Saint Michael

He is named four times in the Bible and has been painted more often than almost anyone in it. Michael arrives in the Book of Daniel as the prince who stands guard over Israel, turns up in Jude arguing with the devil over the body of Moses, and in Revelation leads the armies of heaven against the dragon, and from those few verses, and a much larger body of writing that never made it into the canon, grew a figure who ended up on mountaintops across Europe, on the coat of arms of Kyiv, on the patches of paratroopers and police, and in the monthly calendar of the Coptic Church. His name is a question rather than a statement: Mi-ka-el, who is like God. Around the year 490 a bull is said to have led a man to a cave on the Gargano, and around 708 a bishop of Avranches said the archangel appeared to him and pressed a finger into his skull; the shrines founded on those accounts are still standing and still receiving pilgrims. He is an angel of Islam, a guardian in Jewish tradition, and one of the most venerated figures in Ethiopian and Egyptian Christianity. This archive follows all of it: the texts, the images, the mountains, the reported visions, the feast days, the soldiers, the other faiths, and what the archangel has become since.

A chronological documentary of 660 moments spanning 200 BC–150 BC on Loreline.

Curated by Olivier · last updated 2026-08-22

Eras

  1. - Decoding the Wilton Diptych. National Gallery curator Emma Capron and conservator Britta New examine Richard II's private devotional diptych, its gold ground and its eleven angels.
  2. - The Ascension of Isaiah and the Assumption of Moses. Long-form Orthodox reading of two Second Temple apocrypha, including the Assumption of Moses, the lost text ancient writers connected to the dispute over Moses's body in Jude 9.
  3. - Jibril, Mika'il and Israfil: Islamic Angelology Explained. A long Arabic lecture by Sheikh Muhammad al-Arifi setting Mika'il alongside Gabriel and Israfil within the Islamic doctrine of the angels.
  4. - The Ancient Churches of Coptic Cairo. Tour of the oldest churches of Coptic Cairo and the Coptic Museum, the setting for Egypt's long tradition of Michael dedications.
  5. - Russian Icon Painting in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. A course lecture on hesychasm and the flowering of Russian painting under Theophanes the Greek and Rublev, including the Novgorod frescoes. In Russian.
  6. - The Wilton Diptych in Medieval Context. A National Gallery curatorial fellow places the Wilton Diptych in the visual culture of late fourteenth-century England, with close-up detail.
  7. - An Introduction to Georgian Art. An overview of the Georgian artistic tradition from late antiquity through the medieval kingdom.
  8. - Bulgaria's Boyana Church Frescoes. Associated Press footage of the thirteenth-century UNESCO-listed frescoes at Boyana church near Sofia, a landmark of medieval Bulgarian painting.
  9. - Medieval Georgian Wall Painting. A survey of Georgia's medieval church frescoes, a distinct Caucasian branch of the Eastern Christian painting tradition.
  10. - San Miguel Arcangel Grand Procession, 2024. A full Filipino patronal procession for St Michael, one of the largest annual Michael observances in Asia.
  11. - Medieval Georgian Relief Sculpture. Georgian stone relief carving of the medieval period, including the archangels that flank church facades and altar screens.
  12. - A Thirteenth-Century Mosaic Icon from Sinai. Smarthistory examines a miniature mosaic icon of the Virgin Hodegetria at Saint Catherine's Monastery, built from gold tesserae set in wax.
  13. - Fiesta del San Miguel at the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Cathedral. The grand procession for the patronal feast at the Philippine Independent Church cathedral of St Michael the Archangel.
  14. - Guido Reni's Archangel Michael Defeating Satan. An analysis of the early seventeenth-century Baroque altarpiece in Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome, probably the single most reproduced image of Michael.
  15. - The Timeless Beauty of Mont-Saint-Michel. Documentary on the Romanesque Benedictine abbey with its Gothic monastery and neo-Gothic spire, perched on a rocky islet off Normandy.
  16. - The 'Sword of Saint Michael' as a Devotional Route. Catholic news segment presenting the line of Michael sanctuaries from Ireland to Israel; this alignment is a modern devotional claim popularised in recent decades, not a documented medieval pilgrimage route.
