St. Michael is not a saint in the usual sense — not a human being who lived and died, but an archangel: a pure spirit created by God before the world, who appears in Scripture at exactly the moments when the stakes are highest. His name is itself a battle cry. In Hebrew, Mi-cha-el means “Who is like God?” — the question that, according to tradition, threw down the rebel angel who wanted the answer to be “I am.”
The Church honors him on September 29 — Michaelmas — together with the archangels Gabriel and Raphael, and invokes him as the defender of the Church, the patron of police officers and soldiers, and the great adversary of the devil. His prayer is one of the most-recited in modern Catholic life.
Michael in Scripture
Michael appears by name in three books of the Bible, and always in combat or contest. In the book of Daniel he is “one of the chief princes” who comes to the aid of God’s messenger, and “the great prince who has charge of your people” — the guardian of Israel who arises in the time of last distress (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1). In the letter of Jude, he disputes with the devil over the body of Moses, and even then does not presume judgment in his own name, saying only: “The Lord rebuke you” (Jude 9).
His decisive appearance is in the book of Revelation: “Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon” — and the dragon, “the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan,” is defeated and cast down (Revelation 12:7–9). From these texts the Church has always understood Michael as the leader of the faithful angels, the standard-bearer of heaven’s army, and the personal adversary of Satan. He is honored as the Church’s special protector — the guardianship he held over Israel, extended to the new people of God.
The four traditional roles of St. Michael
Christian tradition has honored Michael under four offices, and telling them apart keeps the devotion honest. The first two rest directly on Scripture: he is the leader of the heavenly host, commander of the faithful angels in the war of Revelation 12, and the guardian of the Church — the protection he exercised over Israel as “the great prince who has charge of your people” (Daniel 12:1), understood from the earliest centuries as extending to the new people of God.
The other two come from tradition and sacred art rather than defined doctrine. Tradition presents Michael as the angel who escorts souls at death — the Church’s old Requiem liturgy prayed that “the standard-bearer St. Michael” might lead the departed into the holy light — and medieval iconography added a fourth office: the weigher of souls, painted with a scale in hand at the Last Judgment. That is why so many statues and holy cards show him holding scales. These images are the Church’s artistic meditation on his place in God’s justice and mercy — venerable and instructive, but iconography and pious tradition, not dogma.
From the same devotional tradition comes the Chaplet of St. Michael: nine salutations honoring the nine choirs of angels, arising from the devotion of the Portuguese Carmelite Antonia d’Astonac, who reported a private revelation of St. Michael in the eighteenth century. Pope Pius IX approved the chaplet in 1851. Like all devotions built on private revelation, it is an approved aid to prayer — a way of honoring the whole angelic court together with its prince — not an obligation of the faith.
What the Church teaches about angels
Angels are not metaphors, moods, or deceased loved ones. The Catechism is direct: “The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls ‘angels’ is a truth of faith” (CCC 328). They are personal, immortal creatures of intelligence and will, surpassing in perfection all visible creatures — and they are servants and messengers of God, present through the whole sweep of salvation history, from Eden to the Resurrection (CCC 329–333).
The Church also teaches that the whole life of the Church benefits from their mysterious and powerful help, and that every believer has an angel as “protector and shepherd” leading him to life (CCC 334–336). Devotion to St. Michael is therefore not superstition at the edges of the faith; it is the Catholic doctrine of angels taken seriously — including its sober corollary, that some angels fell, and that the Christian life involves real spiritual opposition.
Angels and worship
Catholics do not worship Michael or any angel — worship belongs to God alone. To invoke St. Michael is to ask a fellow creature, mightier than we are and wholly given to God, to defend and pray for us. Scripture itself shows the pattern: even Michael rebukes the devil not by his own authority but in the name of the Lord (Jude 9).
The St. Michael Prayer and Leo XIII
The prayer itself has a documented origin: Pope Leo XIII composed it, and in 1886 ordered it added to the prayers said after Low Mass throughout the Church — where it remained until the 1960s. That much is history.
The famous story behind it should be told honestly. According to a widely repeated account, Leo XIII experienced a disturbing vision after Mass — of Satan granted a period of greater power to assail the Church — and composed the prayer in response. The story rests on later recollections, decades after the fact, with details that vary in the telling; it cannot be verified from contemporary records, and the Church has never vouched for it. What is certain is the prayer Leo actually gave the Church, and its remarkable afterlife: though dropped from general use after the liturgical reforms, it never left Catholic devotion, and in 1994 Pope St. John Paul II urged the faithful to take it up again. The full text is on our St. Michael Prayer page.
Michael in Catholic life today
Devotion to St. Michael is ancient — great shrines like Monte Gargano in Italy and Mont-Saint-Michel in France go back over a millennium — and it is also unmistakably current. He is the patron of police officers, of soldiers and the military, and of all who stand between the innocent and harm; his medal and prayer card ride in patrol cars and deployment bags all over the world. Since 1969 the September 29 feast honors the three named archangels together — Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael — but the day keeps its old English name, Michaelmas, from him.
Many parishes now recite the St. Michael Prayer after every Mass. In an era uneasy with talk of evil, the instinct of the faithful has been to keep this one prayer close — a daily, thirty-second acknowledgment that the struggle described in Revelation 12 is not finished, and that no one fights it alone.
Prayers
Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.
Common Questions
What is St. Michael the Archangel the patron saint of?
St. Michael is the patron of police officers, soldiers and the military, and of protection against evil. He is also honored as the special guardian of the Church, and traditionally invoked for the grace of a holy death and the defense of the dying.
When is St. Michael’s feast day?
September 29 — traditionally called Michaelmas. Since 1969 the feast honors the three named archangels together: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.
Is St. Michael a saint if he was never human?
Yes. “Saint” means holy one, and the title has always been given to the faithful angels as well as to holy men and women. Michael was never human — he is a pure spirit, an archangel — so he has no birth or death dates, no relics, and no tomb.
What does the name Michael mean?
In Hebrew, Michael means “Who is like God?” Tradition hears in it the battle cry of the faithful angels against Lucifer’s rebellion — a question whose only true answer is: no one.
Where does the St. Michael Prayer come from?
Pope Leo XIII composed it and in 1886 prescribed it after Low Mass throughout the Church. A popular tradition attributes it to a vision Leo had of Satan’s assault on the Church, but that account comes from later recollections and cannot be historically verified. John Paul II urged Catholics to pray it daily in 1994.
Is St. Michael the angel of death?
Not in the sense the phrase usually suggests. Scripture does not teach that any one angel holds a specific “angel of death” office, and the Church has never defined one. What tradition does hold — echoed in the Church’s old Requiem liturgy and in centuries of sacred art — is that Michael escorts the souls of the faithful to God and is invoked for the grace of a holy death. He is prayed to as a protector at death, not as death personified.
Sources & Church Teaching
- Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1 (Michael the great prince); Jude 9 (the dispute with the devil); Revelation 12:7–9 (the war in heaven)
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 328–336 (the existence and mission of the angels)
- Leo XIII, addition of the Prayer to St. Michael to the prayers after Low Mass (1886)
- John Paul II, Regina Caeli address of April 24, 1994 (urging the faithful to pray the St. Michael Prayer)
- Chaplet of St. Michael — devotion of Antonia d’Astonac, approved by Pius IX (1851); Roman Missal (1962), offertory of the Requiem Mass (“signifer sanctus Michael”)