Latest / The Manly Catholic: Training Soldiers for Christ / Ep 206 - Meet The Angel Who Poked a Bishop, Consecrated His Own Shrine, and Cast Satan Out of Heaven
Transcript
- James Caldwell: So when Lucifer, understood as one of the highest angels, if not the highest, ⁓ so the one that was most closest to God, chose against God, chose in favor of his own private good over the good of the whole universe, which would have included him being subservient to God and according to some traditions, subservient to somehow knowing that God would become man. and by nature man is lower than the angels and so he famously, according to the tradition says, servium, I will not serve. And so then, Saint Michael is sent by God to rebuke him and made him a domination at that point. And so Satan was cast out of hell. But there was an allowance of Satan to prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. This is the Manly Catholic. podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ's husbands, fathers and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle cry, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. Hello all, welcome back to another episode of the Manly Catholic. This is James, your host, and with me have a very special guest. I'm honored to join us here on the Manly Catholic, and that is Father Frederick. Father, welcome to the Manly Catholic podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And our father Frederick was born and raised in Oregon, a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville. He entered St. Michael's Abbey in 2011 and was ordained in 2021. He currently serves as the sacristan and master of ceremonies at the Abbey. His other interests include tailoring liturgical vestments and music and or songwriting and him and father Peregrine, who is a good friend of the podcast, wrote, I'm just going to flash this book up right here. An awesome. story is called Saint Michael the Archangel through the ages and I'm very excited to dive into all things Saint Michael tonight. He is one of my favorite saints, but Father Frederick before we begin, would you mind actually leading us in the Saint Michael prayer? Sure, of course. I know it by heart, but there's a lot of different versions of it. So I'm just going to open up actually the book and read the version that's in there, which is a standard one in the US. at least. the name of Father and of Son and of Holy Spirit, Amen. Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. Mary, Queen of Angels, pray for us. Amen. Thank you, Father. Yeah, that is actually, ⁓ I always do that prayer before I open every podcast. So St. Michael, like I said, is very near and to my heart. So I am excited to dive in all things St. Michael. But now before we dive in all first time guests, I know I sent you this question a couple of days ago is if you could be the patron saint of anything, what would it be and why? Yeah, that's a, that was a hard one to narrow down because There's a lot of patron saints ⁓ things and otherwise taken already. But I thought, how about patron saint of the Pacific Northwest? ⁓ yeah, you claiming a region father. I like it. Yeah, for one, mean, ⁓ there's patron saints of things, occupations, otherwise, ⁓ but also regions. you know, patron saint of America's Arle de Guadalupe, the United States of America, Maccala Conception, France, St. Joan of Arc, so on and so forth. But the Pacific Northwest is also ⁓ quite godless. And ⁓ I'm saying that as a Portland native, I love Portland. I was born there, but it could use a patron saint. mean, not saying I'm not necessarily the man for the job, but you asked and so that's. That's my answer. love that. Well, yeah. You and I think you and Deacon Harold. I don't know if know Deacon Harold Burke Sivers, but I think he, I think he's up in Portland or around that area. Yeah. So he's in Portland. Yes. You guys can team up and take on the Pacific Northwest, but no father. Like I said, St. Michael is I think someone, especially I, the Manly Catholic podcast, obviously I think someone, a lot of men can look forward and ask for his intercession, but I guess in your mind, why I guess we'll start with a super basic for maybe those of you who have seen it for the first time. Who is St. Michael? We'll start there, but then kind of transition into why is the telling of his story in particular so important to the church right now? Yeah, well, St. Michael is an angelic spirit. So he was ⁓ created at the beginning of creation, along with all the other spirits ⁓ and the visible creation. And ⁓ he's... He is particularly named in the scriptures and not all angels are named in the scriptures. So he's not unique, but very, very few angels are named and he's one of them. So