May VIII

The Apparition of St. Michael The Archangel

Almighty God displayeth the riches of his goodness, power, and glory in the production of his creatures; and in them he manifesteth his own perfections. The whole world is as it were one great temple, where the divine presence shines, as it did in the Jewish at the time of its dedication, in a visible glory. We owe to him a tribute of praise and thanksgiving for all his works, but more particularly for the noble and pure intelligences on whom he has stamped his own spiritual image in a more perfect manner. He hath enriched them with the treasures of his grace, and of spotless sanctity, and hath made them the immortal and blessed inhabitants of his heavenly kingdom. They are, by the perfection of their nature, superior to man,¹ who seems to hold the lowest rank in the scale of rational beings, and to be the link between the spiritual and material world; he being, by his body, allied to matter, and his soul to the celestial intelligences. He is therefore in natural perfections essentially inferior and subordinate to those pure spirits; nevertheless, in grace he may surpass them; and the church assures us, that the Blessed Virgin transcends their highest Orders. Upon their creation, God placed them in a state of meriting; and, while Lucifer and his adherents fell by pride, and were changed into devils, the good spirits, persevering in justice, were confirmed in grace, and crowned with glory.

It is manifest, from the holy scriptures, that God is pleased to make frequent use of the ministry of the heavenly spirits in the dispensations of his providence in this world, and especially towards man. Hence the name of Angel (which is not properly a denomination of nature, but office) has been appropriated to them, especially to a certain order among them. The fathers, from the sacred oracles, distinguish nine orders of these holy spirits namely, the Seraphims, Cherubims, and Thrones; Dominations, Principalities, and Powers; Virtues, Archangels, and Angels.² Though many think that the apostle hath not enumerated all the ranks of those noble beings.³ St. Gregory the Great,⁴ and the ancient author of the book, On the Celestial Hierarchy, commonly ascribed to St Dionysius the Areopagite, divide these nine orders into three hierarchies, and each of these again into three ranks. Each order among them hath its characteristical perfections and functions, by which the spirits which compose it, in a particular manner, set forth and glorify some attribute of the Deity: one, his supreme dominion and power, another his strength; the Cherubims his omniscience or boundless knowledge, the Seraphims his infinite love. Archangels are those spirits whom God makes his ambassadors in the execution of his greatest designs. The angels he employs in his ordinary dispensations to men. Their numbers are exceeding great, they being represented in scripture by thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand: and it is written in the book of Job, Is there any numbering of his soldiers?⁵ These numberless armies of glorious spirits are the bright ornament of the heavenly Jerusalem. They are called by St. Clemens of Alexandria,⁶ The first-begotten of God. And by St. Sophronius,⁷ The living images and representatives of God. As a skilful architect, he polishes more those stones which he destines to a more noble rank, and to more excellent purposes.

