Saint Michael
He is named four times in the Bible and has been painted more often than almost anyone in it. Michael arrives in the Book of Daniel as the prince who stands guard over Israel, turns up in Jude arguing with the devil over the body of Moses, and in Revelation leads the armies of heaven against the dragon, and from those few verses, and a much larger body of writing that never made it into the canon, grew a figure who ended up on mountaintops across Europe, on the coat of arms of Kyiv, on the patches of paratroopers and police, and in the monthly calendar of the Coptic Church. His name is a question rather than a statement: Mi-ka-el, who is like God. Around the year 490 a bull is said to have led a man to a cave on the Gargano, and around 708 a bishop of Avranches said the archangel appeared to him and pressed a finger into his skull; the shrines founded on those accounts are still standing and still receiving pilgrims. He is an angel of Islam, a guardian in Jewish tradition, and one of the most venerated figures in Ethiopian and Egyptian Christianity. This archive follows all of it: the texts, the images, the mountains, the reported visions, the feast days, the soldiers, the other faiths, and what the archangel has become since.
A chronological documentary of 660 moments spanning c. 200 BC–2026 on Loreline.
Curated by Olivier · last updated 2026-09-20
Eras
- Scripture, Where he actually appears. Daniel's prince who stands guard, the dispute over the body of Moses in Jude, and the war in heaven in Revelation 12, four short passages that generated everything else. Plus the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Book of Enoch and the apocrypha that filled in the rest.
- Angels, The wider order he belongs to. Angels in Judaism and the merkabah tradition, Mika'il in the Qur'an as the angel of provision and rain, the hierarchies of Pseudo-Dionysius, and the Persian, Ottoman and Iraqi miniatures that painted them.
- Dragon & Devil, The fight. Michael spearing, trampling and expelling, Raphael's small panel, Guido Reni's Roman altarpiece that Satanists and popes have both used, Rubens and Bruegel's falls of the rebel angels, Bermejo's jewelled armour, and the moment repeated in ten thousand images.
- Paintings, The single standing figure, in armour or a dalmatic, with sword and scales. Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque painting of the archangel across Europe, and the galleries and museums that now hold it.
- Icons, The Eastern image. Painted panels and wall paintings from Byzantium, Greece, Russia, Serbia, Georgia and Bulgaria, Boyana, Lesnovo, Staro Nagoričane, plus the workshop practice, the egg tempera and gilding, and the icon painters still doing it.
- Altarpieces, The multi-panel object above the altar. Polyptychs and retablos, Spanish and Italian trittici, the Madonna-and-saints groupings where Michael stands to one side, and the Wilton Diptych, pieces built to be seen by a congregation, not a curator.
- Mosaics & Glass, The archangel in tesserae and lead. Ravenna and Sicily, Venetian and Byzantine mosaic, stained glass from the great cathedrals to Victorian parish windows, and the light-dependent images that only work in the building they were made for.
- Sculpture, Michael in stone, wood and bronze. Church portals and tympana, the spire figure and the weathervane, Epstein's bronze at Coventry, processional statues, and the carved altarpiece figures of Germany and Spain.
- Manuscripts, Michael on the page. Books of hours, psalters and apocalypse cycles, the Très Riches Heures and the Beatus manuscripts, plus the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Hunefer papyrus, where the weighing of souls was already being painted three thousand years earlier.
- Mont-Saint-Michel, The abbey on the tidal rock in Normandy. Built and rebuilt from the eighth century, a fortress the English never took, a prison after the Revolution, and now one of the most visited places in France, plus the tides, the causeway and the restoration work.
- Skellig Michael, A monastery on a pillar of rock eleven kilometres into the Atlantic. Beehive huts, six hundred steps, the monks who lived there from the sixth century, the puffins and the lighthouse keepers, and what filming Star Wars there did to it.
- Sacra di San Michele, The abbey on Monte Pirchiriano above the Susa valley in Piedmont, on the line of Michael sites running from Ireland to Apulia. The Staircase of the Dead, the Zodiac Door, and the building that gave Eco the setting for The Name of the Rose.
- Gargano, Monte Sant'Angelo in Apulia, the cave where the cult began around 490 and the oldest Michael shrine in western Europe. The Lombard patronage, the Via Sacra Langobardorum, the pilgrim graffiti cut into the walls, and the UNESCO listing.
- Shrines, Everywhere else he is venerated. St Michael's Mount in Cornwall, Bamberg and Hildesheim, the Hamburg Michel, Brussels, Mantamados on Lesbos, and the Mexican and Filipino shrines where the feast still fills a town.
- Apparitions, The visions that founded the sites. The Gargano bull and the sandal left behind, Aubert of Avranches and the hole burned in his skull in 708, the sheathed sword over Castel Sant'Angelo during the plague, and the later apparitions and their feasts.
