thumb|right|'''Sant Miquel Arcàngel''', de [[Guido Reni]]
'''Sant Miquel Arcàngel''' que en Grec: '''Μιχαήλ''', ''Mikhaíl''; Àrab: '''ميكائيل''', ''Mikha'il'') és segons la cristiana i jueva el cap dels exèrcits celestials i, per tant, príncep dels àngels.

Pels hebreus és el protector d'Israel i patró de la sinagoga, mentre que pels cristians el consideren com a patró i protector de l'Església Universal i el primer dels set arcàngels, així com virrei del cel, acompanyant de les ànimes a l'eternitat i el vencedor de Llucifer o el Dimoni. Per aquest fet en art se'l representa com un àngel amb armadura de general romà amenaçant amb una espasa o llança a un drac o al dimoni.

Segons la tradició cristiana, l'arcàngel es va aparèixer a santa Joana d'Arc i a santa Margarita, així com el 13 d'octubre de 1884 al Papa Lleó XII, el qual experimentà una visió en la que veié a Satanàs i els seus dimonis desafiant Déu i com Sant Miquel i els seus exèrcits sorgiren per esclafar i llençar a l'infern a les tropes infernals.

Podem trobar aquest arcàngel en nombroses representacions artístiques, destacant-ne una estàtua de bronze a lo alt del Castell Sant'Angelo de Roma. A més a més, el sant és patró d'inombrables poblacions i indrets.

La seva festivitat és el 29 de setembre.

Categoria:Religió

right|thumb|[[Guido Reni's archangel Michael (in the Capuchin church of Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome) tramples Satan.]]
'''Michael''' (, ''Micha'el'' or ''Mîkhā’ēl''; , ''Mikhaíl'';  or ''Míchaël''; , ''Mikha'il'') is an Angel of Death (as opposed to Samael, the evil Angel of Death), and as the field commander of the Army of God.

He is mentioned by name in the Gabriel's aid in his contest with the angel of Israel and "great prince who stands up for the children of your (Daniel's) people" (, ).

The El (God)". The name was said to have been the war-cry of the angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers. 

Much of the late St George, became the patron saint of chivalry, and of the first chivalric order of France, the Order of Saint Michael of 1469. In the British honours system, a chivalric order founded in 1818 is also named for these two saints, the Order of St Michael and St George. St Michael is also considered in many Christian circles as the patron saint of the warrior. Police officers and soldiers, particularly paratroopers, regard him as their patron saint.  He is also a patron of Germany<ref name"cfs"></ref> and one of the patron saints of the city of Brussels<ref>[http://www.brusselsinternational.be/wabxlint/organizer/contentlist.jsp?affback=1&nid=3426&cid=O.ORG.VGO&c=1 Bruxelles International : Brussels... Mysterious and esoteric<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>, Belgium. 

Orthodox Christians refer to him as the ''"Taxiarch Archangel Michael"'' or simply ''"Archangel Michael"''.

==Old Testament==
===Book of Joshua===
thumb|235px|The main icon of the [[Archangel Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin (ca. 1410s).]]
The numinous "captain of the host of the Lord"  encountered by Joshua in the early days of his campaigns in the Promised Land (Joshua 5:13-15) has the character of Michael the Archangel, as the unnamed heavenly messenger is of supernatural and holy origin, likely sent by God:

:''Once when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, 'Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?' He replied, 'Neither; but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped, and he said to him, 'What do you command your servant, my lord?' The commander of the army of the LORD said to Joshua, 'Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.' And Joshua did so.'' (Joshua 5:13–15, NRSV)

There is some controversy about this passage, however.  An orthodox Christian interpretation would be that this person is the pre-Incarnate Christ.  In other places in the Bible, angels do not accept the worship of humans (see Rev. 22:9 for an example); the willingness of this person to accept Joshua's worship implies that he was divine. However, it is not clear whether the angel was the subject of Joshua's worship or merely instigated worship of God.

===Book of Daniel===
The prophet Daniel experiences a vision after having undergone a period of fasting. In the vision, an angel identifies Michael as the protector of Israel (10:13, 21). Later in the vision (12:1), Daniel is informed that Michael will stand for Israel during the tribulation to come. There is no further mention of Michael in the Hebrew Bible.

==Hebrew apocrypha==
===War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness===
In the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, Michael is described as the prince of light, leading forces of good against the darkness of evil, who is led by Belial. He is described as the "viceroy of heaven", a title that is said to have formerly belonged to  .

