St. Michael Prayers for Protection

Saint Michael 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 host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Traditional Catholic prayer, introduced by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. English text as published by Vatican News.

For nearly eighty years, this prayer formed part of the prayers recited after Low Mass in the Roman Rite. Many Catholics continue to pray it today. The wording differs by a word or two from one prayer book to the next.

Notice the hinge in the middle: may God rebuke him. Those are Michael’s own words from the letter of Jude, turned into our request. And when the prayer asks Michael to act, it says in the same breath whose strength is involved: by the power of God. Raphael’s painting makes the same point without words. Both of Michael’s hands are on the spear, his wings are spread, the enemy is pinned under his foot—and his face is lowered and calm, the face of someone concentrating, not someone raging.

If you pray in the Catholic or Orthodox tradition, asking St. Michael for his help will feel natural. Many other Christians ask God directly for the protection he gives through his angels. The six prayers below are addressed to God, so that anyone can pray them. If you wish, end any of them the traditional way: St. Michael the Archangel, defend us.

For the waiting room, the walk to the car, the night the phone might ring.

Start with the face. Guido Reni has painted the most famous fight in heaven, and the winner looks almost gentle. His eyes are lowered. His mouth is closed. His right arm is raised, the sword angled down toward the enemy; his left hand holds a chain. One sandaled foot presses on the enemy’s head. Reni painted this around 1635 for a Capuchin church in Rome, where it still hangs.

What the painting offers a frightened person is not a promise that nothing bad will happen. It is a picture of someone stronger than the thing you fear, who is not alarmed by it. Fear insists that the danger is the biggest thing in the room. This face disagrees.

In the verse below, the prophet Elisha and his servant wake to find their town surrounded by an enemy army. The servant panics. Elisha prays that the young man’s eyes will be opened—and he sees the hills full of horses and chariots of fire.

“Do not be afraid,” Elisha answered, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

2 Kings 6:16 · BSB

Lord, I am afraid, and I am tired of pretending that I am not. You see what I see—(name what you are afraid of)—and you also see what I cannot. Open my eyes to the help that already surrounds me. Put under your foot what I cannot fight. Let a little of the quiet in your angel’s face find its way into mine. I do not need to feel brave tonight. I need to know that I am not alone, and that those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Who is like you, O God? Amen.

A prayer by Visio Divina.

For the people you love and cannot follow everywhere.

A young traveler walks between angels. The story comes from the Book of Tobit, which Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include: a young man named Tobias is sent on a long journey, and the stranger who offers to walk with him turns out to be the angel Raphael. The subject was close to the hearts of Florence’s merchant families, the Uffizi notes, who saw in it a good omen for their own children’s future. In the story there is one angel. In Francesco Botticini’s painting there are three. Raphael holds the boy’s hand. Gabriel walks on the right, carrying a lily. And on the outside edge, in dark armor with his sword upright, walks Michael. He is not watching the boy. His gaze is turned out of the picture, toward us.

Tobias carries his fish on a cord and looks up at the angel beside him. A small dog noses the ground at their feet. Two kinds of care are walking with this child: a hand to hold, close in, and a drawn sword at the edge of the group. In the story, Tobias does not learn who his companion really is until the journey is over. The people we pray for may never know either.

The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121:8 · BSB

Lord, you know the door they walked out of this morning, and you know I cannot go with them. I cannot be in the car, the classroom, the hospital room, the far city. Watch over their coming and going. Send your angels to walk the outside edge of their road, as Michael walks beside this child: awake when they are careless, steady when they are afraid. Guard them from harm, and from the harm they might do. And guard me from the fear that mistakes worry for love. They were yours before they were mine. Who is like you, O God? Amen.

A prayer by Visio Divina.

For the conversation you have been putting off, and the thing you know you have to do.

Eugène Delacroix made this painting for the ceiling of the Chapel of the Holy Angels at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, so visitors see it by looking up. He worked on the chapel for years and finished it in 1861, two years before he died.