- Soldiers, Patron of soldiers, police and paratroopers. Michael on regimental badges and unit patches, the patron of Kyiv on the city's coat of arms and its golden-domed monastery, requiems for the fallen, and the wartime uses of an armed archangel.
- Coptic Church, Egyptian Christianity, where Michael has twelve feast days a year. Coptic icons and their distinct faces, the monasteries of Wadi el-Natrun, the Nile-flood blessing on 12 Paoni, hymns and vespers, and a devotion older than most of the European material.
- Ethiopian Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo practice, where Mikael is everywhere. The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela, painted church interiors, magic scrolls, the tabot and the processions, and the monthly commemoration on the twelfth of every month.
- Orthodoxy, The Byzantine and Slavic churches. The Synaxis of the Archangels on 8 November, the taxiarch, monastery and cathedral dedications from Athos to Kyiv, liturgical chant, and the theology of the bodiless powers.
- Devotion, How people actually pray to him. The Leonine prayer of 1886 and its removal in 1964, the chaplet, medals and holy cards, exorcism and the Church's actual position on it, novenas, and the parish groups keeping it going.
- Michaelmas, 29 September and what grew around it. Quarter day, rents and hiring fairs, the Michaelmas goose and the blackberry folklore, the term that still bears the name at Oxford and Cambridge, and the modern afterlife, the tattoo, the surname, the station tile.
- - Isaiah Scroll 1. The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran Cave 1, c. 2nd century BC; the Dead Sea Scrolls corpus includes the War Scroll, which names Michael as the prince who leads the sons of light.
- - Temple Scroll. The Temple Scroll from Qumran, 2nd century BC; part of the sectarian library that gives Michael a leading role in the eschatological war.
- - Clevelandart 1967.144. Late-antique Egyptian (Coptic) textile fragment with an archangel figure, c. 5th-6th century; the earliest Egyptian angel imagery underlying later Coptic Michael icons.
- - Angels - Christ and angels mosaic - Sant'Apollinare Nuovo - Ravenna 2016. Sixth-century mosaic angels flanking Christ enthroned at Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna; the Ostrogothic-era imperial angel type that shaped later Michael iconography.
- - Christ and angels mosaic - Sant'Apollinare Nuovo - Ravenna 2016. Christ enthroned between four angels, mosaic of c. 520 at Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna.
- - Bode Museum Apse mosaic - Ravenna - 545 1316. Sixth-century apse mosaic from Ravenna, now in the Bode Museum, Berlin, showing an archangel in imperial court dress.
- - Archangel Michael at Sant'Apollinare in Classe, a detail. Detail of the sixth-century Michael mosaic at Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, labelled in Latin SCS MICHAHEL.
- - Archangel Michael on the triumphal arch at Sant'Apollinare in Classe. Sixth-century mosaic of the Archangel Michael on the triumphal arch of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna; modern photograph of a late-antique mosaic.
- - Affresco di Maestro Ottoniano, Crocefissione, inizio secolo xi. Early eleventh-century Ottonian fresco of the Crucifixion in the Sacra di San Michele; among the oldest paintings surviving at the abbey.
- - Byzantine - Archangel Michael with St Demetrius - Walters 426. Byzantine ivory or steatite panel of the Archangel Michael with Saint Demetrius, 11th century, Walters Art Museum.
- - Saint-Sever Beatus f. 159r - crop. Folio from the Saint-Sever Beatus, eleventh century, illustrating the Apocalypse in which Michael fights the dragon of Revelation 12.
- - Beatus de Silos BL Add11695 - f147v-148. Page from the Silos Beatus, c. 1091, a Spanish illuminated commentary on the Apocalypse; the Beatus manuscripts are the great medieval visual tradition of Revelation. Slightly under 1000px but a scarce primary manuscript.
- - St. George medalion from Michael archange icon. Medallion of Saint George from a Georgian repousse icon of the Archangel Michael, 12th century.
- - Michael Miracle Icon Sinai 12th century. Twelfth-century Byzantine icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, showing the miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae. Reproduction of the icon itself.
- - Armenian icon 2. Armenian illuminated manuscript page of 1261 with an archangel; Armenian Apostolic tradition venerates Michael among the incorporeal powers.
- - Irakischer Maler um 1280 002. Illustration of an angel from an Iraqi manuscript of al-Qazwini's Aja'ib al-makhluqat (Wonders of Creation), c. 1280. Islamic cosmological manuscripts do depict angels including Mika'il, who is named in the Qur'an alongside Jibril.
- - Saint Michael, a 13th-century Yaroslavl icon. Russian icon of the Archangel Michael from Yaroslavl, c. 1300, Tretyakov Gallery; among the oldest surviving Russian Michael panels.
- - Frescos in St. George's Church (Staro Nagoricane) 015. Orthodox 'Synaxis of the Bodiless Powers', showing Michael among the archangels.
