(C.D. Stampley Enterprises, Charlotte, NC 2001). Used with permission.

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For police officers

St. Michael the Archangel

Feast day: September 29

Like police officers whose patron he is, St. Michael the Archangel enforces God’s law and defends God’s people from harm.

The name Michael means “Who is like God?” It was the war-cry of the holy angels when they drove Lucifer and his rebel angels from Heaven.

Throughout history St. Michael the Archangel has been venerated as the guardian of God’s people. Devotion to him even predates Christianity, as we see in the biblical Book of Daniel. The author of Daniel, writing at the end of the second century B.C. during the persecution of the Jews under the tyrant Antiochus, assured the Israelites that in the archangel Michael they had a “great prince who standeth for the children of thy people” (Daniel 12:1).

As early as the age of the Apostles, the Christian Church, seeing itself as the New Israel, adopted St. Michael as its protector. The Book of Revelations, also known as the Apocalypse, pauses in its graphic account of the final days of the world to look back to the beginning of time when St. Michael, the captain of the angelic host, drove Satan and the other rebel angels out of Heaven (Revelations 12:7-9).

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About the same time Revelations was being written, St. Michael appeared in another early Christian work, The Shepherd of Hermas, written about AD 120, possibly by Hermas brother of {ln:Pope} St. Pius I. In this mystical text Hermas describes the archangel as “the great and glorious angel Michael” who examines Christians at the end of their life to ascertain if they have kept the law of God.

In addition to the handful of places in Sacred Scripture where Michael is mentioned by name, biblical commentators in the early centuries of the Church speculated that God sent Michael on other missions as well. He is said to be the angel who guarded the entrance to Eden with a flaming sword (Genesis 3.24), the angel who blocked Balaam’s path as he went to curse the Israelites (Numbers 22.22), and the angel who in the night struck down the Assyrian army that was besieging Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35).

Elaborating on these interpretations Jacobus de Voragine, author of The Golden Legend, records the medieval traditions that God sent St. Michael to inflict the ten plagues on Egypt, to part the Red Sea, and to lead the Hebrews safely through the desert to the Promised Land. Furthermore at the end of time St. Michael will slay Antichrist, and at the cry of the archangel the dead shall rise from their graves. Then at the Last Judgment St. Michael will stand before the vast assembly of the living and the dead bearing the tokens of Christ’s Passion—the cross, the nails, the spear, and the crown of thorns.

In 1950 {ln:Pope} Pius XII named St. Michael the patron of police officers.

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Prayer to the saints is a powerful thing.

Now, with Saints for Every Occasion, readers can quickly find help for any challenge they face – no matter how large or small. Author Thomas J. Craughwell profiles 101 patron saints from various continents, cultures and times – from saints who were contemporaries of Christ, to modern patrons like Padre Pio and Faustina Kowalska. Each saint lived heroically in difficult times and circumstances, providing powerful examples of how to turn almost any obstacle into a source of grace. Along with old favorites such as St. Anthony and St. Jude, Craughwell offers patrons for specifically modern concerns, including, for example, saints to watch over astronauts, internet users and environmental activists. Beautifully illustrated and entertainingly told, Saints for Every Occasion features 101 patron saints readers will seek out time and again.

“An excellent resource for home and classroom use.” – Publisher’s Weekly {/tabs}