===Book of Enoch===
Michael is designated in the ''Book of Enoch'', as "the prince of Israel" and the "archistratege" of God. He is the angel of forbearance and mercy (''Enoch'', xl:3) who taught Enoch the mysteries of clemency and justice (lxxi:2). In the book of ''Jubilees'' (i:27 and ii:1), the angel who is said to have instructed Moses on Mount Sinai and to have delivered to him the tables of the Law is most probably Michael.

Enoch 9:1 states that Michael, along with Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel and Suriel head the cries of men under the strain of the Watchers and their giant offspring.  It was Michael and his compatriots that beseeched God on behalf of men, prompting Yahweh to call Enoch to prophethood.

In Enoch 10:15 Yahweh says to Michael; "Go and announce his crime to Samyaza, and to the others who are with him, who have been associated with women, that they might be polluted with all their impurity.  And when all their sons shall be slain, when they shall see the perdition of their beloved, bind them for seventy generations underneath the earth, even to the day of Judgement, and of consumation, until the judgement, the effect of which will last forever and be completed."

Enoch 20:5 says that Michael presides over human virtue in order to command nations.

Enoch 24:4-10 has Enoch before the Tree of Life/Mercy, and Michael explains to him that he should not touch it, for it is for those who are 'elect' after the day of Judgement.

Enoch 40:8 says that Michael is patient and merciful

Enoch 53:6 states that Michael, along with Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel shall be strengthened during the Battle of Armageddon.

Enoch 58 shows Enoch overcome with terror over a vision he has, and Michael is quick to interpret.  The terror is only for those who turn on Yahweh, that the Day of Judgement is for the elect, a day of covenant, while for sinners it is a day of inquisition.

Enoch 66:14-15 has Michael explaining to Enoch that the evil spirits [demons] shall bear witness against those of the flesh who supported them.  Yet Enoch  is told that Michael holds a secret oath so that the elect shall not perish by their knowledge like the sinners, Enoch 68:20-22.

Enoch 70:11-16 shows that Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Phanuel always 'escort' Yahweh [God the Father], whenever He leaves His Throne.

==Jewish tradition==
===Rabbinic traditions===
According to rabbinic Jewish tradition, Michael acted as the advocate of Israel, and sometimes had to fight with the princes of the other nations (cf. Daniel 10:13) and particularly with the angel Samael, Israel's accuser. Michael's enmity with Samael dates from the time when the latter was thrown down from heaven. Samael took hold of the wings of Michael, whom he wished to bring down with him in his fall; but Michael was saved by God (Midrash Pirke R. El. xxvi.).

The rabbis declare that Michael entered upon his role of defender at the time of the biblical patriarchs. Thus, according to Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob, it was Michael who rescued Abraham from the furnace into which he had been thrown by Nimrod (Midrash Genesis Rabbah xliv. 16). It was Michael, the "one that had escaped" (Genesis 14:13), who told Abraham that Lot had been taken captive (Midrash Pirke R. El.), and who protected Sarah from being defiled by Abimelech. He announced to Sarah that she would bear a son and he rescued Lot at the destruction of Sodom (Talmud B. M. 86b). 

It is said that Michael prevented Isaac from being sacrificed by his father by substituting a ram in his place, and saved Jacob, while yet in his mother's womb, from being killed by Samael (Midr. Abkir, in Yalḳ., Gen. 110). Later Michael prevented Laban from harming Jacob (Pirke R. El. xxxvi.). According to one source, it was Michael who wrestled with Jacob and who afterward blessed him (Targum pseudo-Jonathan to Genesis xxxii. 25; Pirke R. El. xxxvii.).

The midrash ''Exodus Rabbah'' holds that Michael exercised his function of advocate of Israel at the time of the Exodus also, when Satan (as an adversary) accused the Israelites of idolatry and declared that they were consequently deserving of death by drowning in the Red Sea (Ex. R. xviii. 5). But according to Midr. Abkir, when Uzza, the tutelar angel of Egypt, summoned Michael to plead before God, Michael remained silent, and it was God Himself who defended Israel. 

Legend makes Michael the teacher of Moses; so that the Israelites are indebted to their advocate for the supreme good of the Torah. This idea is alluded to in Midrash Deuteronomy Rabbah xi. 6 in the statement that Michael declined to bring Moses' soul to God on the ground that he had been Moses' teacher.

