As we celebrate St. Michael's Feast Day on September 29, let us look at how St. Michael epitomizes a true warrior of God.
1. In Hebrew, the name Michael means "who is like El (God)", which in Talmudic tradition is posed as a rhetorical question: "Who is like God?" to imply that no one is like God
2. St. Michael is an archangel in Hebrew, Christian and Islamic tradition. He is viewed as the field commander of the Army of God.
3. He is mentioned by name in the Book of Daniel, the Book of Jude and the Book of Revelation in which he leads God's armies against Satan's forces during his uprising.
4. Following these Scriptural passages, Christian tradition gives to St. Michael four offices:
a. To fight against Satan.
b. To rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death.
c. To be the champion of God's people, the Jews in the Old Law, the Christians in the New Testament;
therefore he was the patron of the Church, and of the orders of knights during the Middle Ages.
d. To call away from earth and bring men's souls to judgment
5. Although he is always called "the Archangel," the Greek Fathers and many others place him over all the angels - as Prince of the Seraphim. St. Michael is the patron of grocers, mariners, paratroopers, police and sickness.
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