St Michael’s Prayer and the Devil’s Bargain

Yesterday was the feast of St Michael the Archangel. This is a figure beloved not only by Catholics and other Christians, but often invoked successfully by Pagans as well. When I was still a kid, Lady Rhea would tell me of how she always prayed to St Michael whenever she was in a jam.

The short prayer to St Michael is very common, but I love Pope Leo the 13ths  Long prayer  This was composed on October 13, 1884 ,When after performing Mass he  heard voices – God and Satan –  arguing about whether Satan could destroy the Church. Satan argued that he could in fact destroy the Church given enough time and power – so God granted him 100 years and enough power to do the job.  The belief is the God had such faith in the incorruptability of the Church that he was happy to put it to the test, and allowed Pope Leo to hear the bargain so that he could protect the Church from being destroyed. These days I interpret that story a bit differently.

Maybe it’s just the Cyprian in me but I wonder if God was not asking Satan to destroy a church that had by that time already become corrupt and unrepresentative of the message it is supposed to be espousing.

Of course traditional Catholics have used this as an effective prayer against personal evil in their own lives and I see no reason not to list it here.