he's named in the scriptures, divinely revealed. He shows up in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The others that we have revealed are St. Raphael, who appears in the Old Testament, and then St. Gabriel, appears in... the Old and the New Testament. ⁓ St. Michael is known as an archangel. Maybe we can get into this later, but there's the nine choirs of angels he's referenced to as an archangel, but that's because of his particular tasks that he's given. Whether or not he belongs to another choir and is kind of given the particular task of an archangel for a time is up for debate. In any case, he's known as the the archangel that Battles Satan in particular. We see that in the book of Revelation the apocalypse Yeah, so Interesting for me and I wanted to ask you about this as well I was looking I was actually reading this to my my boys last night because they love they love st. Michael. The so the story of the Israelites. I'm actually trying to find it here ⁓ Where it talks about? Here you go by a day in the pillar of a, by day in a pillar of a cloud and by night in a pillar of fire. So that was actually saying Michael. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ it's kind of an oblique reference is kind of left to, to the reader to interpret, ⁓ because that's the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire are both. Reference to as the Lord, but in the old Testament, you'll often see the Lord, also the angel of the Lord, ⁓ and whatever manifestation he's coming in, whether the burning bush appearing to Moses, that's referenced to as the angel of the Lord, but also the Lord. So it's kind of ambiguous. ⁓ But since you can kind of draw the conclusion that St. Michael's involved in that because he is the patron saint of the chosen people, the Israelite people in the Old Testament. And therefore the one guiding and being the patron saints, the guide or guardian angel, it could be seen in that manifestation. Yeah. So that was fascinating when I was reading that I was like, ⁓ I actually didn't know that. So that was Sam learning so much. And there's so much too. And because you guys, you guys picked, you know, the book traces, say Michael through 12 sort of different stories. So how, mean, there's so much on St. Michael through the ages. How did you and Father Peregrine kind of decide which moments to narrow down? I mean, obviously you want to get the overarching theme, but I mean, there's so much, how did you guys even narrow down which ones to choose? It was a little hard. Yeah. Sure. I'm sure. We wanted to get, we wanted to get certain, uh, certain favorites in there. Like, I want to make sure that St. John of Arc was in there because she's one of my favorite saints. And he appeared to her and spoke to her. Other ones, yeah. Other ones that are more obscure for that reason, it was good to include them. ⁓ Like, Blessed Alcuin of York, for instance. He's not a household name, but... He's a very important figure in the history of the church ⁓ for the liturgy. He was an organizer of the Roman Missal in the time of Charlemagne. He was actually one of Charlemagne's ⁓ courtiers, his chaplain, and ⁓ responsible for a lot of ⁓ that sort of thing. So we included him, and he's also the patron of our father, Alcuin. ⁓ So kind of an homage to him. ⁓ Yeah, so, ⁓ was, was, was difficult to narrow them down. Yeah. I think we, ⁓ I think we got a good spread though. You guys definitely did. Yeah. My, my two favorite, and I actually hadn't heard of these stories either, but St. Lorenzo of Soponto. It was, so he, I'll just read it for our readers here real quick. So the Bishop St. Lorenzo of Soponto was praying one day when St. Michael appeared to him, the archangel told St. Lorenzo about a special cave on Monte Gargano where he wanted the Bishop to make a holy shrine. Bishop Lorenzo delayed in consecrating the site. So the Archangel Michael appeared to him again and told him that the consecration was already done. St. Michael had done it himself. When St. Lorenzo entered the cave, he found an altar with a cross and candles on it. He then looked down and saw that St. Michael had even left his footprints on the ground. St. Michael's like, you know what? You don't want to do it. You want to delay? I'll just do it myself. No big deal. I just, I love that. I love that. And my I will say my my son's personal favorite is Saint is it Albert or a bear? I'll bear now bear. Yeah, so another one I have not heard the story either, but he appeared to Bishop named Saint Albert three times and told him to build a shrine on a rocky island off the coast of France. St. Albert did not listen the first two times. So to get his attention, St. Michael poked him on the head. St. Albert