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September 29 across 2,026 years of Catholic history

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writings · ROME, September 29, 2026 AD

St. Michael and his angels throw the dragon out of heaven

The Church's reading for today's feast of the archangels is St. John's account of the war in heaven, and he names the beaten dragon as the Devil and Satan.

A winged archangel in blue and gold armor and a crimson cloak raises a sword overhead, flanked by cherubs against a golden sky.
St. Michael the Archangel, sword raised, in Luca Giordano's The Fall of the Rebel Angels, painted around 1660-1666 AD.

Saint Michael the Archangel shares his feast today with St. Gabriel and St. Raphael, and the Roman Martyrology, the Church's book of the saints for every day of the year, gives Apocalypse 12:7-10 as the day's reading. In it St. Michael and his angels fight the dragon, who is beaten and thrown down to earth with his angels. A loud voice in heaven then announces that the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down.

3 min read

A painting in muted earth tones of barefoot, tonsured friars in patched grey-brown habits gathered before a small stone chapel and straw huts below a hill town, some weeping and kneeling, while one small friar lies face down with arms outstretched at the feet of another who stands looking down at him.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of buon fresco of the Assisi cycle, from the paper's reference portrait based on Legend of St. Francis, scene 13: Institution of the Crib at Greccio (Giotto di Bondone and workshop, 1296–1298 AD, Upper Church, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi) View source artwork.

event · ASSISI, Umbria, September 29, 1220 AD

St. Francis lies at a friar's feet and promises to obey him

Saint Francis of Assisi gave up the leadership of the Friars Minor at the order's Michaelmas chapter at the Porziuncola, a week after Pope Honorius III ordered a year's trial for every new recruit. He lay face down before Brother Peter of Cattaneo, promised to obey him, and in prayer handed the brothers over to God and to the order's ministers.

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More in this edition

A painting in an early Italian manner of a small stone church. Three barefoot, tonsured friars in grey-brown habits walk towards an open door carrying sacks and a clay jar, while two veiled women watch from behind an iron grille in the wall.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of an Umbrian panel painting in egg tempera on poplar, from the paper's reference portrait based on Santa Chiara d'Assisi — single-figure detail of the fresco of St Clare and St Elizabeth of Hungary (Simone Martini, 1322-1326 AD, Cappella di San Martino, Lower Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi) View source artwork.

place · SAN DAMIANO, Assisi, this week, 1230 AD

St. Clare gives up her sisters' bread, and Pope Gregory IX backs down

Pope Gregory IX ruled this week that no friar could visit the convents of the Poor Clares without his permission, so St. Clare's sisters at San Damiano lost the friars' preaching. St. Clare sent every friar away, including the lay brothers who begged the bread the enclosed sisters lived on. The Pope eased his ban and left the matter to the head of the friars' order.

3 min read

An engraving-style drawing of a young widow in a black gown, short black cape and white cap, kneeling in profile at a plain wooden chair in a narrow room, hands folded over an opened letter, with a window on the left and a door ajar on the right.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of an early nineteenth-century American stipple and line engraving, from the paper's reference portrait based on Portrait of Elizabeth Ann Seton (Amabilia Filicchi, after the Ceroni engraving of c. 1868 after Saint-Memin's engraving of 1797, Daughters of Charity / National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg) View source artwork.

writings · NEW YORK, September 29, 1804 AD

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton likens her soul to a bird in a net

In late September 1804 AD, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, a New York widow with five children, knelt in her closet to decide between the Episcopal church she was raised in and the Catholic Church. In a letter to Antonio Filicchi, an Italian merchant who wanted her to become a Catholic, she wrote that her soul was "like a bird struggling in a net." Two days later, on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, she gave the children a holiday so she could spend the day in prayer.

4 min read

An ink-and-wash drawing of St. Peter's Basilica seen across its square, with the dome, the obelisk, a fountain and the curving colonnade, and a few people in 1930s coats and hats crossing the paving.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a 1930s reportage drawing in pen and ink with wash.

In a letter to Mexico's bishops dated at St. Peter's on September 29, 1932 AD, Pope Pius XI writes that the promises of the 1929 AD settlement that reopened the country's churches have not been kept. He sets out the limits three states put on the number of priests: one for every 33,000 Catholics in Michoacán, one for every 60,000 in Chiapas, one for every 100,000 in Veracruz. Michoacán is the state where Saint José Sánchez del Río, fourteen, was killed for his faith in 1928 AD.

4 min read

Today in the Church

Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels

Saint of the day

Saint Michael the Archangel

Saint Michael the Archangel is named in the Book of Daniel, the Letter of St. Jude and the Apocalypse, where he leads the angels against the dragon. The Church keeps his feast on September 29 with St. Gabriel and St. Raphael.

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On this day in the Church

  • 1273 St. Thomas Aquinas sat as one of the definitors at the Roman provincial chapter of the Dominicans, held at Rome on the feast of St. Michael; it is the last order business in which he is named.Source
  • 1582 On the feast of St. Michael, St. Teresa of Ávila grew suddenly worse at Alba de Tormes and was put in a small infirmary cell with a window onto the high altar, the bed she did not leave.Source
  • 1884 St. Frances Xavier Cabrini opened a boarding school for student teachers in Milan.Source

Quote of the day

“The Lord rebuke you.”
— St. Michael the Archangel, to the devil, disputing over the body of Moses, The Letter of Jude, verse 9 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)