  17. - John J. Collins on Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Yale emeritus professor of Old Testament criticism lectures on apocalyptic thought in the Qumran texts, delivered at the 2023 Archaeology Discovery Weekend.
  18. - The Hamburg Michel and Its Secrets. NDR documentary going behind the scenes at St Michaelis, Hamburg's landmark baroque church, which receives about 1.5 million visitors a year.
  19. - An Orthodox Prayer to Michael, Prince of the Heavenly Host. An Eastern Orthodox prayer with commentary on the meaning of the name Michael, 'Who is like unto God', and his role as Defender of the Faith.
  20. - Romanian State Television on the Origin of the Archangels' Feast. TVR 1's religious programme Universul Credintei explains the origins of the Romanian Orthodox feast of Saints Michael and Gabriel on 8 November.
  21. - Castel Sant'Angelo and the Plague of Rome. Short account of the tradition that Michael appeared sheathing his sword atop Hadrian's mausoleum, signalling the end of the plague; the building has borne his name since.
  22. - Hymns for the Ethiopian Feast of Saint Michael, Hidar 12. Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo feast-day hymns for Hidar 12 and Sene 12, the two great annual Michael feasts of the Ethiopian calendar.
  23. - Rublev's Archangel Michael from the Zvenigorod Tier. The Andrei Rublev Museum presents Rublev's early fifteenth-century Archangel Michael, one of the supreme works of Russian icon painting. In Russian.
  24. - Roberto Giacobbo Inside the Abbey of the Archangel Michael. An Italian television presenter tours the Val di Susa abbey that stood for centuries on the route between northern and southern Europe.
  25. - Restoring Painted Angels in a Boston Church. Associated Press footage of conservator Gianfranco Pocobene restoring painted angel murals in a historic Boston church.
  26. - Kempe Stained-Glass Window, St. Michael, Emmanuel Episcopal Church Boston. Charles Eamer Kempe stained-glass window of Saint Michael, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Boston; photographed 2025.
  27. - Why Is the Archangel Michael So Feared?. A mythology channel surveys how Michael is portrayed in popular culture as warrior, judge and adversary of Lucifer.
  28. - Miryam Brand on 1 Enoch and the Pseudepigrapha. Nehemia Gordon interviews scholar Miryam Brand on 1 Enoch, how a marginal Tanakh figure generated a large Second Temple literature, and its angelology.
  29. - The Sacra di San Michele: A Thousand-Year Sanctuary. An Italian documentary on the abbey founded more than a thousand years ago above the Val di Susa, an emblem of Piedmont.
  30. - The 'Sacred Line' of Saint Michael: Seven Sanctuaries Across Europe. An Italian account of the popular claim that seven Michael sanctuaries from Ireland to the Middle East fall on a straight line of more than 4,000 kilometres, presented as a modern legend around the medieval cult.
  31. - Daniel 12: Resurrection and the Afterlife in the Old Testament. Ed Gallagher on Daniel 12, the chapter opening with Michael standing up as the great prince, and the first clear Hebrew Bible statement of resurrection.
  32. - The Holy Door and Inscriptions of the Gargano Grotto. Italian tour of the Gargano sanctuary, which tradition holds was consecrated by the Archangel rather than by human hands, and its Holy Door inscriptions.
  33. - How Ethiopian Sacred Manuscripts Are Made. An account of Ethiopian manuscript production - goatskin parchment, hand-ground natural inks, and years of monastic labour per book.
  34. - Second Temple Judaism, 500 BCE to 100 CE. Historical survey of the Second Temple period, the era in which Jewish angelology developed and the archangel Michael was first named.
  35. - Persian Imperial Mythology and the Origins of Jewish Demonology. UCLA Jewish Studies lecture by Mark Leuchter arguing against the standard account that Hellenistic-era Jewish lore about demons and angels derives from Persian encounter.
  36. - The Thirty Residents of Mont-Saint-Michel. France 24 report on daily life for the roughly thirty people who live on the tidal island that receives about three million visitors a year.
