The Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel

The feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel is a Double of the First Class and has been celebrated since the sixth century. The feast originated as the dedication festival of a church in the Circus at Rome that Boniface II dedicated to St. Michael. The liturgical colour of the feast is white. The feast became a Double of the First Class in 1917. The Office is proper. As today is after the 24th of September a rubric in the Breviary prescribes that at Mattins today the Incipit of the book of Esther (from the V Sunday of September that will not be celebrated this year) is read. However, as the first nocturn lessons for St. Michael are proper the Incipit of Esther is transferred to tomorrow, Friday 30th. The Ordo has a typo and does not indicate this, mea culpa!

At Vespers yesterday afternoon the antiphons Stetit angelus etc were sung with psalms 109, 110, 111, 112 & 116. The Office hymn was Te, splendor et virtus Patris. There were no commemorations. At Compline the Sunday psalms were sung.

At Mattins the invitatory is Regem Archangelum Dominium, Venite adoremus and the hymn is, again, Te, splendor. In the first nocturn the antiphons Concussum est mare etc are sung with psalms 8, 10 & 14. The lessons are from the prophet Daniel. In the second nocturn the antiphons Michael Archangele etc are sung with psalms 18, 23 & 33. The lessons in the second nocturn are taken from a homily of St. Gregory the Great. In the third nocturn the antiphons Angelus Archangelus Michael etc are sung with psalms 95, 96 & 102. The lessons are a homily of St. Jerome on St. Matthew's Gospel. The Te Deum is sung. At Lauds the antiphons Stetit angelus etc are sung again, this time with the Sunday psalms (Pss. 92, 99, 62, Benedicite & 148). The hymn is Christe, sanctorum decus Angelorum.

At the Hours the antiphons Stetit Angelus etc are sung with the festal psalms. At Prime (Pss. 53, 118i & 118ii) the lectio brevis is Factum est praelium.

Mass is sung after Terce. The Gloria is sung, there is one collect. The Creed is sung as is the common preface.

At Vespers all is at first Vespers except Ps. 137 is sung in place of Ps.116, the versicle and response and antiphon on the Magnificat are proper to second Vespers. A commemoration is sung of the following feast of St. Jerome. At Compline the Sunday psalms are sung.

In the 'liturgical books of 1962' the feast becomes 'first class'. At the Hours the antiphons are doubled. At Prime the lectio brevis is of the season. At second Vespers there are no commemorations.

Icon: St. Michael in a Icon from Archangel Cathedral, the Kremlin, from Wikipedia.