Feast of Archangel Saint Michael
Archangel Saint Michael’s Holiday on Sene 12, is celebrated in all the Ethiopian Orthodox Incarnation Church. His miraculous in this day encrypted in Holy Scriptures are as follows.
In the city of Alexandria, there was a large synagogue built by Queen Tulimus, the daughter of King Tilimus, named Queen of Aquila. In the synagogue there was a bronze idol called Zuhal celebrated on the 12th day of Sene. Their worshiping continued this for the idol until the time of Alexander the Great, three hundred years after the fourth century. When Father Alexander was appointed Archbishop of Alexandria, and righteous Constantine became Emperor, he was opposed by the poor because he wanted to break the idol. And they said to him, “We are used to celebrating this place here,” he said. Eighteen popes have passed before you; they have not changed our habits.”
But Father Alexander rebuked and He taught them; and exposing their error, he said to them: “This idol is harmless and useless. He worships the devils who worship him. If you will hearken unto me, I will make this feast unto you, as before. That is, to break the idol, to bless the synagogue, and to name the Church after Michael the Archangel.
We celebrate this great festival. And let the oxen and the sheep be fed in the name of the Most High, the poor and the needy, and the needy; For he interceded for us, because he is faithful in the sight of God. And they obeyed him.
After that, they renewed the synagogue and renamed it the Church of Michael the Archangel, honored her that day. The Church is well known, until was overthrown by the Muslims during their reign; But, the feast was prepared and remains to this day.
Again on this day, God appointed the archangel Saint Michael over all the Angels in his tribe with great glory. This glorious angel stands before our Lord in pleading for the salvation of mankind and for all creation through his intercession. The miracles of this glorious Archangel Michael are many; amongst is the following.
Once lived, a man who feared God, and who use to celebrate Saint Michael’s feast on the12th day of each month, and especially during the months of Hedar and Senie. A rich man in the neighborhood used to despise and ridiculed this God-fearing man for celebrating Saint Michael’s feasts.
When the God-fearing man approaches to his death, he commanded his wife to keep on the celebration of Saint Michael’s Feasts. The woman was pregnant when her husband passed away. The woman suffered terrible pain during labor and she delivered through the help of Saint Michael. When she brought forth a child, Saint Michael came down from heaven, blessed the child, and prophesied about the future fate of the child saying, “This child shall inherit all the possessions and land of the rich man.” At that moment God opened the ear of the rich man and heard what the Angel said. Then great sorrow came upon him, and he wanted to kill the child. But God protected the child through the intercession of Saint Michael.
When the child was ten years old, his mother was bankrupted, and the rich man found opportunity for his scam. He requested the woman to minister her child at the wage of twenty dinars in gold. Then the woman gave her son to the rich man; the man rejoiced with a great joy, and said in his heart, “Behold, what I have desired is fulfilled for me.
Then, he made a wooden box which fit the size of the boy and crammed him into it, throwing the box in to a river. However, the box floated on the surface of the river by the grace of God until it came to the quay of a certain city. A shepherd nearby saw the box and pulled it out taking it to his home. When the Shepherd unlocked the box, he found a smart boy crammed in the box. He rejoiced as he had no child to raise. So, he named him ‘Bahrain’ because he found him in the river; the boy became to him as his son.
Years later, the rich man wished to go and sojourn with the shepherd, and when the sun was about to set he said unto the shepherd, “If you provide me with a place to rest in until tomorrow, I will pay you the charge.” The shepherd welcomed the rich man into his house, and he called the boy “Bahiran” by his name. When the rich man heard the name, he asked the shepherd whether Bahrain was his son. The shepherd replied “Yes, I found this young man when he was a little boy in a box in the river, and I took him and reared him as my son.” Upon hearing that, the rich man was very sad in his heart, because he knew that the young man was the boy whom he had thrown into the river to kill.
The following day, with an evil plot in mind, the rich man asked his host to allow him to send Bahiran with a message to his house in his home city claiming that he had forgotten something at home. He promised to pay twenty dinars of gold for the errand. The shepherd agreed with the rich man to send to his house. Then the rich man wrote a letter to his steward, saying, “When you have read this letter, kill the bearer of it, whose name is ‘Bahiran,’ and cast his body into a pit. Let no one know about this until I come in peace”; he wrote on the letter a certain sign which they had agreed upon, and which none but the rich man and his steward knew. He sealed the letter and gave it to Bahrain. He also handed him the money needed for the journey, and the young man departed.
While Bahiran was about to reach at the house of the rich man the angel of God, Saint Michael, came to him in the guise of a soldier riding a horse; and he said to Bahiran, “What do you have with you?” when Bahrain told him about the letter, the Angel asked to see it. Bahrain has shown the letter in distant being frightened and the Angel blew on the paper, erasing what was written on it. Immediately, the thought of the letter was changed this way, “Behold, I the rich man have sent unto you the bearer of this letter whose name is Bahiran. As soon as you have read this letter, let him marry my daughter and take over all my possessions. Do not wait until I come back, for I shall tarry on my journey. Let him do what he wishes in my house, for I have given him authority over all my belongings. Here is the sign which is between you and me, O my steward.”
Then the angel sealed the letter, gave it to Bahiran and He continued on his journey with devotion. When Bahiran had reached at the house of the rich man, he gave the letter to his steward. When the steward read the letter and recognized the mark, and knew that it was authentic. They immediately prepared a great marriage-feast for Bahrain and the daughter of the rich man. They married them in the Church, before the sanctuary of God; the couple enjoyed their wedding season for forty days.
En route the end of the matrimony, the rich man returned to his home town, and when he heard the sound of the music, he asked, saying, “What is this sound which I hear?” People told him the whole story about the letter, the matrimony of Bahiran who has inherited his wealth and married his daughter. When the rich man heard these words, he cried out loud, fell down and die. Bahiran inherited all his money as God had commanded. The young man celebrated Saint Michael’s feast on the 12th day of each month, knowing that it was the Archangel, who had appeared to him and changed the letter.
Brethren, just as God erased the letter of execution for Bahiran through His Angel Saint Michael, as He shall change our destiny for eternity rather suffering in eternal fire. All is feasible under His kingdom, for nothing is impossible within His authority as long as our aspiration lies beneath His command. Even those hardships improbable for man-kind, is impossible for the almighty God. So, let pray in the name of the Archangel Saint Michael, for he will help our prayer and diligence.
May the intercession of Archangel Saint Michael be with us; Amen!
Source:
- Ethiopic Syanaxarium, (Sene 12, pp.567-569).
- Homily of Saint Michael (Ge’ez and Amharic), 1989.