finally listened to building a monastery on the island Mount Saint Michel. Praise this chanted in this monster. He rise up to the ears of Saint Michael to this day. I just love Saint Michael's like, you know what guys you humans you're not going to listen. I'm just gonna I'm gonna have to poke you or do it myself. So yeah, just really really awesome stories like that. I guess what was your what was your favorite in your mind Father Frederick maybe one that you had not heard before and you or maybe one that you did hear and you were really interested by it and you actually learned even more that you weren't expecting when you were diving into these stories. Yeah, well, ⁓ a few of them, like St Giovanni Vincenzo, there's a quite ancient shrine to St. Michael in Italy, ⁓ and it's still there to this day. And St. Michael helped build that. ⁓ So he didn't just consecrate the shrine, but he actually himself brought the materials ⁓ for St. Giovanni and helped him build it. Also Diego Lazaro, there's a pretty old shrine and a miracle site in Mexico that St. Michael came and he produced the miracle, this miraculous spring, and I didn't know about that before. So yeah, those are a couple of the... ⁓ we're quite intriguing. ⁓ a couple of things about the, ⁓ Monte Gargano, the ones you read and then also St. Albert Monte Gargano Gargano actually that miracle had a feast day, ⁓ historically, and that was actually just a few days ago. I know when you're going to release this podcast, but that's that was May 8th. ⁓ and then St. Albert, his skull actually has a hole in it. because of St. Michael poking him. So you can see that to this day as well. And we went back and forth about whether or not to include that. And it was kind of hard to word it and keep the flow of the story going, but at least we got the picture of him poking him on the head and the surprised look on his That's hilarious. The first lobotomy that they used to do was St. Michael poking someone in the head. ⁓ So I guess father maybe for someone who again who's just listening is hearing these stories like okay, like this is all great But how do we how do we know these like actually happen, you know, like how do we know st Michael brought these building materials and Helped help someone build a monastery I keep just kind of diving a little bit and to pick any story that you want but just say what is the church's Standing what's their protocol in order to verify these stories that they actually occurred and how do we go about you know making sure that you know, this is accurate and true. Well, I mean, ⁓ first of all, this is not an academic work. part of the idea is of course to edify, bring about devotion to St. Michael and ⁓ also attention to these important shrines historically, for instance. But, ⁓ Sometimes ⁓ there's not the sort of historical evidence that we would expect nowadays. ⁓ But that's just because we're downstream of a lot of cultural shifts that have happened in the last few centuries. ⁓ I mean, historicism or the expectation of historical data ⁓ was not always the case. And so ⁓ I think we can just kind of broaden our scope about what is, how we receive the things of the faith and the testimonies of the past. ⁓ That being said, I think there is, there's just a sort of virtue in the Catholic mindset to just take these things on faith and not to have, ⁓ an unreasonable expectation. And we believe in the miraculous. And so why would we rule out, you know, the St. Michael brought building materials to the top of ⁓ a mountain? Because we don't have some sort of like video evidence of that. ⁓ When there's plenty of other things that in the scriptures and otherwise that are miraculous and we believe in we, we take on faith. Yeah, I mean, we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead. Right. So some of these other things kind of, yeah, a hundred percent. some of these other things, it's almost like it pales in comparison to, but to the ultimate miracle that defines our faith, you know, and it kind of speaks to as, you know, I guess when you're telling the story of an angel, you know, compared to the story of a saint or a human, I guess I should say, you know, Is there a difference in your mind? Is it more difficult? Is it more challenging? Because these are obviously pure spirits and you know, they don't have, flesh and blood like we do. So is there a difference in your mind? And did that make it more difficult or maybe even easier? No, it made it more difficult for sure. Because there's not like he was born on this day. And he grew up he went to school here and was educated here and and died in this place. No, I mean, it's it's a totally different narrative. And so we found that challenging. In fact, there were