  37. - A Guided Tour of the Abbey and Museums of Mont-Saint-Michel. Museum guide Jessica walks through the island's abbey church, village and museum collections, explaining the layered building history.
  38. - 8 May: The Apparition of Saint Michael in Butler's Lives of the Saints. Reading of the entry for the 8 May feast from Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints (1756-1759), the traditional hagiographic account of the Gargano apparition.
  39. - The Met on the Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela. Metropolitan Museum film on Ethiopia's eleven monolithic churches carved downward from volcanic rock, the heartland of a Christianity with strong Michael devotion.
  40. - The Coptic Hymn 'Fai Etaf-Enf' for the Archangel Michael. A Coptic-language hymn chanted after the Synaxarion on Michael's feasts, 12 Paoni and 12 Hathor, and on his monthly commemoration on the 12th of every Coptic month.
  41. - Coptic Vespers for the Feast of the Archangel Michael. The eve service (ashiya) of Michael's Coptic feast, sung by Fr Rewis Farid, documenting the liturgical shape of Coptic devotion to the archangel.
  42. - Coptic Christianity Explained. Religious studies survey of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt, the tradition in which churches dedicated to the Archangel Michael are among the most numerous.
  43. - What a Book of Hours Is. The Barber Institute explains the Book of Hours, the illuminated format in which most laypeople encountered images of angels and the Last Judgement.
  44. - The 82nd Airborne's St Michael's Jump, Fort Bragg 2025. Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division load a Chinook for the annual jump honouring Michael, patron saint of the airborne, on Sicily Drop Zone.
  45. - Loren Stuckenbruck on the Book of the Watchers and Jude. Enoch specialist Loren Stuckenbruck discusses the Book of the Watchers, the Parables of Enoch and how New Testament writers such as Jude drew on Enochic material.
  46. - Ephraim Isaac on the Ethiopic Book of Enoch. Library of Congress lecture by the Ethiopic scholar who translated 1 Enoch, on the text preserved entire only in Ge'ez within the Ethiopian Orthodox canon.
  47. - The Iconostasis Explained. An introduction to the icon screen and its standard arrangement, on which Michael and Gabriel occupy the north and south deacon doors.
  48. - St Michael's Mount: History, Legend and Pilgrimage. A tour of the Cornish tidal island, its castle, causeway and pilgrimage history under the archangel's name.
  49. - Mika'il in Islam: The Angel of Rain and Provision. An Arabic account of Mika'il as Islam holds him, the angel charged with rain and sustenance (rizq), and his standing among the archangels of Islamic angelology.
  50. - The Miracle at Colossae Preached by the Bulgarian Patriarch. Patriarch Daniil of Bulgaria preaches on the tradition of Michael's miracle at Colossae and Chonai, at a liturgy also marking the 140th anniversary of Bulgarian unification.
  51. - Visiting Skellig Michael: The Official Safety Guide. Ireland's Office of Public Works sets out the conditions and hazards of landing on and climbing the monastic island, which limits visitor numbers.
  52. - Ethiopian Orthodox Mezmur Hymns to the Archangel Michael. A set of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo mezmur hymns to Qeddus Mikael, including one on the meaning of his name, 'Who is like God'.
  53. - Painting Saint Michael: Technique, History and Costume. A Spanish-language painting tutorial that also explains the historical meaning of each element of Michael's armour and dress.
  54. - Ukraine Honours Fallen Soldiers at St Michael's Cathedral, Kyiv. News footage of a farewell ceremony for Ukrainian service members at the Golden-Domed cathedral, which has become the country's chief site for military funerals.
  55. - The Real Story of Michaelmas. How liturgy, legend and folk custom converge on the 29 September feast of St Michael and All Angels.
  56. - How the Tudors Marked Michaelmas. Historian Claire Ridgway on Michaelmas in Tudor England, including its role as one of the four English quarter days when rents and accounts fell due.
  57. - The Miracle Spring of San Miguel, 400 Years On. Mexican reporting on the spring at Nativitas, Tlaxcala, said to have appeared in 1631 after the vision of the archangel, still drawing thousands of pilgrims each September.