Michael is said to have destroyed the army of Adam. Supposedly he was the first angel in all of the heavens to bow down before humanity.<ref>Kirkham, Melanie, ''Beyond Archangel - The Archangel Theme in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein'' Grin Verlag, 2007 [http://books.google.com/books?id=QlkigWUg0j4C&pg=PA2&dq=archangel+michael++bowed+down+before+humanity&num=100&ei=K1ZZSNKFH4ecjgHg67GNDA&client=firefox-a&sig=hxeYWXvV1kP3RgWf3984vqYGBO4]</ref> Michael then kept an eye on the first family, remaining vigilant even after the fall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Temple from destruction; but the sins of the people were so great that he was powerless to carry his purposes into effect. 

There is a legend which seems to be of Jewish origin, and which was adopted by the Copts, to the effect that Michael was first sent by God to bring Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, and that Michael was afterward very active in freeing his nation from Babylonian captivity (Amélineau, "Contes et Romans de l'Egypte Chrétienne," ii. 142 et seq.). According to a midrash, Michael saved Hananiah and his companions from the Fiery furnace (Midrash Genesis Rabbah xliv. 16). Michael was active in the time of Esther: "The more Haman accused Israel on earth, the more Michael defended Israel in heaven" (Midrash Esther Rabbah iii. 8). It was Michael who reminded Ahasuerus that he was Mordecai's debtor (Targum to Esther vi. 1); and there is a legend that Michael appeared to the high priest Hyrcanus, promising him assistance (comp. Josephus, "Ant." xiii. 10, § 3).

The motive of Michael and the dragon appears in Michael's fight with Samael in Assumptio Mosis, x.).  This legend is not found in Jewish sources except insofar as Samael or Satan is called in the Kabbalah "the primitive serpent".

The idea that Michael was the advocate of the Jews became so prevalent that in spite of the rabbinical prohibition against appealing to angels as intermediaries between God and His people, Michael came to occupy a certain place in the Jewish liturgy. There were two prayers written beseeching him as the prince of mercy to intercede in favor of Israel: one composed by Eliezer ha-Kalir, and the other by Judah b. Samuel he-Hasid. But appeal to Michael seems to have been more common in ancient times. Thus Jeremiah is said (Baruch Apoc. Ethiopic, ix. 5) to have addressed a prayer to him. "When a man is in need he must pray directly to God, and neither to Michael nor to Gabriel" (Yer. Ber. ix. 13a).

With regard to the nature of the offerings which Michael brings to the altar, one opinion is that they are the souls of the just, while according to another they are fiery sheep. The former opinion, which has become prevalent in Jewish mystical writings, explains the important position occupied by Michael in Charon of individual souls, which is common among Christians, is not found in Jewish sources, but that he is in charge of the souls of the just appears in many Jewish writings.

Michael is said to have had a dispute with Samael over the soul of Moses (Midrash Deut. Rabbah xi. 6.) According to the Zohar, Michael accompanies the souls of the pious and helps them to enter the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem.  It is said that Michael and his host are stationed at the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem and give admittance to the souls of the just. Michael's function is to open the gates also of justice to the just.  It is also said that at the resurrection Gabriel will sound the trumpet, at which the graves will open and the dead will rise.

===Kabbalistic traditions===
In later Jewish writings, particularly in Kabbalistic works, he is viewed as "the advocate of the Jews."

==Christian tradition==
{{Infobox Saint
|name=Saint Michael the Archangel
|birth_date=n/a
|death_date=n/a
|feast_day=September 29 ("Michaelmas"); May 8; many other local and historical feasts
|venerated_in=
|image=Mikharkhangel.jpg
|imagesize=215px
|caption=A 13th-century Byzantine icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
|birth_place=
|death_place=
|titles=Archangel
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=pre-congregation
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=Archangel; Treading on Satan or a serpent; carrying a banner, scales, and sword
|patronage=German people
|major_shrine=
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}

===Canonical New Testament===
In the Revelation 12:7-8, "And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven." Saint John describes Satan being thrown out of heaven three and a half years from the end of the age, "a time, times and half a time" (Revelation 12:14). Satan being thrown from heaven coincides with the "abomination that causes desolation" as spoken of by the prophet ().

===Christian legend===
According to some Christian theologians Saint Michael may appear in Scripture where his name is not mentioned. Examples of this include the Numbers 22:22 sqq.), the angel who routed the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35). 

