Who is Saint Michael the Archangel?

Michael is one of the archangels, and the one most often shown in armour. His name comes from the Hebrew Mikha'el, which is a question: "Who is like God?" Almost everything about how he is painted and carved follows from that name.

What Scripture says

Michael is named in four places. In the Book of Daniel he is called "one of the chief princes" (Daniel 10:13) and "the great prince who has charge of your people" (Daniel 12:1). The Letter of Jude (verse 9) mentions him contending with the devil over the body of Moses. In Revelation 12:7 there is war in heaven, and Michael and his angels fight against the dragon.

How he is shown

The image settled early and has barely changed: a winged figure in armour, a sword or spear in hand, standing over a defeated devil or dragon. In some images he carries scales and weighs souls. The pose is a victory, but a calm one. Michael is rarely shown in a fury.

That calm is deliberate. His victory does not come from strength alone. It comes from the question in his name, which the devil cannot answer. We explore that in Quis ut Deus: what it means.

Places that carry his name

• Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, where a bronze Michael sheathes his sword above the old mausoleum. Tradition says Pope Gregory the Great saw the archangel sheathe his sword over the city in 590, as a plague ended.
• Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy. The abbey on its island is said to have been founded after Michael appeared to the bishop Aubert of Avranches in the early eighth century.

Michael in what we make

The marble sculpture that opens our Artwork page, Saint Michael standing over the fallen devil, is the image behind The Archangel Hoodie and The Quis ut Deus Tee. His feast is kept on 29 September, which we cover in Michaelmas.