  58. - Italy's State Police Mark Their Patron Saint at Santa Maria Maggiore. The Polizia di Stato's own footage of the 2025 feast-day Mass for St Michael, patron of the Italian state police, in the Roman basilica.
  59. - EWTN at Castel Sant'Elia: Fifteen Centuries of Devotion. A report from the Italian sanctuary north of Rome where the novena before the 29 September feast has been kept for more than 1,500 years.
  60. - Italian Police Celebrate St Michael the Archangel, 2025. Italian regional news covers the annual celebrations for the patron saint of the Polizia di Stato on 29 September.
  61. - Saint Michael, Archangel of the Lord. French Catholic broadcaster KTO on Michael's cult in France, ahead of the second national pilgrimage on foot from Saint-Malo to Mont-Saint-Michel.
  62. - Ragusa Marks St Michael, Patron of the Police. Sicilian television coverage of the 2025 police feast day for the archangel.
  63. - The Celestial Basilica: The Cave of Saint Michael at Monte Sant'Angelo. Account of the Apulian sanctuary built around the cave where tradition holds the Archangel appeared several times between the fifth and eighth centuries.
  64. - The Police of Bari Honour Their Protector, St Michael. Coverage of the state police celebration in Bari, in the Apulian region that also holds the Gargano sanctuary of the archangel.
  65. - Egg Tempera Brushwork on an Archangel. An icon academy demonstrates the layered egg-tempera strokes used to build an archangel's face in the Byzantine canon.
  66. - The Skellig Michael Visitor Experience Film. Footage of the orientation film shown at the Skellig Michael Visitor Experience in September 2025, covering the monastery's history and access.
  67. - Brussels' Cathedral of St Michael and St Gudula Turns 800. Brussels city television on the 800th anniversary of the cathedral named for Michael, patron saint of the city.
  68. - Ian Paul on Why Revelation 12 Is the Book's Centre. New Testament scholar Ian Paul argues that the woman, dragon and male child of Revelation 12, the chapter containing the war in heaven, form the structural and theological centre of the Apocalypse.
  69. - Monte Sant'Angelo: The Sanctuary Where Heaven Touches Earth. Italian documentary inside the Gargano cave basilica, which the tradition holds was consecrated by the Archangel himself rather than by any bishop.
  70. - Contemporary Coptic Iconography with Stephane Rene. Dr Stephane Rene, a leading practitioner of the neo-Coptic school founded by Isaac Fanous, lectures on modern Coptic icon painting.
  71. - The Bulgarian Orthodox Feast of the Archangel Michael, 8 November. The Sofia Metropolitanate's television explains Arhangelovden, the Bulgarian Orthodox observance of the Synaxis of Michael.
  72. - A Byzantine Choral Prayer to the Archangel Michael. An Orthodox choir sings a traditional Byzantine-style prayer to Michael as leader of the heavenly hosts.

540 further moments continue the chronology here. Full text archive: /loreline-text/saint-michael.md

  1. - Mont-Saint-Michel: How Medieval Builders Conquered the Impossible. Documentary on the engineering of Mont-Saint-Michel, built on a rock under a kilometre wide in a bay with Europe's greatest tidal range.
  2. - Russian Orthodox Readings for the Feast of the Archangels. The scripture readings appointed in the Russian Orthodox calendar for the 8/21 November Synaxis of Michael, with commentary.
  3. - Coptic Madeeh Praise Hymn to the Archangel Michael. A madeeh, the Coptic Orthodox devotional praise genre, addressed to Michael as commander of the Lord's hosts and intercessor for protection.
  4. - Jimmy Akin Examines the 'Sword of Saint Michael' Claim. Catholic apologist takes listener questions including the alleged straight-line alignment of Michael shrines from Ireland to Israel, treating it critically as a modern devotional claim rather than a documented medieval tradition.
  5. - The Apparition Site at Monte Sant'Angelo. Guide to the Gargano cave, telling the traditional legend of the herdsman whose bull knelt at the cave mouth and the arrow that turned back on the archer.
