Why G.K. Chesterton Thought St. Gabriel More Glorious Than St. Michael - Uncommon Sense - The Official Podcast of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton | Lyssna här

In 1929, with the world at peace, G.K. Chesterton wrote a prayer to St. Michael, the warrior archangel. For Michaelmas, Grettelyn Darkey and Joe Grabowski read "To St. Michael in Time of Peace" and ask what Chesterton saw coming that made him call on Michael then—and why he still counted Gabriel, stooping to greet a peasant girl, the more glorious angel.

In This Episode:

The Pope Leo XIII backstory behind the poem: his Prayer to St. Michael, and a famous 1884 vision no one has traced to a source
Why G.K. Chesterton prayed to the warrior archangel in a year of peace: he sensed what he called Prussianism returning
The poem's image of St. Michael at the Crucifixion, hand on the hilt, holding back his legions until Christ said "It is finished"
Chesterton's warning against a peace kept by money
A 1926 G.K.'s Weekly passage where Chesterton, arguing against Nietzsche, calls St. Gabriel stooping to greet the peasant girl more glorious than St. Michael striking down the traitor, and how Joe connects it to the single feast the three archangels now share

Resources Mentioned:

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Chapters:

00:00: Michaelmas and the Feast of the Archangels
01:43: Oxford's Michaelmas term and the darkening of the year
05:17: St. Michael through the centuries
08:19: Leo XIII and the Prayer to St. Michael
13:38: The 1884 vision: a legend without a source
16:42: "To St. Michael in Time of Peace" (1929)
21:23: St. Michael at the foot of the Cross
25:56: Why invoke St. Michael in time of peace
31:30: Why the archangels belong together
34:14: Michael, Gabriel, and the Sacred Heart
37:09: Humility, Tobit, and the Annunciation
40:18: Michaelmas in Tolkien

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

Episode art image credit: "St-Michel-Mont-Mercure, Vendée", original photo by Pom', 26 July 2023; on Flickr; CC BY-SA 2.0

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