What is the Feast of Holy Michael and All Angels?
Feast Day: September 29
The Anglican calendar is ordered by a hierarchy of holy days, each carrying a different weight of observance. At the top sit the seven Principal Feasts, the highest days of the liturgical year. Below them are the Red-Letter Holy Days, appointed in the BCP 2019 with their own collects, propers, and lectionary readings, listed on page 688. They are called Red-Letter Days because, in the tradition of printing church calendars, these days appear in red ink, distinguished from the Optional Commemorations which appear in ordinary type. Holy Michael and All Angels, observed on September 29, is one of these Red-Letter Holy Days. The BCP 2019 appoints a collect on page 632 and lectionary readings on page 731 for this feast.
September 29 falls in the Season after Pentecost, in the week of Proper 21. In Year A, the Sunday immediately before appoints Matthew 21:28–32, the parable of the two sons: one who said no and then went to work in the vineyard, one who said yes and never went. The feast of Holy Michael and All Angels falls two days later. The feast arrives in the same week as the parable of the two sons, reminding us that the drama of obedience and rebellion has cosmic dimensions: in the economy of heaven, Michael and his angels served faithfully, while the dragon and his angels were cast out.
The feast is called Michaelmas in the traditional English calendar, one of the four quarter days that structured medieval English life, marking the end of summer and the beginning of the harvest season. The calendar's practical weight gave the feast a cultural prominence that has faded but has not disappeared. September 29 remains the feast on which the Church turns its attention to the whole ordered company of heaven: Michael the warrior archangel, the angels whose ministry serves God's people, and the heavenly host that surrounds the throne.
Angels in Scripture and Tradition
Angels are not marginal figures in Scripture. They appear at the beginning of creation, at the announcement of the Incarnation, at the resurrection and the Ascension, and at the close of Revelation. They are present at the great turning points of the biblical narrative because they are part of the created order that God has made to serve his purposes. The collect names their ministry precisely: God has ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals. The word order is deliberate. Angels are not arbitrary supernatural beings. They are created servants of the Triune God, constituted in a hierarchy, given specific ministries, and appointed to specific tasks. Hebrews 1:14 describes them collectively: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?"(Hebrews 1:14, ESV) The feast of Michaelmas honors the creatures through whom that ministry is exercised.
Three angels are named in Scripture and tradition, each with a distinctive ministry. Michael, whose name means who is like God, is identified in Daniel as one of the chief princes and the great prince who stands guard over God's people (Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1), in Jude as the one who disputed with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 1:9), and in Revelation 12 as the commander of the heavenly host in the war against the dragon. Gabriel, God is my strength, is the angelic messenger: he interprets Daniel's visions (Daniel 8:16; 9:21), announces to Zechariah the birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:19), and delivers the Annunciation to Mary (Luke 1:26). Raphael, God heals, appears in the Book of Tobit, which belongs to the Apocrypha included in the BCP 2019, as one of the seven angels who stand before God, sent to heal Tobit and to deliver Tobias. The three together name the range of angelic ministry: warfare against evil, proclamation of the Word, and healing of God's people.
The Biblical Event: Revelation 12:7–12
The appointed Epistle for this feast is Revelation 12:7–12, the war in heaven. "Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated…" (Revelation 12:7–8, ESV) In the symbolic vision of Revelation, this scene proclaims the decisive defeat of Satan accomplished by the cross of Christ. The great dragon, "that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world"(Revelation 12:9, ESV), is thrown down from his role as accuser. This is not the original fall of Satan before creation, but the victory won at Calvary, when the accuser lost his right to stand before God and condemn the saints.
The victory song that follows makes the connection explicit: "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down… And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." (Revelation 12:10–11, ESV) Michael and his angels carry out the judgment, but the conquering power is the blood of the Lamb. Michael's warfare is therefore inseparable from the cross. The feast of Holy Michael and All Angels is not a celebration of angelic might in itself. It is a celebration of what the blood of the Lamb accomplished, and of the heavenly host that serves the Victor.
The Appointed Readings
The lectionary for the feast is found on page 731 of the BCP 2019. Genesis 28:10–17 is Jacob's dream at Bethel: he lies down with a stone for his pillow, and he dreams of a ladder set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven, with the angels of God ascending and descending on it. The Lord stands above it and renews the covenant to Abraham and to Isaac. Jacob wakes and says: "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it… This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." (Genesis 28:16–17, ESV) The ladder is the image of the angels' ordered ministry: they descend to earth on God's errands and ascend again to heaven, maintaining the connection between the throne and the creation. And the appointed Gospel connects this vision directly to Jesus.
John 1:47–51 is the encounter between Jesus and Nathanael, in which Jesus promises: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (John 1:51, ESV) Jesus applies Jacob's ladder to himself. He is the ladder. He is the point of connection between heaven and earth, the one on whom the angels ascend and descend, the gate of heaven that Jacob named without knowing it. The feast of the angels is appointed the Gospel that tells the Church what the angels are ascending and descending on: the Son of Man, the incarnate Lord, the one who is himself the place where heaven and earth meet.
