— FEAST DAYS · SAINTS MICHAEL, GABRIEL &… —

September 29, 2026 · Feast

Saints Michael, Gabriel & Raphael

The Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael honours the three archangels named in Sacred Scripture. St. Michael is associated with the defence of God’s people, St. Gabriel with the announcement of God’s saving plan, and St. Raphael with healing and guidance. Their names reflect something of those traditional roles — Michael means “Who is like God?”, Gabriel is commonly understood as “God is my strength,” and Raphael means “God heals.”

Michael appears in the Book of Daniel and in Revelation as a defender against evil. Gabriel also appears in Daniel and is best known as the messenger who announces to Mary that she will become the mother of Jesus. Raphael appears in the Book of Tobit, where he accompanies the young Tobias, son of Tobit, on a journey, guiding and protecting him and ultimately helping to bring healing to his father. Although Catholics commonly speak of the three archangels together today, their feast days were not always joined.

Master of Pratovecchio, The Three Archangels with the Little Tobias, c. 1450. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

View Image Source

For centuries, September 29 was especially associated with St. Michael and became widely known as Michaelmas. The Western observance was connected with the dedication of an ancient basilica of St. Michael near Rome, and over time the feast became part of everyday seasonal life in Britain and Ireland as well as the Church calendar. Michaelmas was one of the traditional quarter days when rents were paid, and customs developed around fairs, special foods and the eating of a Michaelmas goose.

One particularly charming custom survived in parts of western Scotland. A 1927 Nottingham newspaper described the baking of St. Michael’s Cake, a special bannock prepared for Michaelmas. The clipping offers a glimpse of how the feast once extended beyond the church itself into household and village traditions — the sort of seasonal custom that had already begun to disappear by the twentieth century.

St. Gabriel and St. Raphael once had separate feast days — Gabriel on March 24 and Raphael on October 24 — while September 29 remained the feast of St. Michael. In the revision of the General Roman Calendar approved by Pope Paul VI in 1969 and introduced on January 1, 1970, the three archangels were brought together on September 29. The wider calendar reform sought to simplify the liturgical year and place greater emphasis on the central mysteries of Christian worship while retaining saints and observances of broader significance to the universal Church. The result is the feast celebrated today — three distinct figures from Scripture, each with a different role, remembered together on the ancient Michaelmas date.

St. Michael's Cake

Evening Post (Nottingham), September 29, 1927