It may have been natural to St Michael, the champion of the Jewish people, to be the champion also of Christians, giving victory in war to his clients. The early Christians, however, regarded some of the martyrs as their military patrons: Saint Theodore, Saint Procopius, Saint Mercurius, etc.; but to St Michael they gave the care of their sick. At the place where he was first venerated, in Phrygia (modern-day Turkey), his prestige as an angelic healer obscured his interposition in military affairs. It was from early times the centre of the true cult of the holy angels, particularly of St Michael. Tradition relates that Saint Michael in the earliest ages caused a medicinal spring to spout at Chairotopa near Colossae, where all the sick who bathed there, invoking the Blessed Trinity and St Michael, were cured. 

thumb|left|The Miracle of St. Michael at [[Chonae, 12th-century icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.]]

Still more famous are the springs which St. Michael is said to have drawn from the rock at Monastery of the Miracle in the Russian Tsars were baptized, was dedicated to the Feast of the Miracle at Chonae (Kona). Hot springs at Pythia in Bithynia and elsewhere in Asia Minor were also dedicated to St Michael. 

At Constantinople likewise, Saint Michael was the great heavenly physician. His principal sanctuary, the ''"Michaelion"'', was at Sosthenion, some fifty miles south of Constantinople. He supposedly visited Emperor Constantine the Great at Constantinople, intervened in assorted battles, and appeared, sword in hand, over the mausoleum of Hadrian, in apparent answer to the prayers of Pope St. Gregory I the Great (r. 590-604) that a plague in Rome should cease. In honor of the occasion, the pope took to calling the mausoleum the ''"Castel Sant'Angelo"'' (Castle of the Holy Angel), the name by which it is still known. The sick slept in this church at night to wait for a manifestation of St Michael; his feast was kept there June 9. 

Another famous church was within the walls of the city, at the thermal baths of the Emperor thumb|300px|Archangel Michael as represented on a coin of Emperor [[Michael V.]]

The Christians of Egypt placed their life-giving river, the Nile, under the protection of Saint Michael; they adopted the above Greek feast and kept it on November 12. On the twelfth of every month they celebrate a special Commemoration of the Archangel Michael. In addition, on June 12, when the Nile river commences to rise, they keep as a day of obligation the feast of ''"St Michael for the rising of the Nile."''

At Rome the Leonine Sacramentary (sixth century) has the ''"Natale Basilicae Angeli via Salaria"'', September 30; of the five Masses for the feast three mention St Michael. The Gelasian Sacramentary (seventh century) gives the feast ''"S. Michaelis Archangeli"'', and the Gregorian Sacramentary (eighth century), ''"Dedicatio Basilionis S. Angeli Michaelis"'', September  29. A manuscript also here adds "via Salaria" (Ebner, "Miss. Rom. Iter Italicum", 127). This Church of the Via Salaria was six miles to the north of the city; in the ninth century it was called Basilica Archangeli in Septimo (Armellini, "Chiese di Roma", p. 85). It disappeared a thousand years ago. At Rome also the part of heavenly physician was given to St Michael. According to an (apocryphal?) legend of the tenth century he appeared over the Moles Hadriani (Castel di S. Angelo), in 950, during the procession which St. Gregory held against the pestilence, putting an end to the plague. Pope Boniface IV (608-15) built on the Moles Hadriani in honour of him, a church, which was styled St. Michaelis inter nubes (in summitate circi).
thumb|left||''Fontaine Saint-Michel'' in Paris

Well known is the apparition of Saint Michael (a. 494 or 530-40), as related in the Roman Breviary, Sipontum (modern-day Traditional Roman Catholics continue to celebrate this Greater-Double feast.  

In Normandy, Saint Michael is the patron of mariners in his famous sanctuary at Mont-Saint-Michel in the Diocese of Coutances. He is said to have appeared there, in 708, to St. Aubert, Bishop of Avranches. In Normandy his feast ''"S. Michaelis in periculo maris"'' or "in Monte Tumba" was universally celebrated on  October 18, the anniversary of the dedication of the first church, October 16, 710; the feast is now confined to the Diocese of Coutances. 

In Germany, after its evangelization, Saint Michael replaced for the Christians the pagan god Wotan, to whom many mountains were sacred, hence the numerous mountain chapels of St. Michael all over Germany. He is also known as the patron saint of the German Nation. His picture bedecked the war standard of the old German Empire (the Holy Roman Empire).

