The Lives of the Saints through 100 Masterpieces

Michael

The Lives of the Saints 168 Michael 29 September Mentioned as early as the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, the archangel Michael enjoyed such renown in antiquity that the identity of certain pagan gods can be traced to him. It is true that his role as a warrior protector of the kingdom of the Jews is not particularly unique, and later, his victorious combat against the diabolical dragon of the Apocalypse makes him akin to a number of mythological heroes of the Mediterranean. But Saint Michael plays yet another role. It is he who receives the souls of the dead and weighs them on a scale on the day of the Last Judgment, a task assigned in Greece to the god Hermes, the Psychopompós, or “conductor of souls.” Thus, in representations of Judgment Day, Saint Michael is that winged being seen holding the beam of a balance. However, the predominant trait reflected in his iconography is that of the warrior. Naturally, this vanquisher of the dragon was made patron of several chivalric orders, such as the Order of Saint Michael created in 1469 by King Louis XI. Interestingly, this confraternity, which was originally marked by a knightly character, was transformed under Louis XIV into an order of academic distinction, especially honoring writers. TheOrder of Saint Michael was headquartered at the abbey of SaintMichel . After a first manifestation of the archangel in Gargano, Italy, in 390, where a shrine was established in his honor, Saint Michael appeared to the bishop of Avranches in 710 to request that a church be erected at the border of Brittany and Normandy, on the seaside hill that bore his name, Saint Michel. Raphael (alias, Raffaello Santi) (1483–1520) Saint Michael and the Dragon Musée du Louvre, Paris ...