Feasts of Saints Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Archangels
Michael, row the boat ashore. Halleluiah!
Michael, row the boat ashore. Hallelujah!
Jordan River is deep and wide. Hallelujah!
I’ve got a home on the other side. Hallelujah!
The trumpets sound the Jubilee. Hallelujah!
The trumpets sound for you and me. Hallelujah!
Today the church throughout the world celebrates Michaelmas, honoring the three principal archangels: Michael (Who is like God?), Gabriel (God is my strength), and Raphael (God heals). They are the only angels (from the Greek aggelos meaning messenger) mentioned by name in the Bible. Gabriel is found in Daniel & Luke. Raphael is featured in Tobit and Enoch.
As for Michael, in the Hebrew scriptures he spoke to Abraham and appeared to Moses. Israel considered him both patron and protector. He is important to Muslims, too, and described in the Qur’an as having “wings of green emerald covered with saffron hairs.” Within all three Abrahamic faiths (Jews, Christians and Moslems) Michael is known as the “Prince of the Heavenly Host.”
Fallen angel Lucifer set out to draft Michael to join the evil angels (demons) in rebellion. But God enlisted Michael as general of the celestial armies, tasked to hurl the dragon and his hordes out of heaven. The Book of Revelation suggests that this is the origin of the ongoing battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. In the Book of Daniel (12:1), Michael is referred to as “the great prince.” In the Letter of Jude we read of Michael contending with the Devil over the body of Moses.
Pope Leo XIII composed a prayer to Michael, addressing him as “prince of the heavenly hosts.” John Paul II wrote, “The battle against the devil is the principal work of Michael.” Christians have believed through time that Michael takes great care in accompanying the dying. Thus the spiritual, “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore.” Perhaps this is why Michaelmas is celebrated at the end of September which, in the northern hemisphere, marks the anticipated soon-to-be arrival of winter.
Michael’s boat will be available to us, too. Until then let us pray Leo XIII’s Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel:
Saint Michael the Archangel defend us in battle
Be our defence against the wickedness and snares of the Devil
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray
And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God,
Trust into hell Satan and all evil spirits
Who prowls the world seeking the ruin of souls.
—Timothy J. Cronin