One of the tings you learn about in a church is the church year. And it is fun to learn about the seasons and festivals that happen through out a given year. In the Summertime and into late fall we are still in the season of Pentecost. On September 29th there is a Feast Lutherans usually don’t celebrate, but it has been popular since the Sixth Century. It is called the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. In the book of Revelation 12, Michael is the one who engages with Battle with Satan and throws him out of heaven. This is one of the reasons there is a lot of folklore and Legends about St. Michael. Some believed his primary job was to guide the souls of the blessed to heaven, once they had finished their earthly pilgrimage.

The Feast really marks the anniversary of a Roman Church. The Lutheran reformers later added the words “And All Angels” to include four other holy days honoring the angels. They were following the same pattern that the Orthodox church had followed. In the sixth century Michael had five distinct orders of worship, an Honor that was shared only by Christmas and Easter. Orders of worship are the outline of what we follow on Sunday. Divine Service Setting Three in the Lutheran Service book is an order of worship. I think this shows how popular the Feast of Michael was at the time.

In Germanic Countries the festival fell at the same time as the quarterly meeting of the Thing, which was the name for Parliament. This means the markets, fairs, dancing, feasting, and courts brought in country folk for miles around. So even though the Feast has fallen out of popularity today, it easy to see it was an Important Feast in the Church Year.