Nothing here is still. Michael is in the air, wings spread wide against a burst of golden cloud, knees bent, a red sash whipping around his waist. Both hands grip the lance, and he is driving it downward. Beneath him the fallen figure twists against the rocks, one bent leg lifted, one hand braced on the ground and the other gripping a fork.

Look at those hands. Both of them are on the lance, and his eyes are on what he is doing. For most of us, courage is rarely this dramatic. It looks like making the call, saying the true sentence, walking back into the room. But it asks for the same thing: both hands, nothing held in reserve. The apostle Paul describes what comes afterward. When you have done everything that was yours to do, he says, what remains is to stand.

Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand.

Ephesians 6:13 · BSB

Lord, I know what I have to do, and I am afraid to do it. I have rehearsed it enough. Give me the kind of courage that does not need to feel like courage: only enough to put both hands to what is mine to do, and to say what is true without cruelty and without apologizing for the truth. When everything in me wants to bargain for one more day, steady me. And when I have done everything I can, help me simply to stand, and to leave what follows with you. Who is like you, O God? Amen.

A prayer by Visio Divina.

For the message you want to send, and the thing you reach for when you are hurting.

Look at the faces. At the bottom of Luca Giordano’s canvas a man lies on his back with his mouth stretched open in a scream. Beside him a black, doglike beast bares its teeth. Hands claw at the air. Now look up. Above all that noise, Michael’s face is quiet: eyes lowered, lips closed. One way to read the contrast is that, in this picture, the rage belongs to the losing side.

The Bible’s one story about Michael speaking says the same thing. Disputing with the devil himself, Michael “did not presume to bring a slanderous charge against him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’” (Jude 1:9). The archangel will not even insult the devil. He hands the verdict to God.

Most of our temptations are small versions of that moment. The cutting reply is already written in your head. The old habit is within reach. The danger is rarely that evil will defeat us outright. It is that, in fighting it, we start to look like it.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21 · BSB

Lord, you know the sentence I have been composing in my head, the one that would hurt. You know the message I want to send, and the thing I reach for when I am angry or ashamed. Do not let me be overcome by evil; teach me to overcome evil with good. Let me oppose what is wrong without hating the one who is wrong. When I want to strike, put Michael’s words in my mouth instead—“The Lord rebuke you”—and let me hand you the argument, the verdict, and the last word. Keep my face from becoming one of the faces under his feet. Who is like you, O God? Amen.

A prayer by Visio Divina.

For when the day is over and your mind has not noticed.

Pietro Perugino paints Michael after the fight. He is still in full armor, but his stance is easy: feet apart, a commander’s baton held across his body in one hand, the other hand resting on the top of his shield. His sword is in its sheath. A pair of scales hangs from a tree stump beside him. His face is composed, turned a little to one side. The panel was once part of a large altarpiece and was later cut down. The National Gallery notes that fragments of the defeated devil survive beside Michael’s foot and shield.

The book of Daniel calls Michael “the great prince who stands watch over your people” (Daniel 12:1). It is daylight in the painting, but it is a good picture for the end of a day: the struggle finished, the guard still on his feet. A watchman’s whole job is to be awake so that other people do not have to be.

A gentle word before the prayer. A restless night does not mean you are under spiritual attack. Stress or worry can make it hard to sleep even when you are tired. If sleepless nights have become the rule, that is worth mentioning to a doctor or to someone you trust. Tonight, you can hand over the watch.

I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:8 · BSB

Lord, the day is over and my mind has not noticed. It is still checking the locks, replaying the conversation, drafting tomorrow. I hand you the watch. You neither slumber nor sleep, so I am allowed to. Post your angels where I would stand guard—over this house, these people, this unfinished list—and let me take off, piece by piece, the armor I have worn all day. What I did badly, forgive. What I left undone, keep until morning. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone make me dwell in safety. Who is like you, O God? Amen.

A prayer by Visio Divina.

For the decision you cannot stop turning over.

Josse Lieferinxe, painting in Avignon around 1500, gives Michael more to carry than most artists do. His right hand lifts a sword above his head. His left grips a tall staff topped with a cross, driven down into the demon under his feet. And across the front of his armor hangs a pair of scales. Medieval painters gave Michael the scales because tradition made him the angel who weighs souls at the end. Here they say something about today.

