The Apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel
Over the course of history, Saint Michael the Archangel has appeared many times and, both in the East and in the West, many churches are dedicated to him. Several apparitions are historically recognized and gave rise to the creation of famous sanctuaries dedicated to the mighty archangel. Other recent apparitions are still little known. Set out to discover all the manifestations of the archangel!
The apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel throughout history
Apparition at Colossae
Around 380, Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to a man from Laodicea in Phrygia (present-day Turkey). He recommended that the man give his mute daughter water to drink from a spring near the city of Colossae. Immediately, the young girl was healed, and the two of them were baptized. In gratitude, they had a chapel built in honor of Saint Michael. The place became a site of pilgrimage and conversion.
Apparition on Mount Gargano in Italy
In 492, a man named Gargan was pasturing his herds in the hills around Naples. One day he lost a bull, which was searched for at length before being found in a cave; an arrow was shot at it, which turned back and wounded the one who shot it. Informed of these troubling facts, the bishop ordered three days of fasting and prayer. After the three days, Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to the bishop, Saint Lawrence Maiorano, and told him that the cave where the bull had taken refuge was under his protection and that he wished a sanctuary to be built there in his honor and in honor of all the angels. The bishop fulfilled the request, and the grotto gradually became a magnificent church where great miracles took place.
Apparition on Mont Tombe (Mont-Saint-Michel)
In 708, the archangel appeared three times in a dream to the bishop of Avranches, Monsignor Aubert. Saint Michael asked him to build a sanctuary in his honor on an island called Mont-Tombe in Normandy. This request clearly recalls the one made by Michael a few centuries earlier on Mount Gargano. The bishop therefore had a first oratory built on this hard-to-access rock. In 1023, the construction of the Romanesque abbey church began, and the place soon became an essential site of pilgrimage where people came to ask for the protection of the archangel Michael. The mount gradually became the jewel that is Mont-Saint-Michel.
Apparition to Saint Joan of Arc
In 1425, at the age of 13, Joan of Arc had her first apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel accompanied by other angels. During her trial, Joan of Arc stated that Saint Gabriel, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret had appeared to her very many times. Saint Michael presented himself to her as follows: “I am Michael, the protector of France.” Joan told her judges how Saint Michael manifested himself to her and told of the voices she first heard and then the apparitions: “This voice came at about midday, in summer, in my father’s garden; I heard it to my right, on the side of the church. It was accompanied by a light, for I rarely hear it without a light appearing on the same side. It is even generally very bright. — It seemed to me a very noble voice, and I believe that it came to me from God; and after having heard it three times, I recognized that it was the voice of an Angel” … “I saw him before my eyes; he was not alone, but well surrounded by Angels of Paradise. I saw them with my bodily eyes, as well as I see you; and when they went away from me, I wept and I would have very much liked them to take me with them.” Later, the young girl was questioned again in her prison; she added: “The first time, I had great doubt that it was Saint Michael who came to me, and I was very much afraid. I even saw him very often before knowing that it was he.” For four years, the Archangel was charged by God with preparing Joan for her mission. He advised her: “Above all things, be a good child and God will help you.” When Joan was ready to go to war, the archangel did not leave her; he dictated her answers and her messages to the English, told her what she should put on her standard, and encouraged her: “Take it, in the name of the King of Heaven,” said the Archangel to her; “and go forward boldly; God will help you.” Sustained by Heaven, Joan advanced from victory to victory. This extraordinary epic once again shows the special role played by Saint Michael the Archangel in the history of France.
What is Saint Michael’s sacred line?
Seven sanctuaries dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel form a perfect alignment. They represent the sword blow struck by Saint Michael during his battle against Satan. Extending from Ireland to the Holy Land, this imaginary line comprises seven monasteries:
Skellig Michael (the rock of the Archangel Michael) in Ireland: it was on this deserted island that the archangel appeared to Saint Patrick to help him deliver his country from the devil.
Saint Michael’s Mount in England: it was on this small island in Cornwall, accessible at low tide, that Saint Michael spoke to a group of fishermen.
Mont-Saint-Michel in France.
The Abbey of Saint-Michael-de-la-Cluse in Italy: its construction began in the year 1000 and was continued by the Benedictine monks.
The Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel on Mount Gargano in Italy.
The Orthodox monastery of Symi in Greece.
The monastery on Mount Carmel in Palestine.
The three most important sites (Mont-Saint-Michel, Saint-Michael-de-la-Cluse, and Mount Gargano) are equidistant—1,000 km apart. The Church sees in this a warning from the archangel reminding us that the laws of God must be respected.
The alignment of these seven sites is quite astonishing, especially since the sacred line lines up perfectly with the rising sun at the summer solstice.
Recent apparitions of Saint Michael the Archangel
Apparition of Saint Michael to Salvo Valenti in Sicily
Since 2007, Salvo Valenti, born in 1984 in Palermo, has had manifestations of the Archangel Michael. In 2007, the young man bought a painting representing the archangel. On September 7, 2008, the archangel appeared to him for the first time in a dream and took him to visit a place, on a high mountain, near a spring, where Salvo was to place the painting. After other visits from the archangel, Salvo found the place (Petralia) and built an oratory there to house the painting. Later, the archangel asked Salvo to set up a Way of the Cross along the path leading to the oratory. Today, many pilgrimages take place at this blessed site. Pilgrims come to place themselves under the protection of the mighty archangel, to ask him for graces, to thank him, and to draw water from the spring, which is also a source of blessings!
Discover the whole story of the revelations of Saint Michael the Archangel to Salvo Valenti in this dedicated article!
Apparition of Saint Michael the Archangel at Garabandal
In the Spanish town of Garabandal, between 1961 and 1965, four little girls saw the Blessed Virgin many times. The apparitions began with the coming of Saint Michael the Archangel, charged with preparing the children for the coming of Our Lady.
Prayers to Saint Michael the Archangel
Discover powerful prayers to the archangel, the defender against Evil:
Hymn to Saint Michael the Archangel
Prayer to consecrate yourself to St. Michael
Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel for an exorcism
The chaplet of Saint Michael the Archangel, revealed by the archangel himself to the Portuguese religious sister Antonia d’Astonac in 1751.
Pray to Saint Michael the Archangel with Hozana!
Join a prayer community to fight against Evil with Saint Michael the Archangel.
Discover the . For nine days, pray to Saint Michael the Archangel, the leader of God’s army, and the nine choirs of angels who compose it.
