Devotion to the Three Archangels

Devotions

Why the Catholic Church honors Michael, Gabriel and Raphael together on a single September 29 feast, and the twentieth-century calendar reform that brought three separate observances into one.

Devotion to the Three Archangels honors Michael, Gabriel and Raphael together as the only three angels named directly in the canonical Scriptures, sharing a single feast on September 29. That shared date is a relatively recent arrangement: Michael’s September 29 observance is ancient, but Gabriel and Raphael did not receive their own universal feast days until Pope Benedict XV added them to the calendar in 1921, on March 24 and October 24 respectively. Pope Paul VI’s 1969 reform of the General Roman Calendar, carried out through the motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis, then merged all three onto Michael’s older September 29 date, so the biblical archangels would be honored together rather than on three separate days scattered across the year.

Quick Facts

Category: Holy Angels — Angelic Devotions
Origin: Michael’s September 29 feast is ancient; Gabriel and Raphael were added to the universal calendar only in 1921, then merged with Michael’s date in the Church’s 1969 calendar reform
Feast: September 29 (Ss. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels) on the current General Roman Calendar
Church status: An established, universal Catholic feast; honoring the three together adds no teaching beyond what the Church already holds about each archangel individually
Private revelation: Not dependent on private revelation; the three archangels’ identities and roles rest on the canonical Scriptures

What Is This Devotion?

Where devotion to Michael, Gabriel or Raphael individually focuses on each archangel’s own biblical role, this devotion is about honoring them as a group, specifically because Scripture names only these three and the Church’s calendar now reflects that shared distinction. It is less a separate set of prayers than a way of holding together, on one day, the full range of angelic service to God’s plan that these three biblical figures represent.

Origin and History

Michael’s association with September 29 is ancient, traditionally linked to the dedication of an early basilica in his honor near Rome, long before Gabriel or Raphael had any universal feast at all. That changed only in 1921, when Pope Benedict XV extended feasts for Gabriel and Raphael to the whole Latin Church for the first time, setting Gabriel’s for March 24, the day before the Annunciation, and Raphael’s for October 24, without a clearly documented reason for that particular date.

The now-familiar shared feast dates only to 1969, when Pope Paul VI’s motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis approved a broadly reformed General Roman Calendar, effective the following year. As part of a wider simplification of the Church’s sanctoral cycle after the Second Vatican Council, the reform merged Gabriel’s March 24 feast and Raphael’s October 24 feast, both barely fifty years old on the universal calendar, into Michael’s much older September 29 date, so the three archangels named in Scripture would be honored together on a single day. Communities that use the 1962 Roman Missal, as permitted for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, still keep the three feasts separately on their historic dates.

Catholic Theology

The Church restricts formal devotion to named angels to these three specifically because they are the only angels Scripture itself names, a restriction that expresses a broader Catholic principle: devotion follows what God has revealed and the Church has approved, not private speculation about other angels’ identities. Together, the three also display the range of angelic ministry Catholic tradition recognizes: Michael’s defense against evil, Gabriel’s role as messenger of revelation, and Raphael’s role as healer and guide, three distinct services within the one work of glorifying God and helping his people.

How to Practice It

Honor all three archangels together on September 29 through Mass or private prayer.
Pray to each archangel individually — Michael, Gabriel and Raphael — recognizing their distinct biblical roles even while sharing one feast.
Avoid extending this same kind of named devotion to other angels not identified in Scripture, since the Church’s restriction to these three is part of what this feast expresses.
Use art, icons or the relevant Scripture readings that depict all three together as a way of contemplating the range of angelic service to God’s plan.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

September 29 is the current universal date for all three archangels together. Before 1969, only Michael was observed on that day; Gabriel’s separate feast fell on March 24 and Raphael’s on October 24, and even those dates existed only from 1921 onward. Communities using the Church’s earlier liturgical calendar still keep the three feasts on their historic separate dates.

Church Status

The shared September 29 feast is a firmly established universal observance, set by the Holy See’s own liturgical authority rather than by popular custom alone. That the date has changed twice within the past century — in 1921 and again in 1969 — reflects the Church’s authority to govern its own calendar as a matter of liturgical discipline; it says nothing about the archangels’ existence or biblical roles, which the Church’s unchanging teaching affirms regardless of how their feasts are arranged.

Common Misconceptions

“The Church has always celebrated Michael, Gabriel and Raphael together on September 29.”

Not so. For nearly fifty years, from 1921 to 1969, the Church’s universal calendar kept the three archangels on three separate days: Michael on September 29, a far older observance, Gabriel on March 24, and Raphael on October 24. The now-familiar shared September 29 feast is a product of Pope Paul VI’s 1969 calendar reform, not an arrangement stretching back to the early Church.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did the Church combine three separate archangel feasts into one day?

Pope Paul VI’s 1969 reform of the General Roman Calendar reorganized the Church’s sanctoral cycle broadly. His motu proprio Mysterii Paschalis approved that reform in principle, and the archangels’ actual merged date took effect through the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar and the revised Calendarium Romanum promulgated that same year, which merged Gabriel’s March 24 feast and Raphael’s October 24 feast, both only added in 1921, into Michael’s much older September 29 observance, so the three archangels named in Scripture would be honored together on a single day.

Did Gabriel and Raphael have feast days before 1921?

Not on the universal Church calendar. Devotion to both archangels existed earlier in various local churches and religious communities, but Pope Benedict XV was the one who extended their feasts to the whole Latin Church in 1921, giving Gabriel March 24 and Raphael October 24.

Do communities using the older Latin liturgical calendar still keep three separate feasts?

Yes. Communities that use the 1962 Roman Missal and calendar, as permitted for the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, generally continue to observe Michael on September 29, Gabriel on March 24 and Raphael on October 24 as three distinct feasts, alongside the single combined date kept on the ordinary form’s calendar.