  6. - Drawing Archangel Michael in the Ethiopian Style. A gouache demonstration of the Ethiopian Orthodox manner of drawing Michael, with its flat planes and large eyes.
  7. - Al Jazeera Inside the World of Catholic Exorcisms in the Philippines. An Al Jazeera 101 East documentary on the growth of exorcism ministry in the Philippines, the practice in which the St Michael prayer is most commonly invoked.
  8. - The Monastery of the Taxiarchs at Mantamados, Lesvos. A Greek documentary on the Lesvos monastery of the Archangels, home to a relief icon of Michael that is among the most venerated in Greek Orthodoxy.
  9. - The Tabot Procession on Ethiopia's Saint Michael's Day. Ethiopian Orthodox clergy carry the tabot, a consecrated replica of the Ark of the Covenant, in procession for the feast of Michael, a rite found only in Ethiopia.
  10. - Capital from the Zodiac Portal Sacra di San Michele n02. Carved capital of the twelfth-century Zodiac Portal at the Sacra di San Michele, modern photograph of Romanesque sculpture by the master Nicholaus.
  11. - Gold Gilding for Icon Painting. A step-by-step demonstration of bole preparation and gold-leaf application, the gilded ground behind almost every Byzantine archangel.
  12. - CMC Saint Michael Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Addis Ababa. A portrait of one of Addis Ababa's principal Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo churches dedicated to Qeddus Mikael.
  13. - Timket at St Michael CMC Church, Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Orthodox Epiphany procession of the tabot at the CMC St Michael church, with traditional chant and dress.
  14. - Restoring Mont Saint-Michel: A Monument in Need of Repair. France 24 report on the current restoration campaign at the Normandy abbey, whose walls have been eroded by storms, fires and centuries of weather.
  15. - From Proplasmos to Psimithies: Byzantine Icon Technique. Greek iconographer Taxiarchis Giannikos works through the full egg-tempera sequence from dark underpaint to final highlights.
  16. - An Archaeologist on Visiting Skellig Michael. Archaeologist Neil Jackman on the site's condition, landing conditions and what recent survey work has shown about the monastic settlement.
  17. - Chronica: Stories from the Sacra di San Michele. The abbey's own podcast series on the origins, myths and legends of the Piedmontese sanctuary of the archangel.
  18. - The Revival of Coptic Iconography. Iconographer George Makary on Coptic icon painting, its ancient Egyptian inheritance and the twentieth-century neo-Coptic revival.
  19. - Requiem Liturgy at St Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral, Kyiv. Ukrinform's recording of a funeral Divine Liturgy at the Kyiv cathedral, broadcast by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine during the war.
  20. - Byzantine Icons Across Time. Stanford art historian Bissera Pentcheva on the origins, form and liturgical function of the Byzantine icon from late antiquity to the present.
  21. - Angels, Giants and the Folklore of St Michael's Mount. A British folklore channel on the legends attached to Cornwall's tidal island, from angelic apparition traditions to the so-called Michael ley line.
  22. - Mont-Saint-Michel and the Strongest Tides in Europe. A documentary tracing the site from the founding of the first sanctuary in 708 through its medieval pilgrimage peak.
  23. - A Saint Michael Tattoo, Start to Finish. A tattoo artist works through a large St Michael piece, showing the archangel's continued place as a protective motif in contemporary tattoo culture.
  24. - St Michael's, Bamberg, Reopens After Fourteen Years of Restoration. The Archdiocese of Bamberg reports the reopening of the former abbey church of St Michael after a fourteen-year renovation.
  25. - The 8 May Feast of the Apparition of Saint Michael. Second reading of Butler's account of the Gargano apparition, marking the day the Roman calendar long kept as the feast of the Apparition.
  26. - Bulgarian National Television Visits St Archangel Michael Church, Varna. BNT's religion programme The House of Faith reports from the first Bulgarian church built in Varna, dedicated to the Archangel Michael.
  27. - St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery: Destruction and Rebirth. A Ukrainian account tracing the Kyiv monastery from Kyivan Rus through its twentieth-century destruction to its reconstruction.