- - Simone Martini 004. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Simone Martini 005. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - 1 Niccolo di Segna, San Benedetto e Michele arcangelo, ca. 1336, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena. Niccolo di Segna, San Benedetto e Michele arcangelo , ca. 1336, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.
- - FerrerBassa-StMiquelStJoanB-6448. Sant Miquel pesant l'ànima d'un mort i Sant Joan Baptista com un ermità.
- - Frescos from the Michael the Archangel Church of Lesnovo 019. Fourteenth-century Serbian Orthodox fresco from the Church of the Archangel Michael at Lesnovo, North Macedonia.
- - Angelo di guariento 4, 1357, museo civico di padova. Gemälde aus der Kapelle des Palazzo Carrara in Padua, Szene: Engel.
- - Bartolomeo bulgarini, trittichetto con maestà e altre storie, 1350-60 ca. 01. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Buffalmacco, giudizio universale 02. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Buffalmacco, giudizio universale 03. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Església de Sot de Ferrer, retaule de sant Miquel Arcàngel. Retaule de sant Miquel Arcàngel, ca. 1376 amb influències italogòtiques, església de la Concepció de Sot de Ferrer.
- - Guariento 002. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Icon of Saint Michael (14th c., Byzantine museum). Depiction of the Archangel Michael in European art; digitised artwork.
- - Michael icon Athens. Icon of Saint Micahel, from a 14th century Constantinople workshop. Exhibited in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens.
- - Paolo Veneziano 004. San Severino Marche, Pinacoteca Comunale, Church of Saint Dominic. upper panels: St Severin the Bishop, St Venantius Martyr, St Peter Martyr; St Thomas Aquinas, St Thomas the Apostle, St Bartholomew; 33 x 45 cm, each lower panels: St Catherine of Alexandria, Archangel Michael, St John the Baptist, St Peter; St Paul, St...
- - Retaule de sant Miquel Arcàngel, església de la Concepció de Sot de Ferrer. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Ugolino di nerio, san michele arcangelo, xiv sec. 01. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Icon with the Archangel Michael (14th cent.) at the Byzantine and Christian Museum on 12 April 2019. Depiction of the Archangel Michael in European art; digitised artwork.
- - 8 Andrea di Cione Orcagna, Strozzi Altarpiece. 1354-57, Santa Maria Novella, Florence.. From left to right, the figures represent Saint Michael, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the crowned Virgin Mary in a Dominican habit who presents her protégé Saint Thomas Aquinas to him, God, Saint Peter (kneeling), John the Baptist. The two on the far right are Saint Lawrence and Saint Paul.
- - 8a Andrea di Cione Orcagna, Strozzi Altarpiece. Detail. 1354-57, Santa Maria Novella, Florence.. From left to right, the figures represent Saint Michael, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the crowned Virgin Mary in a Dominican habit who presents her protégé Saint Thomas Aquinas to him, God.
- - Master of Saint Verdiana - Archangel Michael Slaying the Dragon - Walters 37705. His wings outstretched and his cloak fluttering behind him, St. Michael plunges his spear into the dragon's jaws. The archangel's position on the body of the dragon symbolizes the victory of good over evil, which is further emphasized by the contrast between the sweeping wing of the archangel and the immobilized wing o...
- - Siegel st michael a d etsch 1394. Seal of the Augustinian canons convent of St Michael near Trento from 1394.
- - Wilton diptych. The Wilton Diptych, c. 1395-99, in which Richard II is presented to the Virgin by saints; angels wear his white hart badge. English or French court painting.
- - Wilton diptych; left-hand panel. Left panel of the Wilton Diptych, c. 1395, showing Richard II with his patron saints.
- - Dragon battles woman's offspring - St John sees the beast Wellcome L0029264 crop. Apocalypse manuscript illumination continuing the Revelation 12 sequence after Michael casts down the dragon.
- - Woman tries to save son, Michael battles a dragon Wellcome L0029262. Manuscript illumination of Revelation 12: the woman clothed with the sun and Michael's battle with the dragon.
- - Arabic-manuscript. 1375-1425; part of the Islamic cosmological illustration tradition.
- - Jacobello da fiore, trittico, 1400-30 ca. 02. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Pere vall, santi michele e amador, 1405 ca. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Saint Michael and the Dragon MET DT200571. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Workshop of Lorenzo Monaco - Saint Michael; Above, Angel Gabriel - Google Art Project. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
- - Jacobello Del Fiore - Justice between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel - WGA11888. Justice seated between two lions and the archangels Michael and Gabriel. She holds her attributes sword and scales.
- - Rogier van der Weyden - Beaune Altarpiece. European painting of Saint Michael; digitised artwork, dated to its execution.
…and 610 more moments.
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