Michaelmas, September 29: The Feast of St. Michael and Why Men Wear Him

Michaelmas is the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels, kept on September 29 in the Western Christian calendars — Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran — and its name is a worn-down form of “Michael’s Mass.” It is the day the Church honors the archangel whose name is a question, Michael, “Who is like God?”, and whose four offices the Catholic Encyclopedia sets out plainly: to fight against Satan, to rescue the souls of the faithful from the enemy at the hour of death, to be the champion of God’s people, and to call men from earth and bring their souls to judgment. Eastern Christian traditions honor the archangels on November 8. Here is what the feast is and why a man puts the archangel on his chest.

What Michaelmas Is, and When It Falls

September 29 is the feast, and in the Roman Rite today it belongs to all three archangels together. Before the 1969 reform of the General Roman Calendar, Gabriel and Raphael had feast days of their own and September 29 was the feast of St. Michael alone. The reform gathered the three under one date, with Michael at the head of the ranks.

The word carries the history. “Michaelmas” is a shortening of “Michael’s Mass” — a feast named for the liturgy offered on it, in a language that wore the phrase smooth over centuries of use. Wikipedia’s entry gives the range of names still in circulation: it is “also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, and the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels.”

The Name Is a Battle Cry

Michael is Hebrew for “Who is like God?” — not a boast but a challenge, and the Catholic Encyclopedia says the name “was the war-cry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against the enemy and his followers.” The rebellion in heaven was an assertion; the answer to it was not an argument but a question, flung back at the one who had claimed too much. Every man tempted to make himself the measure of things has met that question, and the archangel is the one who asks it.

Michael in Scripture

Scripture names Michael four times, and each naming shows him at the same work. In Daniel 10:13 he is “Michael, one of the chief princes, [who] came to help me.” In Daniel 12:1, “At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people.” The Epistle of Jude records that “When Michael the Archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses.” And Revelation 12:7: “And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon.”

The Fathers also saw Michael at work in passages that do not name him. The Catholic Encyclopedia reports their reading: that he is the cherub who guarded the gate of paradise (Genesis 3:24), the angel who stood against Balaam (Numbers 22), and the angel who routed the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35). That is the tradition of the Fathers rather than a settled reading of the text, and should be held as what it is — but it tells you how the Church has long understood his post: where God’s people are threatened, Michael is taken to be standing there.

The Four Offices — a Job Description

The Catholic Encyclopedia lists four offices of St. Michael, and they read less like devotional poetry than like orders. First, to fight against Satan. Second, to rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death. Third, to be the champion of God’s people — the Jews in the Old Law and the Christians in the New Testament, which is why he was the patron of the Church and of the orders of knights through the Middle Ages. Fourth, to call away from earth and bring men’s souls to judgment.

Read them as a pattern of duty: fight the enemy, guard the vulnerable at their weakest moment, defend the people entrusted to you, answer for them at the end. That list is, in outline, what is asked of a father, a husband, a soldier, any man with someone depending on him. For the fuller portrait of the archangel, and the words our design carries, see Who Is St. Michael the Archangel; the prayer that bears his name is given in full in The St. Michael Prayer.

Quarter Day: Michaelmas in the Working Year

Michaelmas was never only a church feast. It was one of the four quarter days of the English and Irish financial, judicial and academic year, when rents came due and accounts were settled. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes it “is one of the regular quarter-days for settling rents and accounts,” and records the old custom of the Michaelmas goose. The name survives in institutions that have long since stopped explaining it: the autumn term at some universities is still called Michaelmas, and so is the legal term in England.

A feast about the angel who brings souls to judgment landed, in ordinary life, on the day a man squared his ledger. The calendar was catechizing men who never opened a book.

Why Men Wear St. Michael

A saint on a shirt is not a mascot. It is a declaration of whose side a man is on and what he expects to be asked of him. Michael is the patron given to men whose work is to stand between something precious and something dangerous, and the four offices are the reason: he does not merely believe rightly, he holds a line.

It is heritage as much as devotion. The knights wore him. The Church honored him as her patron. The old English year turned on his feast. A man who puts on that name takes the orders that line has always taken: fight the enemy, guard the dying, defend your people, be ready to give an account.

Wear the Standard

Our St. Michael shirt carries the archangel and the words Quis ut Deus. It is printed to order in the USA on a Bayside 5100 — a heavyweight 6.1 oz cotton blank made in America — in sizes S–3XL at $44.99, with 2XL at $48.99 and 3XL at $49.99. It is the second-best seller in our line of Catholic t-shirts. Keep the feast. Settle your accounts. Stand where he stands.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Michaelmas?

Michaelmas is the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels, observed on September 29 in the Western Christian calendars, including the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran. It is also known as the Feast of the Archangels and the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. Eastern Christian traditions honor the archangels on November 8 instead.

Why is it called Michaelmas?

The name is a shortening of “Michael’s Mass,” the Mass offered on the archangel’s feast. Michaelmas was also one of the four quarter days of the English and Irish financial, judicial and academic year; the autumn university term and the English legal term still carry the name.

Is September 29 the feast of St. Michael alone?

Not in the Roman Rite today. Before the 1969 reform of the General Roman Calendar, Gabriel and Raphael had their own feast days and September 29 was the feast of St. Michael alone; since the reform the day honors all three archangels together under the full name Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels.

What are the four offices of St. Michael?

The Catholic Encyclopedia lists them as: to fight against Satan; to rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death; to be the champion of God’s people, the Jews in the Old Law and the Christians in the New Testament, which is why he was patron of the Church and of the orders of knights in the Middle Ages; and to call away from earth and bring men’s souls to judgment.

Is there a St. Michael shirt made in the USA?

Yes. The 1765 Apparel Co St. Michael the Archangel design carries the words Quis ut Deus on a Bayside 5100 heavyweight 6.1 oz cotton blank, printed to order in the USA, in sizes S–3XL at $44.99, with 2XL at $48.99 and 3XL at $49.99.

Sources

• Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Michael the Archangel” — https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10275b.htm
• Wikipedia, “Michaelmas” — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas