MICHAELMAS TIDE- 273 



SEPT. 29. St. Michael and All Angels. 

 St. Theodota, martyr. 



Obs. This festival of the Dedication of St. Michael and of the 

 Holy Angels has been kept with great solemnity on the 29th of Sep- 

 tember ever since the fifth age, and was certainly celebrated in 

 Apulia in 493. The dedication of the famous church of St. Michael 

 on Mount Gargano in Italy gave occasion to the institution of this 

 feast in the west, which is hence called in the Martyrologies of St. 

 Jerom.Bede, and others, the Dedication of St. Michael, The de- 

 dication of St. Michael's Church at Rome, upon Adrian's Mole, 

 which was performed by Pope Boniface IV. in 610, and that of se- 

 veral other churches in the west, in honor of this Archangel, were 

 performed on this same day. In many parts of the world the 

 churches dedicated in the name of St. Michael are built on very lofty 

 eminences, in allusion, it is said, to this Angel's having been the 

 highest of the heavenly host. St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, 

 and that in Normandy, are confirmations of this remark. 



Michaelmas Day is one of the regular quarter days for settling 



rents, but it is no longer remarkable for that hospitality which in 



Catholic times of old attended this anniversary. At Martinmas 



also the landlords used formerly to entertain their tenants with 



Geese, then only kept by opulent persons. But these birds being 



esteemed in perfection early in the autumn, most families now have 



a Goose dressed on St. Michael's Day. An English poet says : 



At Michaelmas by custom, right divine. 

 Geese are ordained to bleed at Michael's shrine. 



In Bntler's Lives we have on this day a Ion? and learned dissertation on the 

 intercession of Ansrels and Saints in our belialf, which all who would pretend to 

 be critics in sacred doctrines would do well to read before they hastily judsfe of 

 or misrepresent the Catholic doctiine oa this subject. See more under Oct. 2d 

 of this work, where we allude to the doctrine of good and evil aenii as being a 

 misrepresented fra:;ment of good and bad angels. The woid Angel siguifies 

 messenger, and implies that Almighty God employs these elevated spirits a« 

 agents of His will. The Archangel St. Michael, as well as St. Gabriel and 

 other spirits, should be carefully distinguished from the saints and martyrs 

 who have dwelled on eaith as human beings, and who now participate with the 

 Blessed Virgin in interceding for those who are yet on earth. 



In the festival of today the Church celebrates not ouly St. Michael but all 

 other Angels, just as on Oct. 2d she celebrates Guardian Angels in particular, 

 and on Nov. 1st all the Saints. There are few doctrines of the Christian Church 

 so grossly misrepresented as that which relates to the Intercession of Angels 

 and Saints, and the sort of adoration which we should pay to them. On this 

 head see Butler's Lives, vol. ix. p. 34U, vol. x. p. 85, and vol. xi. pp. 1 aod 2H. 



Michaelmas Daisy Aster Tradescanti full fl. 



This plant and others of its tribe continue to blow among the dead hanlmt; 

 of other plants in the antumnal garden, and often attract a great many Bees, 

 who resort to it to get the last honey before the cold weather sets in. Two 

 well known lines before quoted run thus : 



The Michaelmas Daisy among dead weeds 

 Blooms for St. Michael's valourous deeds. 



