or Feast of St Michael and all Angels, a festival of the Christian church, observed on the 29th of September.

The Scripture account of Michael is, That he was an archangel, who presided over the Jewish nation, as other angels did over the Gentile world, as is evident of the kingdoms of Persia and Greece; that he had an army of angels under his command; that he fought with the Dragon, or Satan and his angels; and that, contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses.

As to the combat between Michael and the Dragon, some authors understand it literally, and think it means the expulsion of certain rebellious angels, with their their head or leader, from the presence of God. Others take it in a figurative sense; and refer it, either to the context that happened at Rome between St Peter and Simon Magus, in which the apostle prevailed over the magician; or to those violent persecutions, under which the church laboured for 300 years, and which happily ceased when the powers of the world became Christian.

The contest about the body of Moses is likewise taken both literally and figuratively. Those who understand it literally, are of opinion, that Michael, by the order of God, hid the body of Moses after his death, and that the devil endeavoured to discover it, as a fit means to entice the people to idolatry by a superstitious worship of his relics. But this dispute is figuratively understood to be a controversy about rebuilding the temple, and restoring the service of God among the Jews at Jerusalem, the Jewish church being fitly enough styled the body of Moses. It is thought by some, that this story of the contest between Michael and the devil was taken by St Jude out of an apocryphal book, called the Assumption of Moses.