The hymns of the Roman Office are said to have been composed by Saint Rabanus Maurus of Fulda (d. 856). In art, St Michael is represented as an angelic warrior, fully armed with helmet, sword, and shield (often the shield bears the Latin inscription: ''"Quis ut Deus"''), standing over the dragon, whom he sometimes pierces with a lance. He also holds a pair of scales in which he weighs the souls of the departed (cf. Rock, "The Church of Our Fathers", III, 160), or the Book of Life, to show that he takes part in the judgment. His feast (September 29) in the Middle Ages was celebrated as a holy day of obligation, as he was the patron of knights, but along with several other feasts it was gradually abolished since the eighteenth century. Michaelmas Day, in England and other countries, is one of the regular quarter-days for settling rents and accounts; but it is no longer remarkable for the hospitality with which it was formerly celebrated. Stubble-geese being esteemed in perfection about this time, most families had one dressed on Michaelmas Day. In some parishes (Isle of Skye) they had a procession on this day and baked a cake, called St Michael's bannock.

Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians often refer to the angel Michael as ''"Saint Michael"'', an honorific title that does not indicate litanies as ''"Saint Michael the Archangel."'' Orthodoxy accords him the title ''"Archistrategos"'', or ''"Supreme Commander of the Heavenly Hosts."''

thumb|200px|''St Michael's Victory over the Devil'', sculpture above the main entrance to [[St. Michaelis (Hamburg)|St. Michaelis in Hamburg, Germany.]] Saint Michael was usually honored on mountain tops and high places, and many famous shrines to him survive on those places, often replacing shrines of pre-Christian gods concerned with weather, like Wotan.  

In Greek folklore, St Michael also assumed the god Hermes' role as the psychopomp who leads souls to Hades, and in the role of weigher of souls on ''Judgment Day''. A related folk belief is that St Michael's face can only be seen by the dead and by those about to die. It is for this reason that some folk icons depict him without a face.

The Roman Catholic Church honors Saint Michael with four main titles. He is the Christian angel of death, carrying the souls of all the deceased to heaven, where they are weighed in his perfectly balanced scales (hence Michael is often depicted holding scales). At the hour of death, Michael descends and gives each soul the chance to redeem itself before passing, thus consternating the devil and his minions. St Michael is the special patron of the Chosen People in the Old Testament and is guardian of the Church; it was thus not unusual for the angel to be revered by the military orders of knights during the Middle Ages. Last, he is the supreme enemy of Satan and the fallen angels.

In the Lutheran Calendar of Saints, his feast day, once widely known as Michaelmas, is celebrated September 29 and was one of the four quarter days on which accounts were settled and, in England, when terms began in universities.  In the Eastern Orthodox Church his principal feast day is November 8, where he is honored along with the rest of the ''"Bodiless Powers of Heaven"'' as their Supreme Commander, and his miraculous appearance at Colossae (see below) is commemorated on September 6.

The last visit, that of his appearance over the mausoleum of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret gave Saint Joan of Arc the courage to save her country from the English during the Hundred Years' War (1337-1455). Perhaps his most singular honor was given to him in 1950 when Pope Pius XII (r. 1939-1958) named him patron of policemen. St Michael is also said to have announced to the Virgin Mary her impending death, declaring himself to be "Great and Wonderful."

thumb|200px|right|A monument to St. Michael, the patron of [[Kiev at the Independence Square in the center of the city.]]
According to legend,  Michael instructed St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches  to build a church on the rocky islet now known as Mont Saint Michel in 708. Also dedicated to Michael was the French Order of St Michel founded in 1469.
Today, however, he is more usually associated with police officers, paramedics, EMTs and other emergency workers. He is also claimed as the patron saint of the American airborne units. He is the patron of Ukraine and its capital Kiev and of the archdiocese of Seattle.

In Australia, National Police Remembrance day is commemorated on September 29 each year, being the feast day of St Michael.

Under the influence of the widely read angelology of the Saint Basil the Great's homily (''De Angelis'') and other Greek fathers place Saint Michael over all the angels; they say he is called ''"Archangel"'' because he is the prince of the other angels. Others (cf. P. Bonaventura, ''op. cit.'') believe that he is the prince of the Saint Thomas Aquinas (''Summa'' Ia. 113.3), he is the Prince of the last and lowest choir, the angels. 