The angels are all pure spirits;⁸ that is, they are uncompounded immaterial substances, or subsisting simple beings, which have no parts, as bodies and matter have. In them nothing is to be found of color, shape, extension, or any other qualities of matter. They are by a property of their nature, immortal, as every spirit is. For a simple entity, or what has no parts, can only perish by annihilation, which is a supernatural act of divine omnipotence, no less than creation. On the contrary, a body being compounded of parts, is naturally mortal; being obnoxious to continual vicissitudes, and liable to perish by a separation or dissolution of its parts. Hence the bodies of the elect, after the general resurrection, will be immortal only by a gift of grace. As in their nature, so in its properties and appendices, do the angels surpass inferior creatures. Their subtilty, quickness of penetration, extensive knowledge and science in natural things, are undoubtedly perfect in proportion to the excellency of their beings, inasmuch as they are pure intelligences. It is no less certain that they enjoy the faculty of communicating to each other their thoughts and conceptions, which St. Paul calls the tongues of angels. Their discourse can only be intellectual, as Theodoret observes,⁹ but must on that account be the more perfect. The prophets frequently express it as a peculiar and distinguishing property of God alone, that he is the searcher of hearts; so that his all-seeing eye always penetrates into their most hidden recesses, and no creature can conceal any thing from Him, before whom all things are light. In what manner the angels communicate their thoughts or understand those of others, we are not able clearly to determine. St. Thomas and divines usually teach, with St. Gregory,¹⁰ that God speaks to his angels by interiorly discovering to them his will, and by inspiring them with a sweet inclination to execute all his orders; and that these pure spirits speak to one another by the interior desire or will of communicating their thoughts and sentiments. By whatever means the angels understand the language of their fellow-spirits, by the like they may hear the desires of a human soul, such at least as are addressed to them, or which it concerns them to know. Our guardian angels may in an instant convey or intimate our concerns to spirits that are remote; and God also can immediately reveal our thoughts when he pleases to them. That they know our concerns, and by charity interest themselves in them, is certain, or there could not be joy in heaven, and before the angels of God over one sinner doing penance.¹¹ Even devils can suggest to our minds evil thoughts, paint in the imagination dangerous objects, frequently see the consent of the human heart, and accuse men at the divine tribunal. That spirits have a natural power of exerting their agency on bodies, is proved from several instances in holy writ, not only of good angels, but also of devils, when God doth not restrain their natural strength. Evil spirits slew the seven first incontinent husbands of Sara, hurled the swine into the lake, and carried Christ in the air. Angels have the power of moving or conveying themselves from place to place; in which they are swift even as our thought: and such is their activity, that it is not easy for us to conceive it. If light comes from the sun to our eye in seven minutes, it must travel 200,000 miles in a second. Yet this is corporal motion, which essentially requires succession of time. But the motion of a spirit, from the highest heaven to the lowest point in the universe, is instantaneous.¹²

This is an imperfect abstract of what divines deliver from the oracles of holy writ, concerning the nature and properties of the good spirits. But unspeakably more transcendent and more admirable are the noble spiritual endowments of grace, and the riches of immortal glory, with which they are adorned. They are the spotless ministers, who approach nearest to the throne of God; and, in the contemplation of his infinite beauty, and incomprehensible perfections, drink plentifully of the fountain of his holy joy and love; pouring forth, with all their strength, without intermission, to eternity, a perfect spiritual homage of profound adoration and praise, to the glory of his holy name. Though in this imperfect state of human nature we can have but very weak notions of the transcendent powers and faculties of superior spiritual beings, revelation has, in part, supplied the defect, and drawn aside the veil, letting us into some knowledge of this immaterial world of spirits. The holy scripture accordingly admonishes us to watch and stand upon our guard against the malice and snares of the wicked apostate spirits, who, by their evil suggestions, endeavor to seduce and draw us into sin. It also assures us, that the good angels are often employed by God in ministering to us, and that they frequently lend us their friendly succors. It further informs us, that when the material curtain of our body, which at present hides from our eyes the invisible spiritual world, shall be rent asunder, immediately a sudden torrent of light will break in upon us, and we shall see ourselves in the midst of those bright legions. The wicked indeed shall find themselves in darkness, under the arrest and tyranny of the accursed spirits, which were here their tempters, and will be hereafter their tormentors, and their companions in unquenchable flames. But a guard of holy angels will conduct the soul of every just man, like Lazarus, to the abodes of light, and it shall be associated to the millions of millions of happy spirits, being itself a kindred spirit.