other ⁓ versions of the story or iterations earlier ones that we ended up scrapping. So for instance, we thought, how's, how's a child going to be engaged in something that doesn't have like a storyline? So we thought, well, maybe we can create one that's sort of like a meta storyline. And then St. Michael kind of takes up the bulk of the work. And that was one version of it was. We had a grandfather, we had a ⁓ grandson, and the grandfather was describing St. Michael to the grandson. Because the grandson had a ⁓ lack of courage in some moment at school, and he was sad, and he was like, here's a model for you, St. Michael, and he describes him. And then the reader was learning about St. Michael. But we ended up scrapping that and tried to find a sort of arc. ⁓ and split it up into three parts. There's the first part which is basically like scripture, ⁓ salvation history, creation of the universe, also the angelic spirits. And then the middle part is these individual episodes of saints and his interaction with them. And then the third part is kind of Saint Michael and you, and then the end of time. So there's kind of a timeline, sort of, but. It was difficult. Yeah. Yeah, because like you said, it's the things that were so you said as humans to is like, okay, born here, baptized here, school here, all these events. And then now with an angel, it's like, okay, well, he was around a lot longer than we were. So what do you include and how do you find the information? And you mentioned scripture too. And I know I asked you a bit about, the burning bush and the cloud. Can you for our readers, our listeners, excuse me as well. dive into maybe a little bit more references to say Michael maybe that we have missed or kind of maybe are more obscure passages just to kind of hone in that fact that he is actually mentioned in scripture quite a bit. Yeah. So actually probably one of my favorites ⁓ pages is the one toward the beginning of Saint Michael guarding the body of Moses ⁓ Satan and Father Peregrine did great job by including ⁓ St. Jude, the New Testament writer, the Apostle Jude. In the New Testament, he has a letter, a very short letter, and he has this passing reference to St. Michael who ⁓ guarded the body of Moses against Satan and said, the Lord rebuke you. That's where we get that line in the St. Michael prayer from St. Jude's letter. And there's different interpretations of that because that is a reference to ⁓ the book of Enoch, which is ⁓ not part of scripture, but it's kind of in that same, you know, before the New Testament, sort of in that intertestamental period is what we say in scripture, you know, studies. ⁓ And ⁓ It's described in more detail there, but you know, so there's like rabbinical, the rabbis sort of interpret it one way and then the Christians interpret it. ⁓ But essentially, I think one interpretation is that St. Michael was guarding the body of Moses ⁓ against Satan because Satan was going to take the body and basically make it an idol for the Jewish people, for the Israelites. And so St. Michael, in order to... stop that, you know, revute Satan. coffee and prayer. It's the perfect blend. Mystic Monk Coffee isn't just another cup of coffee. It's handcrafted by the Carmelite monks of Wyoming, roasted with care and infused with prayer. Whether you're starting your morning or fueling your day, Mystic Monk Coffee has you covered. It offers rich, bold flavors that are as divine as their mission. By choosing Mystic Monk, you're not just enjoying exceptional coffee, but you're supporting a community of monks dedicated to their work, to prayer, and to the church. is coffee with a cause. So what are you waiting for? Visit mystic monk coffee dot com and experience the brew that's feeling faith and flavor. Yeah, and I was just saying, you know, Jude is is a letter and I think we often, you know, kind of overlook certain nuggets in scripture too. But yeah, Michael was was referenced there. And like you said, just the the fact that he is the the guardian. His first mission was to be the guardian angel of God's chosen people the Israelites obviously he's the guardian angel of the church now the Catholic Church and There was another really cool thing. I think this was in part Three the sword of st. Michael. I wanted to ask you about this this this was really cool because I I did not know so I'll just briefly read this for you guys This is in part three is the sword of st. Michael seven special shrines. So there are seven special st. Michael shrines all connected in a very strange and mysterious way. Father, do you mind kind of explaining the sort of St. Michael to our listeners? Sure. Yeah, there's a, as we'd referenced earlier in our conversation, there's different