Look at what is happening around them. The demon is pinned but not finished: one claw has hold of the staff, the other grips a spiked club, and a taloned foot rises between the two pans without touching either. The scales stay where they are, hanging above the struggle.

That is a fair picture of a hard decision. You are trying to weigh something honestly while fear, money, tiredness, and the wish to be liked all reach toward the balance. The letter of James has simple advice for that moment: ask.

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

James 1:5 · BSB

Lord, I have a decision to make, and I do not trust my own scales. I know what I want the answer to be. I know whom I want to please, and what I am afraid of losing. Hold the balance steady while I weigh this. Show me what is true, then what is right, then what is mine to do, in that order. You give wisdom generously and without finding fault, and I am asking for it. And when I can see what is right, give me the sword as well as the scales: the strength to act on it. Who is like you, O God? Amen.

A prayer by Visio Divina.

You do not need to know anything about art. Choose the painting that held your attention and take four unhurried steps:

1. Look (Visio): Rest your eyes on one physical detail—the chain, the boy’s held hand, the scales. Notice what is actually there before deciding what it means.
2. Meditate (Meditatio): Ask where that detail touches your own day. Name the specific fear, person, or decision it brings to mind.
3. Pray (Oratio): Pray the prayer beside the painting slowly, or put it in your own words. Short is fine. Michael’s own prayer was four words long.
4. Contemplate (Contemplatio): Stay in silence for one minute. You are not trying to produce a feeling. You are letting yourself be kept company.

In the Roman Catholic calendar St. Michael is celebrated on September 29, together with the archangels Gabriel and Raphael; in England the day has long been called Michaelmas. Eastern Orthodox church calendars mark the great feast of Michael and all the angels on November 8. This guide belongs to our All Saints’ Day collection for November 1, and it is meant to be used on any ordinary night of the year.

What is the St. Michael prayer?

It is a short Catholic prayer asking the archangel Michael to defend us against evil “by the power of God.” Pope Leo XIII introduced it in 1886, and it formed part of the prayers recited after Low Mass in the Roman Rite until 1965. Many people still pray it daily. The full text is at the top of this page.

Did Pope Leo XIII write it after a vision?

The story is widely repeated in different versions, but the sources cited here do not establish it as a documented event. What is documented is simpler: in 1886 Leo XIII added the prayer to those recited after Low Mass.

Is St. Michael in the Bible?

Yes. He is named in five verses across three books: Daniel 10:13, 10:21, and 12:1, where he is “one of the chief princes” and stands watch over God’s people; Jude 1:9, where he disputes with the devil; and Revelation 12:7, where he and his angels fight the dragon. His only recorded words are “The Lord rebuke you!”

What does the name Michael mean?

It is a Hebrew question: “Who is like God?” The same question appears as a prayer in the Psalms: “Who is like You, O LORD, who delivers the afflicted from the aggressor” (Psalm 35:10). Each of the six new prayers on this page ends with it.

Is St. Michael a saint if he is an angel?

“Saint” simply means “holy one.” Michael was never a human being; he is an angel, and churches give the title to the archangels the Bible names. That is why he is remembered alongside human saints, including on All Saints’ Day.

Can Protestants pray the St. Michael prayer?

Christians differ here. Catholics and Orthodox Christians ask saints and angels to pray for them, much as you might ask a friend. Most Protestants address prayer to God alone, while still believing that God sends angels to help his people (Psalm 91:11; Hebrews 1:14). All agree that angels are never to be worshiped (Revelation 22:8–9). The six new prayers on this page are addressed to God, so anyone can pray them.

Can I pray a St. Michael prayer for my family, or before bed?

Yes. The traditional prayer can be prayed at any time and for anyone. This page also offers a prayer for your family and children and a prayer before sleep, each beside a painting and a verse.

When is St. Michael’s feast day?

September 29 in the Roman Catholic calendar, shared with Gabriel and Raphael, and November 8 in Eastern Orthodox church calendars. In the Roman Catholic calendar, All Saints’ Day is November 1.