Among the holy archange’s, three are particularly distinguished in holy writ: SS. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.* St. Michael, whom the church honors this day, was the prince of the faithful angels who opposed Lucifer and his associates in their revolt against God. Michael, in Hebrew. signifies, Who is like God? This was, as it were, his motto, when by humility he repressed the pride of that apostate angel,¹³ and set up the standard against him. He continues to protect the saints from his assaults. When the body of Moses was ordered to be secretly buried, lest it should prove an occasion of idolatry or superstition to the Jews, who had been accustomed to see the superstitious practices of the Egyptians towards their dead princes and friends, the devil attempted to prevent the execution of the divine order, that he might insult the body, or make it an object of the people’s sin. But St. Michael checked his insolence, not commanding him in his own name, but with humility, intimating to him the command of God to desist.¹⁴ As the devil is the sworn enemy of God’s holy church, St. Michael is its special protector against his assaults and stratagems: in this quality he was the defender of the Jewish synagogue, as is gathered from Daniel,¹⁵ and Zachary,¹⁶ and it appears from the most ancient books of the Rabbins, that he was always acknowledged such by the Hebrews; who even think he was the angel that conducted them into the promised land, and was the instrument or minister of God in giving them the law, and in other signal favors. This holy archangel has ever been honored in the Christian church, under the same title as her guardian under God, and as the protector of the faithful; for God is pleased to employ the zeal and charity of the good angels and their leader against the malice of the devil. To thank his adorable goodness for this benefit of his merciful providence, is this festival instituted by the church in honor of the good angels: in which devotion she has been encouraged by several apparitions of this glorious archangel. Among others it is recorded, that St. Michael, in a vision, admonished the bishop of Siponto to build a church in his honor on mount Gargano, now called Monte-de-Sant-Angelo, in the Capitanate, near Manfredonia, in the kingdom of Naples. This history is confirmed by Sigebert in his chronicle, and by the ancient tradition of the churches of that country,* and is approved authentic by the judicious critic Mabillon, who visited those places, and examined the records and monuments.¹⁷ This church was erected in the fifth century, and is a place of great devotion. When the emperor Otho III. had, contrary to his word, put to death, for rebellion, Crescentius, a Roman senator; being touched with remorse, he cast himself at the feet of St. Romuald, who, in satisfaction for his crime, enjoined him to walk barefoot, on a penitential pilgrimage, to St. Michael’s on mount Gargano: which penance he performed in 1002, as St. Peter Damian relates. In France, Aubert, bishop of Avranches, moved, it is said, by certain visions, built, in 708, a church in honor of St. Michael, on a barren rock which hangs over the sea, between Normandy and Brittany. In the tenth age this collegiate church was changed into a great Benedictin abbey. In imitation of this was the famous church of St. Michael refounded in Cornwall, in the reign of William the Conqueror, by William, earl of Moreton, on a mountain which the tide encompasses. It is said by Borlace, the learned and accurate antiquarian of Cornwall, that this church of St. Michael was first built in the fifth century. The Greeks mention, in their Menæa, a famous apparition of St. Michael at Chone, the ancient Colossæ in Phrygia. Many apparitions of good angels in favor of men are recorded, both in the Old and New Testament. It is mentioned in particular of this special guardian and protector of the church, that, in the persecution of Antichrist, he will powerfully stand up in her defence: At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people.¹⁸ He is not only the protector of the church, but of every faithful soul. He defeated the devil by humility: we are enlisted in the same warfare. His arms were humility and ardent love of God; the same must be our weapons. We ought to regard this archangel as our leader under God: and, courageously resisting the devil in all his assaults, to cry out: Who can be compared to God? On the Good Angels, see more? September 29, and October 2.

St. Peter, Archbishop of Tarentaise,

now called monstiers, in savoy

He was a native of Dauphiné. A strong inclination to learning, assisted by a good genius and a happy memory, carried him very successfully through his studies. At twenty years of age he took the Cistercian habit at Bonnevaux, a monastery that had been lately filled by a colony sent by St. Bernard from Clairvaux. They employed a great part of the day in hewing wood, and tilling the ground in the forest, in perpetual silence and interior prayer. They ate but once a day, and their fare was herbs or roots, mostly turnips of a coarse sort. Four hours in the twenty-four was the usual allowance for sleep; so that, rising at midnight, they continued in the church till it was morning, and returned no more to rest: which was the primitive custom of that order. Peter practised the greatest austerities with fervor and alacrity: he was most exactly obedient, obliging to all, humble, and modest. His pious parents, after the birth of four children, lived in perpetual continency, and the practice of rigorous abstinence, prayed much, and gave large alms: their house they seemed to turn into a hospital, so great was the number of poor and strangers they constantly entertained, whom they furnished with good beds, while they themselves often lay on straw. The father and his two other sons at length followed Peter to Bonnevaux, and the mother and daughter embraced the same order in a neighboring nunnery. The year after Peter had taken the monastic habit, his example was followed by Amedeus, nearly related to the emperor Conrad III., and sixteen other persons of worth and distinction. Amedeus, indeed, having there made his solemn profession with the rest, by the advice of persons of great virtue and discretion, spent some time at Cluni, the better to superintend his son’s education, in the school established there for the education of youth: but he returned after some time to Bonnevaux; and made it his request, at his readmission, that he might be enjoined the lowest offices in the house. To this the abbot, for his greater advancement in humility and penance, consented. The earl of Albion, his uncle, coming one day to see him, found him in a sweat, cleaning the monks’ dirty shoes, and, at the same time, so attentive to his prayers, as not to perceive him. The earl remembering in what state he had seen him in the world, was so struck and so much edified at this spectacle, that he ever after retained the deep impression which it made on his mind, and published it at court. Amedeus built four monasteries of his order: among which was that of Tamies, of Stomedium, in the desert mountains of the diocese of Tarentaise, of which he procured his intimate friend St. Peter, not then quite thirty years of age, to be appointed the first abbot, in 1128. Amedeus worked himself with his spade and mattock in building some of these monasteries, and died at Bonnevaux, in the odor of sanctity, in 1140. His son Amedeus, for whose education in piety he had always the greatest concern, after having spent part of his youth in the court of his kinsman the emperor, became a Cistercian monk under St. Bernard, at Clairvaux, and died bishop of Lausanne.