Psalm 103 is the great angelic doxology: "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!" (Psalm 103:20–21, ESV) The psalm calls the angels to join the whole creation in blessing the Lord, and it names the defining quality of their ministry: they do his word, they obey the voice of his word, they do his will. The angels are the premier example of creaturely obedience, the ones who do without hesitation what the Proper 21 sons are asked to do and often fail to. The feast of Michaelmas invites the Church to join its voice to the angels' doxology, and to aspire to the same quality of obedience.
The BCP 2019 Collect and Preface
The BCP 2019 appoints the following collect for September 29 on page 632: "Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen." The collect holds two things together that contemporary sensibility tends to separate: the angels' ministry in heaven and their ministry on earth. The same angels who always serve and worship God in heaven are appointed, by God's own commissioning, to help and defend the Church here on earth. The collect does not ask God to send angels; it acknowledges that he has already appointed them to this ministry and asks that they would be permitted to fulfill it. The feast is not primarily a meditation on the nature of angels. It is a petition: Lord, let the ordered ministry you have established serve your people now.
The word defend in the collect echoes the military character of Michaelmas. Michael defends. He defends God's people in Daniel, disputes the devil's claim over Moses' body in Jude, and commands the heavenly army against the dragon in Revelation. The collect's petition for angelic defense is a petition grounded in what Scripture actually says about what angels do.
The Preface of Trinity Sunday, found on page 154 of the BCP 2019, is appointed for this feast. The appointment is theologically significant. Angels are created by the Triune God, serve the Triune God, and are ordained to their ministry by the Triune God. By giving the feast the Trinity Sunday Preface, the BCP grounds the angelic ministry in the full Trinitarian life of God: "Who with the Word and the Holy Spirit are one God, one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Being." The angels who serve are the servants of the Father who ordains, the Son on whom they ascend and descend, and the Spirit who sends them. Their ministry is Trinitarian to its core.
Holy Michael and All Angels in Anglican Worship
Red vestments are worn on the Feast of Holy Michael and All Angels. The choice of red rather than white honors the militant and martyrological character of the Michaelmas feast: Michael is first of all a warrior, and the angels' victory in Revelation 12 is a victory accomplished through the blood of the Lamb. Red marks the feast as one of conflict and conquest, the same color the Church wears in Holy Week when it commemorates the Passion through which the accuser was finally defeated.
The feast has been observed in the Western Church since the fifth century, when the dedication of a basilica in Michael's honor on the Via Salaria near Rome gave September 29 its fixed date. It was retained in the Anglican calendar at the Reformation and has been maintained in every edition of the Book of Common Prayer. The BCP 2019 gives it full Red-Letter status, honoring the company of heaven alongside the saints of earth in the calendar's annual roll of holy days.
Michaelmas falls two days after Proper 21 Sunday, when the Year A lectionary appoints the parable of the two sons. The parable's question, who did the will of the father, is the angels' question as well. Michael and his angels did the will of the Father. The dragon and his angels did not. The feast of September 29 sets the week's parable against the cosmic backdrop that makes it intelligible: the choice between obedience and rebellion is not merely a human drama. It is the drama of the whole created order, visible and invisible.
Observing the Feast
The Feast of Holy Michael and All Angels falls on September 29 and always lands in the Season after Pentecost. The collect is on page 632 of the BCP 2019 and the lectionary readings are on page 731. Red vestments are worn.
To observe the feast: pray the collect and receive its petition honestly, Lord, let your angels help and defend us here on earth. Read Revelation 12:7–12 and hear the war in heaven: Michael and his angels fighting, the dragon thrown down, the victory cry; they conquered by the blood of the Lamb. Read Genesis 28:10–17 and stand at Bethel with Jacob: the ladder between heaven and earth, the angels ascending and descending, the gate of heaven. Read John 1:51 and hear Jesus apply the ladder to himself: you will see the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Read Psalm 103:20–21 and join the angelic doxology: bless the Lord, you mighty ones who do his word.
Let the feast do what Michaelmas is designed to do in the middle of the ordinary season: open the Church's eyes to the full scope of what it belongs to. The congregation that gathers on an ordinary week in late September belongs to a community that includes not only the living and the departed but the whole ordered company of heaven. The angels are ascending and descending on the Son of Man. The accuser has been thrown down. The war is won by the blood of the Lamb. The Church that lives in the world where wheat and tares still grow together lives also in the world where Michael still commands the heavenly host.
Conclusion
The Feast of Holy Michael and All Angels is the Church's annual recognition that the cosmos is more crowded than it appears. Behind the ordinary week, behind the parable of the two sons, behind the visible history of the Season after Pentecost, the whole ordered company of heaven is at its work, serving, worshiping, helping, defending, ascending and descending on the Son of Man. The collect asks that their ministry would reach the Church on earth. The readings declare that it already has. Michael commands. The accuser is thrown down. The angels do the will of the Father without hesitation. On September 29 the Church turns to look at the full company of which it is a part, and gives thanks for every voice that joins it in crying: bless the Lord.
"Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth." (BCP 2019, p. 632)