shrines to St. Michael and they were built at different times in history. But there is a perfectly straight line between seven of them going from Skellig Mikall which is in Ireland, all the way down to the Holy Land, where there's one there. And yeah, a perfectly straight line. If you looked at an atlas map in the book, have a map to show it. So it's pretty remarkable. That wasn't planned. Yeah, and there's, again, the Holy Spirit just working, working with humans and connecting all these dots. And I want to ask you, going back to... you know, kind of who St. Michael was. And I wanted to ask a little bit more details too, because you guys talk about the nine choirs or ranks of angels as well. And I think that's important because I know we've talked about it a little bit on the podcast before, but you might dive into the different ranks of the angels that you guys reference in the beginning. Sure. Yeah, it's it's very fascinating. There are nine choirs. Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, dominations, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels, and angels. And I think our first instinct is to say that those must be different species of angels, like different kinds of angels. ⁓ Like this one has different ⁓ characteristics and then this one is different. But ⁓ in fact, if you... If you study those theologians, say like St. Thomas Aquinas and others who really get into the nature of angels, it's impossible for them to be species of a single race. They're all individual species in and of themselves. That's not the case with us. We have different persons and different personalities amongst the human race, but we're one species. ⁓ That's just the nature of spiritual creatures. ⁓ So what are these nine choirs then? Well, they're basically tasks, roles ⁓ that God gives to these individual spirits. The things that they do basically is what it's describing. And the two big figures in the history of the church that talk about this are St. Gregory the Great and Dionysius the Areopagite. ⁓ very important figures, both of them. ⁓ But the Seraphim, for instance, their task is to just praise God, to love God, to just adore God. So they are the closest to God because that is their only task and that is, ⁓ they don't leave that station, in other words. ⁓ The Seraph and the Cherubim and the Thrones, the three first rank of the choirs, are ones that are all dealing directly with God. When you get down to the lowest ones, angels, archangels, and principalities, they're the ones that deal with things in the created world. So that's why you have St. Michael, along with St. Raphael and St. Gabriel, described as archangels because they're sent to deliver messages to the human race. to individuals and that is the job of an angel which just means messenger. ⁓ And so the lesser angels who have lesser messages, guardian angels, ⁓ other angels, that's their task. Archangels have greater messages such as St. Gabriel, one of the greatest archangels because he delivered the greatest message to Our Lady. ⁓ And Dante in his Paradiso is beautiful. When you get to that point, when you encounter the Blessed Virgin Mary in paradise, St. Gabriel is just there reciting Ave Maria, Ave Maria, Ave Maria. And then all of these other saints and angels are responding to the Ave Maria. So it's just kind of perpetually being done in heaven. beautiful. And then the other ⁓ choirs, have different tasks. So ⁓ if you see the picture of the virtues, ⁓ there's kind of, there's like flowers on the staff of the angel. ⁓ That's because the virtues are understood to kind of give power to the, means power, or power or like life to the living things in creation, like plants, like yeah, animals, plants. ⁓ They're sort of the moving force behind them. They're spirits, spirits behind that. Because overall, the principle is that God likes to work through intermediate causes, right? He doesn't just do everything directly, but he likes to govern and move about the universe and all of its parts through spirits. Yeah, and that's so beautiful, Father. It's just, obviously God... You know, he created everything so he could basically do everything all at once all the time. But no, he he entrusts us and he entrusts obviously the angels as well. These certain tasks and he creates this natural order, the natural rule of things and allows us as his creatures just to participate in his his divine plan. And it's just so beautiful how much he loves us. And even again, just just going through. the different angels and the different jobs and tasks that they have, you know, it's just, it's just a reminder of his, his love for us and the beauty that he had in creating us. And, know, and I, want, I wanted to ask you, so just to clarify, I