The monastery of Tamies seemed a house of terrestrial angels; so constantly were its inhabitants occupied in the employment of angels, paying to God an uninterrupted homage of praise, adoration, and love. St. Peter, by the help of Amedeus III., count of Savoy, founded in it a hospital to receive all the poor sick persons of the country, and all strangers; and would be himself its servant to attend them. In 1142, the count of Savoy procured his election to the archbishopric of Tarentaise, and he was compelled by St. Bernard and the general chapter of his order, though much against his own inclinations, to accept of that charge. Indeed, that diocese stood extremely in need of such an apostolic pastor, having been usurped by a powerful ambitious wolf, named Idrael, whose deposition left it in the most desolate condition. The parish-churches and tithes were sacrilegiously held by laymen; and the clergy, who ought to have stemmed the torrent of iniquity, contributed but too often to promote irregularity by their own wicked example. The sight of these evils drew tears from the eyes of the saint, with which he night and day implored the divine mercy upon the souls intrusted to his care. He directed all his fasts, his prayers, and labors, for the good of his flock: being persuaded that the sanctification of the people committed to his charge was an essential condition for securing his own salvation. He altered nothing in the simplicity of a monastic life, and looked on the episcopal character as a laborious employment rather than a dignity. His clothes were plain, and his food coarse; for he ate nothing but brown bread, herbs, and pulse, of which the poor had always their share. He made the constant visitation of his diocese his employ; he everywhere exhorted and instructed his whole charge with unwearied zeal and invincible patience, and besides, he provided the several parishes of his diocese with able and virtuous pastors. When he came to his bishopric, he found the chapter of his cathedral full of irregularities, and the service of God performed in a very careless manner; but he soon made that church a pattern of good order and devotion. He recovered the tithes and other revenues of the church that had been usurped by certain powerful laymen; made many excellent foundations for the education of youth, and the relief of the poor; repaired several churches, and restored everywhere devotion and the decent service of God. The author of his life. who was the constant companion of his labors, and the witness of the greatest part of his actions after he was made bishop, assures us he wrought many miracles in several places, chiefly in curing the sick, and multiplying provisions for the poor in times of great distress; so that he was regarded as a new Thaumaturgus. The confusion his humility suffered from the honors he received, joined to his love of solitude, made him resolve to retire from the world; and accordingly, in 1155, after he had borne the weight of the episcopal character thirteen years, having settled his diocese in good order, he disappeared on a sudden; and made his way to a retired monastery of Cistercians in Germany, where he was not known. In the mean time, his family and diocese mourned for the loss of their tender father. Strict inquiry was made in all the neighboring provinces, especially in the monasteries, but in vain; till, after some time, divine providence discovered him by the following accident. A young man, who had been brought up under his care, came to the monastery in which he lay concealed, and upon observing the monks as they were going out of the church to their work, he know his bishop, and made him known to the whole community. The religious no sooner understood who he was, but they all fell at his feet, begged his blessing, and expressed much concern for not having known him before. The saint was inconsolable at being discovered, and was meditating a new escape, but he was so carefully watched, that it was not in his power; so that he was forced to go back to his diocese, where he was received with the greatest demonstrations of joy. He applied himself to his functions with greater vigor than ever. The poor were always the object of his peculiar