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May 8, feast of the Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel.

Around the year 492 a shepherd named Gargan was pasturing his herds on Monte Gargano in Southern Italy in the kingdom of Naples. Mysterious events surrounding a cavern caused the man to report the phenomena to the local Bishop. The Bishop called for days of prayer and fasting. St. Michael appeared to the Bishop and requested a chapel to be built upon the spot in honor of the holy Angels. This was done and ever since it has been a place of pilgrimage and frequent miracles. Many saints and Popes have paid homage to St. Michael by visiting the Sanctuary, among them St. Padre Pio and John Paul II. This day and the 29 of September have always been celebrated in honor of the Prince of the Heavenly Host, St. Michael.

In Rome Castel St. Angelo has his image atop it to commemorate his apparition to Pope Gregory the Great. He is sheathing his sword thus signalling the end to the plague that had ravaged the city. Mont-Ste. Michel in Normandy is also a shrine erected after the Archangel appeared to a local Bishop, St. Ausbert, asking for a sanctuary to be built on a small isle in the sea. A great sanctuary and Abbey was erected on the spot, a medieval wonder still visited today. There are icons in the Orthodox Church commemorating similar apparitions in the East.

Scripture says Michael is the great Angel who will defend the people of God in the end times against the anti-Christ and his forces. And of course many know of the famous vision of Leo XIII when he witnessed or heard Satan making a deal, as it were, with God. Our Lord gave him permission to test the Church for 100 years or so to see if he could crush it. That pretty much happened in the 20th century, if people hadn’t noticed. Responding to the vision Pope Leo commanded that the prayer to St. Michael be recited after all low Masses asking his protection and defense against the onslaught of the demon.

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