guess maybe so the nine choirs and within those choirs, they're, I guess you could say they're subset into like three each, and then each subset then has like specific jobs so to speak. the seraphim, cherub and Thrones, they're designed to to be in and around God and worshiping him. And then the angels, archangels, principalities, primarily dealing with humans, ⁓ messengers, tasks related to humans, and then the powers, virtues, dominations, within nature or within kind of the intermediate realm. Is that an accurate way to describe that or kind of summarize that? Yeah, overall, yeah. And there's different interpretations of the different individual ones. It's a little bit... At least in my understanding, maybe others know more about this, at least dominations, for instance, ⁓ there's a good reason to believe that maybe St. Michael is a domination, one of the dominations, because dominations deal with ⁓ judgment. And St. Michael was sent to judge, in this particular instance, Lucifer, Satan, the Lord rebuke you. He was sent to do that. he has that he's been given that task. ⁓ But also an archangel because he came. He came to earth in some fashion to deliver some great message. ⁓ Powers, principalities. ⁓ Certainly principalities are the ones that are guardians over certain. ⁓ Societies. Nations. The nations have their own guardian angel and these are the principalities. ⁓ So you see that in the book of Daniel, one of the places where Michael is referenced. There's the prince of Persia and St. Michael and there's a sort of reference to both of them. But St. Michael is the guardian of the Israelites, that people, and then There is one over Persia. You also see this in the apocalypse when the very beginning of it, there's an address to the seven nations, Pergamum, Smyrna, and so on and so forth, and their angels, their guardians, their guardian angels. So those would be principalities then? Yes. Interesting. So if we want to say St. Michael, the dominator, it would be okay. Yes. That's awesome. I didn't know that. All right. This is so fascinating to me. Yeah. I mean, obviously what St. Michael is most well known about, think we'd be remiss to not ask about, know, St. Michael, know, commander of the armies of God, casting Satan out of heaven. Would you mind briefly telling that story, Father, of probably the most well known story about St. Michael? Yeah. So we have ⁓ the creation of the angels and we have ⁓ them created good from the beginning. That's important to remember ⁓ that demons weren't created evil, but they were created good and there was somehow mysteriously an opportunity for the angels to make some sort of choice, either for God or not. ⁓ that wouldn't have happened in the same way that we make choices because of the nature of the spirit. There's not a successive number of choices, once for all. And so when Lucifer understood as one of the highest angels, if not the highest, so the one that was closest to God, so possibly a seraphim, chose against God. chose in favor of his own private good over the good of the whole universe, which would have included him being subservient to God and according to some traditions subservient to ⁓ somehow knowing that God would become man and by nature man is lower than the angels and if he were to have to serve him he was not interested in that and so he famously according to the tradition says, non servium, I will not serve. And so then, ⁓ if we can kind of like calculate time in the angelic world, ⁓ Saint Michael is sent by God to rebuke him and ⁓ made him a domination at that point, in other words. And so Satan was cast out of hell. But there was an allowance, you know, of Satan to prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. And then the apocalypse, which we read about this battle once again, St. Michael and Satan. St. Michael battles Satan and his angels, is what it says. And St. Michael's victorious. So it's kind of, it's kind of an insight into both the beginning and the end time. Right. Yeah. And it's just so fascinating to think about too, and just the creation of, of angels and you know, it's hard for us as humans to grasp too, because you know, especially like kids, they always ask the best questions like, okay, like, so can I, can I pray for Satan and the demons to kind of change their mind and like serve God? And it's like, no, because they, they, these these creatures were just so vastly ⁓ superior in intelligence than we could ever even fathom. And they knew the whole creation story and God's plan for salvation. then they had, like you said, that fixed will and it's irrevocable. they don't, even as horrible as it is for them, they still would rather choose to not serve God throughout all of eternity, which... You