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Prayer — Novenas

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Novena to St. Michael the Archangel

Novena indulgenced by Pius IX, 5 January 1849 and 26 November 1876; the hymn and collect by Pius VII, 6 May 1817

The nine days before Michaelmas as the 1897 manual gives them: the hymn Te splendor, the antiphon 'Most glorious Prince', and the collect of the feast — indulgenced by Pius VII and, as a novena, by Pius IX.

The Prayer
English · Original
HYMN
O Jesus! life-spring of the soul!
The Father's Power and Glory bright!
Thee with the Angels we extol;
From Thee they draw their life and light.

Thy thousand, thousand hosts are spread,
Embattled o'er the azure sky;
But Michael bears thy standard dread,
And lifts the mighty Cross on high.

He in that sign the rebel powers
Did with their Dragon Prince expel;
And hurled them from the heaven's high towers,
Down like a thunderbolt to hell.

Grant us with Michael still, O Lord,
Against the Prince of Pride to fight;
So may a crown be our reward,
Before the Lamb's pure throne of light.

To God the Father glory be,
And to His sole-begotten Son,
The same, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
While everlasting ages run. Amen.

Ant. Most glorious Prince, Michael the Archangel, be thou mindful of us; here, and in all places, pray for us to the Son of God.
V. I will sing praises to Thee, my God, before the angelic host.
R. I will adore Thee in Thy holy temple, and confess unto Thy name.

Let us pray.
O God, who, in the dispensation of Thy providence, dost admirably dispose the ministry of angels and of men, mercifully grant that they who ever minister before Thy throne in heaven may also be the protectors of our life on earth. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Here name the intention of the novena. Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be.)
When the Prayer is Said

20–28 September; before 8 May, the Apparition of St. Michael; in temptation; for the dying.

History & Background

Pius IX indulgenced the novena to St. Michael twice: first, from his exile at Gaeta on 5 January 1849, for the novena published by Joseph Falcone of the Congregation of the Mission, and then on 26 November 1876 for a novena made with any approved prayers. Our Favorite Novenas (1897) built its novena from the Breviary — the Vesper hymn of the feast, the antiphon and the collect — which Pius VII had already indulgenced in 1817 for those who say them 'to obtain his powerful assistance in the assaults of temptation, in life and at the hour of death'.

The novena is made from 20 to 28 September, before the Dedication of St. Michael on the 29th, or at any time. Those who wish a longer daily prayer may add Leo XIII's prayer against Satan, which is on this site under the prayers to the angels.

A novena is nine consecutive days (or nine consecutive weeks of one fixed day) of the same prayer for the same intention; a day missed breaks it, and it is begun again. Confession and Communion during the nine days, or on the last, were the ordinary conditions for the plenary indulgence.

Indulgences Attached

Three hundred days each day and a plenary indulgence during the novena or within eight days — Pius IX, 26 November 1876; the hymn, antiphon and collect, two hundred days and plenary once a month — Pius VII, 6 May 1817.

Related Saints
St. Michael the Archangel
Created before the world – Immortal
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