care. He was twice discovered to have given away, with the hazard of his own life, in extreme cold weather in winter, the waistcoat which he had on his back. For three months before the harvest he distributed general alms among all the inhabitants of the mountains, provisions being always very scarce there at that season. He founded hospitals on the Alps, for the entertainment of poor travellers; because, before that time, many perished for the want of such a succor. To preserve in his heart the spirit of devotion and penance, he continued to practise, as much as possible, all the austerities and other rules of his order, only commuting manual labor for the spiritual functions of his charge. By his conversation with the God of peace, he imbibed an eminent spirit of that virtue, and learned, by humility and charity, to be truly the man of peace; having also a singular talent for extinguishing the most implacable and inveterate enemies. He often reconciled sovereign princes when they were at variance, and prevented several bloody wars. The emperor Frederic I. set up Octavian, a schismatical pope, under the name of Victor, against Alexander III. St. Peter was almost the only subject of the empire who had the courage openly to oppose his unjust attempt, and he boldly defended the cause of justice in presence of the tyrant, and in many councils. The emperor, who banished others that spoke in favor of that cause, stood in awe of his sanctity: and Peter, by his mild counsels, frequently softened his fierceness, and checked the boisterous sallies of his fury, while, like a roaring lion, he spread terror on every side. The saint preached in Alsace, Burgundy, Lorraine, and in many parts of Italy; and confounded the obstinate by numberless miraculous cures of the sick, performed by the imposition of his hands and prayer. He was ordered by the pope to go into France and Normandy, to endeavor a reconciliation between the kings of England and France, who had made peace in 1169, but quarrelled again the next year. Though then very old, he preached wherever he went, Louis VII. sent certain gentlemen of his court to meet him at a great distance, and received him with the greatest marks of honor and respect; but honors and crowds were of all things the most troublesome to the saint. The man of God restored the use of sight to one blind in the presence of the count of Flanders, and many other noblemen, who were at that time with the king of France: who, being also himself an eye-witness, examined carefully all the circumstances, and declared the miracle to be evident and incontestable. The saint went from Paris to Chaumont, on the confines of Normandy, where Henry II., king of England, met him: and when he arrived in sight of the holy man, alighted from his horse, and coining up, fell at his feet. The people stole the cloak or hood of St. Peter, and were going to cut it in pieces to divide the scraps, being persuaded that they would perform miracles. But the king took the whole cloak for himself, saying: “I have myself seen miraculous cures performed by his girdle which I already possess.” In his presence, the saint restored the use of speech to a girl that was dumb. On Ash-Wednesday, in 1171, St. Peter being at the Cistercian abbey of Mortemer, in the diocese of Rouen, the king of England came thither with his whole court, and received ashes from his hands. The archbishop prevailed on the two kings to put an end to their differences by a treaty of peace, and to procure councils to be assembled in their dominions, in which Alexander’s title should be solemnly recognised. The holy man hereupon returned to his church, but was some time after sent again by the pope to the king of England, to endeavor to compose the difference between him and his son: but his journey had not the desired effect. He fell sick on his return, and died the death of the just, at Bellevaux, a monastery of his order, in the diocese of Besançon, in 1174, being seventy-three years old. He was canonized by pope Celestine III., in 1191. See his life, written nine years after his death by Geoffrey, some time his companion, and afterwards abbot of Hautecombe, by the order of pope Lucius III. See also Le Nain, t. 2, p. 83.