know, it's, you think about it and it's crazy to think about, but at the same time, it's like we humans do that every single day, you know, in small ways and big ways other times. you know, unfortunately, or fortunately, I should say that we have at least the grace of God to always be calling us home and bringing us back home. again, it just speaks to the love that he has for us and to allow us to be able to do that, you know, and, you know, St. Michael, again, all these stories that you guys have shared is It's just such a blessing to see the riches of the church. know, being a Catholic convert, I didn't grow up with this stuff. So, you know, even when I get like children's stories and things like that, I just, you know, it's like I'm learning everything for the first time because all this is just, it's such a rich history and everything. ⁓ I just really appreciate you and father Peregrine putting this together, but I did, I don't want to ask you to father because obviously you are at St. Michael's Abbey and you are the sacristan and the master of ceremonies there. So what's it like for you? writing a book about Saint Michael, is there like little extra pressure because you're at Saint Michael's Abbey? It's like, ⁓ man, we better do a good job here. Right. Yeah, there's kind of an expectation, guess, unspoken to do a good job. ⁓ so hopefully we did him justice. ⁓ Yeah, we were founded by seven Hungarian priests who were ⁓ refugees from Hungary, from communist Hungary in the 50s. And they came from St. Michael's as well. this is kind of, this is the daughter house of a daughter house in a way of St. Michael's in Csorna, Hungary. So we're, so we're not the first one and we're not, we're not the only ones either. That one still exists. But there's also others in the time of St. Norbert, our founder, there was ⁓ St. Michael's in Antwerp. ⁓ For instance, ⁓ So he's been a patron, an important figure in the life of our order for 900 years. ⁓ But yeah, but in particular, yes, coming from St. Michael's, he's right there up in the big mosaic in our church looking down at us. ⁓ So yeah, he's prevalent here. Always a good reminder. of the protection that he has for you. And to St. Norbert, St. Michael's Tower, I forgot to mention too in the book as well. Yeah, so is that the same as the Norbertine order? Yes, that is St. Norbert, our founder, and that is a true part of his life. That, interesting that that depiction of that wall above the altar, if you're looking at the book, you'll see St. Michael, see Elias, Elijah the prophet, Enoch, ⁓ and then it's kind of unclear who the other one is, to be honest, but there's a picture of that chapel that dates before the second world war, but then it was bombed and it was destroyed. And so it actually is not standing anymore. So based on, so this is a reproduction of that picture of this. ⁓ Yeah, of what St. Norbert actually would have seen when he was celebrating Mass there at that chapel. fascinating. So, okay, so Father Peregrine redid that painting and he put it in the Illustrator here. Oh, wow. That's incredible. Yeah, so. And then on the next page, you'll see St. Michael receiving the church from St. Norbert. That's our abbey. That's St. Michael's abbey. So that's kind of one of the Easter eggs. Very cool. I'll have to put that up here. Yeah, and I will say right there, St. Michael's Abbey. Yeah, I will say too, Father, I feel bad. So my family is from Southern California, and we're only like 30 minutes away from St. Michael's Abbey. And ever since I discovered you guys, I've been out to California twice, and I haven't been out there. So the next time I'm out there, I'm gonna make it a mission to get to you guys. Because it looks absolutely gorgeous. I mean, you guys do... You know, whoever does your social media does a phenomenal job. It's just like, this is like the place to go and in Southern California. mean, cause I mean, it's just beautiful architecture and everything you guys are doing and putting together and just, it's just beautiful there. So it's sit on top of a hill. Yes. Yes, please come by. I'll have to, I'll have to. Well, I wanted to ask you to father. So, you know, the prayer to St. Michael, like I said, it's something that we started the episode with is something I always start the episode, all my episodes with. So that was restored by ⁓ Pope Leo XIII after a vision that he had. Do you mind if you're familiar telling us the story of how the prayer of St. Michael came about with Pope Leo? Yeah, and actually I remember this as a story my mom would tell us when we were kids. That saints... So I'm kind of going to give that version of it. assume that she got it. That's fine. We'll fact check you later, father. I love