The Church celebrates on this September 29 the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, chief of the heavenly militia. With it, the prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century returns to the memory of many, whose history continues to arouse astonishment and which the exorcist priest Gabriele Amorth directly linked to a vision.
The Decisive Moment of Leo XIII
Various witnesses affirm that everything happened on October 13, 1884, after the morning Mass. Leo XIII, who remained in prayer, suddenly became overwhelmed, with a pale face and gaze fixed on something invisible. Afterward, he hurriedly retired to his office, where he drafted the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel in just a few minutes. Shortly thereafter, he ordered its dissemination throughout the Church, incorporating it in 1886 into the so-called “Leonine prayers” that were recited at the end of Mass.
According to the transmitted account, the Pontiff heard the devil challenge God, assuring that he could destroy the Church if granted a hundred years of power. The scene evoked the beginning of the Book of Job, where Satan obtains permission to test the just man. Aware of the gravity of what he had witnessed, Leo XIII asked for the protection of Saint Michael against the snares of the evil one.
The Link with Fatima and the Apocalypse
The detail of the date is suggestive: that October 13, 1884, was exactly 33 years before the great Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, on October 13, 1917, where the Virgin Mary, described in the Apocalypse as the “woman clothed with the sun,” once again reaffirmed God’s victory over the dragon. A coincidence that many consider providential in the spiritual history of the last century.
Two Prayers of Combat
The best-known is the short version, which millions of Catholics continue to pray:
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
Rebuke him, O God, we humbly beseech Thee!And thou, Prince of the Heavenly Hosts,
by the power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who wander through the world
seeking the ruin of souls,Amen.
But in 1890, Leo XIII also approved a longer version, published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, in which he crudely describes Satan’s action in the world: lies, impiety, blasphemy, and moral corruption, which seek to destroy the Church and lose souls. In it, the Pope asks Saint Michael to chain the infernal dragon and hurl him into the abyss.
Oh, Glorious Prince of the heavenly hosts, Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle and in the terrible warfare that we are waging against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits. Come to the aid of man, whom Almighty God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of Satan.
Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou didst fight against Lucifer, the leader of the proud angels, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. That cruel and ancient serpent, called the devil or Satan, who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the foul breath of impurity and of every vice and iniquity.
These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where the See of Holy Peter and the Chair of Truth has been set up as the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the design that the Pastor being struck, the sheep may be scattered.
Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help to the people of God against the assaults of the lost spirits and grant them the victory. The holy Church venerates thee as her guardian and patron; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly find mercy in the sight of the Lord; and vanquishing the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.
The Relevance of a Prophetic Prayer
After the Second Vatican Council, the Leonine prayers ceased to be recited in an obligatory manner, but the prayer to Saint Michael was never abolished. Today, amid secularization and the cultural and spiritual battle that Western society is going through, its plea resonates with renewed strength.
More than a century later, Leo XIII’s intuition proves prophetic: the spiritual combat has not ceased, and the Church continues to need the aid of the prince of the heavenly militia in the face of the assaults of the evil one.