The petition to say to St. Michael the Archangel in this month of September

Angel who presides over the general custody of all the angels on earth, do not abandon me. How many times have I grieved you with my faults ... Please, in the midst of the dangers surrounding my spirit, keep your support against the evil spirits who try to throw me in the grip of the snake of flattery, the snake of doubt, which through the temptations of the body try to imprison my soul. Deh! Do not leave me exposed to the wise blows of an enemy as terrible as cruel. Grant that I may open my heart to your sweet inspirations, animating them whenever the will of your heart seems to die out in me. Let a spark of the sweet flame descend in my soul that burns in your heart and in that of all your Angels, but which burns more than sublime and incomprehensible to all of us and especially in our Jesus. Do that at the end of this wretched and very short earthly life, may I come to enjoy the eternal bliss in the Kingdom of Jesus, which I then come to love, bless and rejoice.

SAN MICHELE ARCANGELO

The name of the archangel Michael, which means "who is like God?", Is mentioned five times in Sacred Scripture; three times in the book of Daniel, once in the book of Judah and in the Apocalypse of s. John the Evangelist and in all five times he is considered the "supreme head of the celestial army", that is, of the angels at war against evil, which in the Apocalypse is represented by a dragon with his angels; defeated in the struggle, he was cast out of the heavens and crashed to earth.

In other scriptures, the dragon is an angel who had wanted to make himself as big as God and whom God sent away, making him fall from top to bottom, along with his angels who followed him.

Michael has always been represented and revered as the warrior angel of God, clad in golden armor in a constant struggle against the devil, who continues to spread evil and rebellion against God in the world.

He is considered in the same way in the Church of Christ, which has always reserved to him since ancient times, a particular cult and devotion, considering him always present in the struggle that is fought and will be fought until the end of the world, against the forces of evil that they operate in the human race.

After the affirmation of Christianity, the cult for St. Michael, which already in the pagan world was equivalent to a divinity, had an enormous diffusion in the East, the countless churches, sanctuaries and monasteries dedicated to him testify to this; in the ninth century only in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine world, there were as many as 15 sanctuaries and monasteries; plus another 15 in the suburbs.

The whole East was dotted with famous shrines, to which thousands of pilgrims from every region of the vast Byzantine empire went and as there were so many places of worship, so too its celebration took place on many different days of the calendar.

In the West there are testimonies of a cult, with the numerous churches dedicated sometimes to S. Angelo, sometimes to S. Michele, as well as places and mountains were called Monte Sant'Angelo or Monte San Michele, as the famous sanctuary and monastery in Normandy in France, whose cult was brought perhaps by the Celts to the Normandy coast; it is certain that it spread rapidly in the Lombard world, in the Carolingian state and in the Roman Empire.

In Italy there are many healthy places where chapels, oratories, caves, churches, hills and mountains were built, all named after the archangel Michael, we cannot all mention them, we only stop at two: Tancia and the Gargano.

On Monte Tancia, in Sabina, there was a cave already used for a pagan cult, which towards the seventh century was dedicated by the Lombards to S. Michele; soon a sanctuary was built which reached great fame, parallel to that of Monte Gargano, which however was older.

But the most famous Italian sanctuary dedicated to S. Michele is the one in Puglia on Monte Gargano; it has a history that begins in 490, when Pope Gelasius I was; legend has it that by chance a certain Elvio Emanuele, lord of Monte Gargano (Foggia) had lost the most beautiful bull of his herd, finding it inside an inaccessible cave.

Given the impossibility of recovering it, he decided to kill him with an arrow from his bow; but the arrow inexplicably, instead of hitting the bull, turned on itself, hitting the shooter in the eye. Marveled and wounded, the gentleman went to his bishop s. Lorenzo Maiorano, bishop of Siponto (today Manfredonia) and told the prodigious fact.

The prelate called three days of prayers and penance; after which yes. Michael appeared at the entrance of the cave and revealed to the bishop: “I am the archangel Michael and I am always in the presence of God. The cave is sacred to me, it is my choice, I myself am a guardian of it. Where the rock opens, the sins of men can be forgiven ... What will be asked in prayer will be answered. So dedicate the cave to Christian worship. "

But the holy bishop did not follow up on the archangel's request, because pagan worship persisted on the mountain; two years later, in 492 Siponto was besieged by the hordes of the barbarian king Odoacre (434-493); now at the end, the bishop and the people gathered in prayer, during a truce, and here the archangel reappeared to the bishop s. Lorenzo, promising them victory, in fact during the battle a storm of sand and hail arose which fell on the invading barbarians, who frightened fled.

The whole city with the bishop went up the mountain in a thanksgiving procession; but once again the bishop refused to enter the cave. For this hesitation that was not explained, yes. Lorenzo Maiorano went to Rome with Pope Gelasius I (490-496), who ordered him to enter the cave together with the bishops of Puglia, after a fast of penance.

When the three bishops went to the cave for the dedication, the archangel reappeared for the third time, announcing that the ceremony was no longer necessary, because the consecration had already taken place with his presence. The legend tells that when the bishops entered the cave, they found an altar covered by a red cloth with a crystal cross on it and imprinted on a boulder the imprint of an infant foot, which popular tradition attributes to s. Michele.

The bishop San Lorenzo had a church dedicated to s built at the entrance of the cave. Michele and inaugurated on 29 September 493; the Sacra Grotta has always remained as a place of worship never consecrated by bishops and over the centuries it became famous with the title of "Celestial Basilica".

The town of Monte Sant'Angelo in the Gargano has grown over time around the church and the cave. The Lombards who had founded the Duchy of Benevento in the 8th century, defeated the fierce enemies of the Italian coasts, the Saracens, right near Siponto, on 663 May 8, having attributed the victory to the heavenly protection of s. Michele, they began to spread as mentioned above, the cult for the archangel throughout Italy, erecting churches, carrying out banners and coins and setting up the feast of May XNUMX everywhere.

Meanwhile, the Sacra Grotta became for all the following centuries one of the most popular destinations for Christian pilgrims, becoming together in Jerusalem, Rome, Loreto and S. Giacomo di Compostela, the sacred poles from the High Middle Ages onwards.

Popes, sovereigns and future saints came on pilgrimage to the Gargano. On the portal of the upper atrium of the basilica, there is a Latin inscription that warns: “that this is an impressive place. Here is the house of God and the door to Heaven ”.

The sanctuary and the Sacred Grotto are full of works of art, devotion and vow, which testify to the millennial passage of the pilgrims and above all stands in the darkness the white marble statue of S. Michele, work by Sansovino, dated 1507 .

The archangel has appeared over the centuries other times, albeit not as on the Gargano, which remains the center of its cult, and the Christian people celebrate it everywhere with festivals, fairs, processions, pilgrimages and there is no European country that does not have an abbey, church, cathedral, etc. that reminds him of the veneration of the faithful.

Appearing to a devout Portuguese Antonia de Astonac, the archangel promised his continued assistance, both in life and in purgatory and also the accompaniment to Holy Communion by an angel of each of the nine celestial choirs, if they had recited before the Mass the angelic crown that revealed to him.

Its main liturgical feast in the West is registered in the Roman Martyrology on September 29 and is united to the other two best known archangels, Gabriele and Raffaele on the same day.

Defender of the Church, his statue appears on the top of Castel S. Angelo in Rome, which as is known had become a fortress in defense of the Pope; protector of the Christian people, as it once was of the medieval pilgrims, who invoked him in the sanctuaries and oratories dedicated to him, scattered along the roads leading to the pilgrimage destinations, to have protection against diseases, discouragement and ambushes of the bandits.

Author: Antonio Borrelli