BALKAN SAINTS - Mirjana Detelić

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archangels, and angels (Mirkovic 1961, 77). Pseudo-Dionysius‟ works were translated
into Serbian Slavonic by the elder Isaija, hegumen or abbot of the monastery of St
Panteleimon on Mount Athos and a confident of the Serbian Emperor Duńan, only the
second chapter has been published (Ms 46 from Gilferding‟s collection; cf. Trifunovic
1982, 153-69. It must have encouraged the further development of Michael‟s cult among
the Serbs.
Angels are rarely called by name in the Bible. Michael‟s name occurs three times in
Daniel (10:13, 21; 12:1) and twice in the New Testament (Jude 9; and Revelation 12:7).
As it follows from Daniel 12:1, Michael is the guardian of the Jewish people: And at that
time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy
people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation
even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered. Discussing the
Eastern churches‟ veneration of the bodiless powers, Lazar Mirković emphasised that
angels were thought of as protecting churches, kingdoms, cities and peoples by praying
for them before the throne of God and by inspiring rulers to act for the benefit of their
people (Mirkovic 1961, 77). Among texts which informed the devout medieval reader
about biblical events was the Paleia, a chronological account of Old Testament history
probably originating in late ninth-century Byzantium and translated into Slavonic by the
end of the twelfth century among the southern Slavs. (The oldest known manuscript is
from the second quarter of the fifteenth century, kept in the Museum of the Serbian
Orthodox Church in Belgrade. Cf. „Палеја‟, in Лексикон српског средњег века, 487.)
Its chapter „On the war of Jericho‟ is far richer in detail about Michael than the
corresponding passage in the Book of Joshua (Djuric 1983, 7). The archangel is portrayed
with sword and spear, as a prince, a military leader (archistrategos), the commander of
innumerable angels fighting against the forces of evil (cf. Revelation 12:7). In addition to
being the leader of the heavenly hosts fighting against evil, Michael was also seen, by
extension, as a helper of worldly rulers in their righteous battles. Thus one of God‟s
messengers helped the Jews led by Joshua to take the city of Jericho (Joshua 5:13-15). It
should be borne in mind that that text makes no mention of Michael‟s name. It is only in
Origen‟s interpretation of the Book of Joshua that the celestial being that appeared before
Joshua is identified with the archangel Michael (Origenes, Selecta in Jesum Nave, PG 12,
854).
Liturgical services honouring the archangel, especially the one in November, speak of
his wider concerns. The portion sung at Matins includes two canons with abound in
praise of the archangel‟s concern for mankind, emphasising that he is God‟s messenger
and executive agent of the divine will. Thus Michael is able to rescue his supplicants
from grave illness and to free them from the fetters of temptation (stihira or hymn in the
eighth tone at Vespers: „O archistrategos, deliver us from all our needs and sufferings and
sicknesses and fierce sins‟); he clears souls of haze and bathes the devout in the
inexhaustible and never-dying light; and the ninth ode of the canon depicts Michael as
patron of the wandering and the suffering (Bratkov minej, „The Menaion of Bratko‟,
Belgrade, National Library of Serbia MS 647; Belgrade, SANU MSS 58 and 361;
Belgrade University Library MS 13; Patriarchy of Peć, MS 53. Printed menaia have not
been used because they contain the uniform versions of both services of a somewhat later
date.)