St. Michael's Lent

There are many beautiful devotions and practices in our faith, and St. Michael’s Lent is one that may not be as well known. St. Michael’s Lent is a forty day period of prayer, fasting and penance in honor of St. Michael the Archangel, which runs from August 15th, the Solemnity of the Assumption, to September 29th, which in the traditional rite is the feast day of only St. Michael, but in the Novus Ordo rite now includes all three of the archangels. This devotion comes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi, who was greatly devoted to St. Michael and the angels. One year while observing St. Michael’s Lent, he received the stigmata shortly before the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14th.

There aren’t strict rules for observing St. Michael’s Lent because it is a devotion instead of an obligation, but the general rules for the regular observance of Lent are a good place to start. It is a time to enter more deeply into prayer and to do more acts of penance, such as fasting and giving up certain pleasures more often. To honor St. Michael, one might also add daily prayers to him, like the St. Michael prayer or the Chaplet of St. Michael. During this special, “miniature” Lent, we should seek to grow in our devotion to St. Michael, who is our protector and helper in the fight against evil, both in our own lives and in our world. We should ask his intercession for ourselves, our country, and our world during times of temptation and warfare against evil.