  28. - Coptic Doxology of the Archangel Michael, in Arabic. The doxology (dhoxologia) sung for Michael in the Coptic Orthodox rite, here in Arabic with the text on screen.
  29. - The Latter-day Saint Adam-God Teaching Explained. An examination of Brigham Young's teaching about Adam, whom Latter-day Saint scripture identifies with the archangel Michael, and how Mormons have handled the doctrine since.
  30. - The Prayer to St Michael Removed from Every Mass in the 1960s. An account of the Leonine prayer said after Low Mass for seventy-eight years until the 1964 instruction Inter Oecumenici suppressed it, and of its later revival.
  31. - Manuscript Spotlight: Codex Sinaiticus. Greg Lanier walks through the history and layout of the fourth-century pandect Bible, with case studies in the Psalter and Greek Old Testament.
  32. - The Book of Daniel, the Four Kingdoms and Imperial Eschatology. Historian Christopher Bonura discusses the reception of Daniel's four-kingdom scheme in medieval apocalyptic thought and how the Roman empire was fitted into it.
  33. - The Angel of Portugal: From the Nation's Origins to Fatima. Portuguese-language history programme on the Guardian Angel of Portugal tradition and its link to the angelic apparitions reported at Fatima in 1916.
  34. - Why Ethiopians Keep the Feast of Saint Michael on Sene 12. An Amharic explanation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo monthly commemoration of Qeddus Mikael, tied to the Dirsane Mikael homiletic tradition.
  35. - The Monks Leave Mont-Saint-Michel. France 3 Normandie reports the departure of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem from the abbey after twenty-five years, ending an era of resident monastic life at the shrine.
  36. - Mont-Saint-Michel: Architecture and the Wars It Survived. Documentary on the abbey's construction, the 1204 fire and rebuilding, and the sieges the island withstood in the Middle Ages.
  37. - Inside Ethiopia's Great Saint Michael Gathering. A close look at the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration at CMC St Michael Church, one of the most revered Michael churches in Addis Ababa.
  38. - Thousands in White at Addis Ababa's Saint Michael Celebration. The annual Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo feast of Qeddus Mikael at CMC St Michael Church in Addis Ababa, with worshippers in traditional white shamma.
  39. - Pope Shenouda III Teaches on the Archangel Michael. Coptic Orthodox teaching drawn from the late Pope Shenouda III on Michael as commander of the heavenly host, a central figure of Coptic veneration.
  40. - How Michael Became One of the World's Most Common Names. An account of the name's Hebrew origin, its meaning 'Who is like God', and how the archangel's cult carried it across languages and continents.
  41. - An Iconographer's Archangel Michael, Start to Finish. Greek iconographer Taxiarchis Giannikos shows the full studio process for a detailed Byzantine icon of Michael.
  42. - The Human and Beyond: Humans and Angels. Shalom Hartman Institute shiur by Melila Hellner-Eshed on the rabbinic comparison of humans and angels, from the institute's Rabbinic Torah Seminar.
  43. - A Walk Through St Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv. A Ukrainian walk through the monastery grounds, its golden domes and bells, filmed during the war.
  44. - Who Is Angel Mikaeel in Islam?. An English-language Islamic account of Mika'il, the angel of rain and rizq named in Quran 2:98, and his role in Islamic teaching on the unseen.
  45. - The Iconography and Symbols of Saint Michael. A breakdown of Michael's standard attributes in art - the sword, the scales and the defeated dragon - and what each signifies.
  46. - Reading 1 Enoch 1:9 in an Ethiopic Manuscript. Ge'ez language lesson reading the passage of 1 Enoch quoted at Jude 14-15 directly from an Ethiopic manuscript.
  47. - The Iconography of Saint Michael the Archangel. A Spanish-language talk on how the artistic tradition settled on Michael as an armed warrior and what each attribute signifies.
  48. - Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture: Michael on the Right. A discussion of Mika Ahuvia's scholarly study of angels in late-antique Judaism, arguing that Michael and Gabriel were central rather than marginal to Jewish thought.

Full text archive: /loreline-text/saint-michael.md

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