LEGEND OF MICHAELMAS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22779, 15 January 1936, Page 8

LEGEND OF MICHAELMAS

The reason why September 29 was chosen for the festival of St. Michael and All Angels, the only Archangel so honoured by the Church of England, is lost in obscurity.

One theory suggests that September 29 is the anniversary of the dedication of St. Michael’s Church in Home. The other more picturesquely recalls the early legend of the Bishop and the Bull. The legend records an incident which is believed to have occurred in Apulia during the fifth or sixth century. The story is that a bull, which had strayed from the herd, was found in the entrance to a cave on Mount Garganus. Someone shot at it, but the arrow returned miraculously tq the archer and wounded him. There was a panic among the people of the district. Partly to calm them, the Bishop of Sepontin prescribed three days of prayer and fasting. The legend continues that at the end of the three days it was vouchsafed to the bishop to have a vision of St. Michael. He proclaimed that Mount Garganus was under his especial care, and enjoined that worship should he offered in that place in memory of himself and all other angels. September 29, it is suggested, was the date of the dedication of the Church of St. Michael, built on Mount Garganus. Michaelmas Day is not nowadays observed with old-time rigour. In the reign of Ethelred II special prominence was given to the feast. The three preceding days were kept as a fast, during which men had to walk barefoot to church to make their confessions. All slaves were freed from work. Paradoxically, the freedom was compulsory. Slaves who were found working on the three days were beaten as a punishment, and freed men were fined for failing to observe the fast or festival. Such punishments arc not so stringent as they seem, when there is comparison with the more terrible forms in use in the Dark Ages.