you, Yeah, you can fact check me. Don't fact check my mom. Just kidding. So Pope Leo XIII was in either celebrating mass or right or after mass. He was given a vision. ⁓ where there was a conversation between either God and Satan or Satan, Michael and Satan. No, it was God and Satan. And Satan said, give me a hundred years and I will destroy the church. And God basically said, you're on. ⁓ It's kind of like the beginning of the book of Job. There is kind of like a... ⁓ conversation like that or a bet or almost. ⁓ so Publio XIII witnesses this and then he in response ⁓ writes a prayer, basically ⁓ an exorcism prayer invoking St. Michael to conquer Satan, to rebuke Satan and we recite a shortened version of that prayer. There's a longer version of it that Pope Leo wrote. Originally in Latin, he was a very accomplished Latinist, fact. But we recite that prayer. ⁓ It's part of the Leo Nine prayers. He also ordered that certain prayers be recited after ⁓ Lomass. And this is so often done in the... Saint Michael prayer and then also another prayer for the liberty and exaltation of the church. So yeah, that's that's kind of a brief history of that prayer. And a lot of people still recited after after mass today. If no other prayers, at least that one. Yeah, I know I do the same Michael prayer. I know we don't do as a parish, but I just do it kind of privately. Yeah, I actually looked up the long version. That's that's a hefty prayer. The Saint Michael prayer, the long. The long version that he wrote. Yeah, that's yeah that yeah. So that was what we was that father where Pope Leo had the vision was that see Pope Leo here. Yeah. Do you remember the year? I don't know the exact year, but it's it's in the late 19th century. 80s to 1890s. Yeah, 18... sometime. Yeah, has vision October 13th, 1884 during a mass in his private Vatican chapel. Okay. All right, so his hundred years were up, Father. So now we're in the post time now. That's awesome. Right. So, okay, so I guess in your estimation, Father, I mean, I'm sure you've seen many... I mean, I don't actually know the answer to this question. Are there many other children's books about... St. Michael? Are you guys kind of the, you guys taking the gravy on this one? Yeah, I think there's not many. ⁓ Father Peregrine did a lot of the research into sort of like other children's books, so we don't cover the same ground necessarily. And I don't think that there's a whole lot. Yeah, at least not as comprehensive as this. I think there are... There are other ones, at least one other one that I'm now remembering, but it's not done in the same fashion. Yeah. No, like I said, this is, I mean, it's just beautifully written, beautifully illustrated. Everything you guys are working on out there that you bring out. mean, you guys are doing awesome work. So thank you for you, Father and Father Perrigan for the work that you guys are doing. Is there any final words that you would like to give Father to our listeners ⁓ regarding St. Michael? Maybe that we didn't cover here. No, I mean, I think that kind of covers it just Invoke him often I would I would admonish all to do because he's a powerful protector and intercessor And especially for men. Yeah, I always always tell men on the podcast pray the Angeles morning or 6 a.m 12 p.m 6 p.m and then add the st Michael prayer on top of that as well and you got a pretty good one-two punch there to get your life in order there, but father before Before we let you go, if you don't mind just telling our listeners where they can get this book and if you don't mind giving us your final blessing as we let you go. Absolutely. You can get the book at Tan is the publisher, Tan Books. So can get it at the websites, you can get it on Amazon, can get it on Barnes and Nobles. If you come to St. Michael's Abbey, we have it in our visitor center along with other books. Other books that Father Peregrine has. illustrated and so forth. Yes, and ⁓ yes, I'm happy to give you a blessing. Thank you Father and for all those listening. I will put a link in the show notes for you guys. Make sure you check out the book. One last look here for you. It is called St. Michael the Archangel Through the Ages written by Father Frederick and Father Peregrine. Thank you Father again for your wonderful work as a priest and for all the work you're doing there at the Abbey. And thank you all so much for listening. And until next time go out there and be a saint. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the shows add value to your life, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Share with a brother who needs it, leave us a review, and finally support the show so we can keep fighting. Links are in the show notes. We'll see you next week.