael was firmly established, though celebrated on different dates. Countless churches and oratories were dedicated to him.
The liturgical date of September 29 is Roman in origin and commemorates the dedication of a church built on the Via Salaria in the 5th century. In Rome, his memory was also honored on the mausoleums of the emperors Augustus and Hadrian—the latter eventually being known as Castel Sant’Angelo (“Castle of the Holy Angel”). The feast quickly spread throughout Europe and the East, and it attained the rank of a holy day of obligation.
Tradition associates Saint Michael with the shrine at Monte Gargano in southern Italy, where devotion to him is attested from the 6th century. A Lombard victory over the Saracens at Siponto in 663 was attributed to his protection. Confusion later transferred the commemoration of that event (originally on May 8) to September 29; May 8 was left to mark a supposed apparition of the archangel. Another major center of devotion was the great Norman abbey of Mont Saint-Michel, founded in 709. The angel warrior, often depicted as an armored soldier, was adopted as patron by many nations. The liturgy also presents him as the chief angel of incense, a role earlier ascribed to Gabriel.
The name Gabriel has been interpreted as “strength of God,” “God’s strong one,” or “God has shown himself mighty.” Gabriel identified himself to Zechariah as “the one who stands before God” (Lk 1:19). He is the angel who announces the birth of John the Baptist and of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Already in the Book of Daniel he appears as a messenger of divine revelations (Dn 8:16; 9:21). Later Judaism regarded him as one of the greatest among the angels, and early Christian writings (from the 2nd century) call him an archangel. The ancient Syriac Church venerated him as first among the angels; even Muhammad did the same. Pope Benedict XV extended his feast universally to March 24.
The name Raphael means “God has healed.” He is highly revered by both Jews and Christians and considered one of the four great archangels (the fourth, Uriel, is found only in apocryphal writings). Raphael appears only in one canonical biblical book, Tobit, which modern scholarship generally does not consider strictly historical. As the companion of the young Tobiah on his journey, Raphael has long been invoked as patron of travelers. His feast was added relatively late to the Roman calendar (1921) and was celebrated on October 24.
The present calendar brings together, for the first time, the three archangels—Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael—into a single celebration on September 29.