St. Victor,

an illustrious martyr at milan

St. Ambrose speaks of him,¹ and St. Gregory of Tours² mentions his tomb famed for miracles. He served in the armies of Maximian, and by his order was tortured on the rack, and at length beheaded at Milan, in 303. His celebrated church at Milan is now in the hands of the Olivetan monks by whom it was rebuilt in a most sumptuous manner and in a finished taste, when St. Charles performed the dedication of it, and the solemn translation of the martyr’s relics. See the Bollandists.

St. Wiro

A holy Irish bishop, who travelled to Rome with St. Plechelm, and the deacon Otger. He alterwards preached the faith of Christ to the pagans in the Low Countries. Prince Pepin of Herstal was a great admirer of his sanctity, and bestowed on him a lonely wood, called the Mount of St. Peter, now of St. Odilia, near the river Roer, one league from Ruremund; and repaired to him often barefoot to confess his sins. Broken by austerities and old age, he departed to our Lord in the seventh century. See Miræus, and his ancient life in the Bollandists, with a hymn, and several other memoirs t. 2, Maij. p. 309.

St. Odrian,

bishop and tutelar saint of waterford

Colgan was not able to discover even the time when he lived. This rich and famous city was subject to the bishop of Lismore, (which see was founded by St. Carthag, in 631,) till the Ostmen being settled here, they procured a bishop for Waterford. Malchus, a monk of Winchester, was consecrated first bishop of Waterford by St. Anselm, at Canterbury, in 1096. For the sees of Dublin, Limerick, and Waterford were subjected to the metropolitan of Canterbury during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, while the Ostmen were masters in those cities. The sees of Waterford and Lismore have been united since the year 1363. See Ware’s Irish Bishops p. 533.

St. Gybrian, Or Gobrian, Priest

He left Ireland in quest of a retreat, and led many years a penitential, contemplative life, in a poor cell which he built near the river Marne, in the territory of Challons, where he assembled a small community of fervent servants of God, and another at some distance, of holy virgins. He died very old, in the eighth century. Many miraculous cures of sick persons at his tomb, and by his intercession, gave occasion to a chapel being built over his tomb. By an order of Fulk, archbishop of Rheims, his body was translated thither about the year 890. It is deposited there in the great church of the abbey of St. Remigius. See Molanus, Aussaye, and Colgan, in MSS. ad 8 Maij.

¹ Hebr. 2:7. Ps. 8:6.

² Ephes. 1:21. Col. 1:16.

³ St. Hier. in Ephes. 1. St. Chrysostom, Hom. 3, in Ephes. and Hom 4. de Incompreh. &c

⁴ Hom. 34, in Evang.

⁵ Job 25:3

⁶ Strom. l. 6.

⁷ Or. de Angel. excel.

⁸ Ps. 103:4. Heb. 1:14. Ephes 6:12. Vide Patres apud Petav. l. de Angelis St. Ignat. ep. ad Traillan, &c.

⁹ Theodoret, in 1 Cor. 13:1.

¹⁰ Moral, l. 2, c. 15

¹¹ Luke 15:7, 10.

¹² S. Aug. Serm. 277, ol. 102, de div. t. 5, p. 1118.

* Gabriel, which in Hebrew signifies the strength of God, was his ambassador in the greates: of all mysteries, the Incarnation of his Son. He was also the messenger of God, to deliver his most solemn promise of the same mystery to the prophet Daniel. Raphael signifies the healing of God. This archangel conducted young Toby to Rages, cured his father’s blindness, chased away the devil Asmodæus, and bound him; that is, took away his power of hurting: for this, as St. Austin observes, (S. Aug. l. 20, de civ. c. 7, 8,) is what in the scriptures is called binding wicked spirits, (Matt. 12:29; Mark 3:27; 2 Pet. 2:4; Apoc. 20:2.)

¹³ Apoc. 12:7.

¹⁴ Jud. 9.

¹⁵ Ch. 12.

¹⁶ Ch. 1.

* Baronius shows many circumstances of this vision, related by some moderns to be apocryphal. On this and other apparitions of St. Michael, see Charles Stengelius, the German monk’s treatise, printed in 1629, under the following title: S. Michaelis principatus, apparitiones, templa, cultus et miracula ex sacris litteris, SS. PP. et historiis eccleslasticus eruta. Or rather, Selecta quædam de S. Michaele Archangelo, ejus apparitlonibus, festls et cultu, Imprimis in Monte Gargano, lliucque factis peregrinationibus a D thancisco-Dominico Hæberlin, Academiæ Juliæ Carolinæ vicerectore. Helmstadii, An 1759, in 8vo.

¹⁷ Acta Sanct. Ord. S Bened. sæc. 3, par. 1, p. 85, not. 4.

¹⁸ Dan. 12:1

¹ I. 7, in Luc—

² I. 1. de Glor. Mart. c. 45.

Butler, Alban, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (New York 1903) II, 265-273.