… according to God’s revelation in the Bible, not only do human beings have their own guardian angel but nations have them, too.
… Not only does every nation have them, but also every city, every town, every locale, and particularly every temple devoted to the worship of God.
— Father Maximos (Quoted in Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence, Image, New York, 2001, p. 109)
Do you want heart-warming news, fellow Southrons? Well, there it is, in those quotation marks: Not only does the South have her own guardian angel, but Dixie is well-nigh full of them – an angel for the whole of us, an angel for each State, an angel for each county, parish, town, hamlet, forest, river, creek, and field.
For faithful Southerners seeking victory over the fallen passions, seeking healing of soul and body, and freedom from foes seen and unseen, this is encouraging to know. For God has bidden the angels to help us in all these things.
The Holy Apostle Paul, his disciple St Dionysius the Areopagite, and other holy men and women reveal the mysteries of the angelic realm to us – the nine ranks of angels, their appointed duties, etc. For example:
The THRONES (Col 1:16) stand after the Cherubim, mysteriously and incomprehensibly bearing God through the grace given them for their service. They are ministers of God’s justice, giving to tribunals, kings, etc. the capacity for righteous judgment.
DOMINIONS (Col 1:16) hold dominion over the angels subject to them. They instruct the earthly authorities, established by God, to rule wisely, and to govern their lands well. The Dominions teach us to subdue sinful impulses, to subject the flesh to the spirit, to master our will, and to conquer temptation.
PRINCIPALITIES (Col 1:16) have command over the lower angels, instructing them in the fulfilling of God’s commands. They watch over the world and protect lands, nations and peoples. Principalities instruct people to render proper honor to those in authority, as befits their station. They teach those in authority to use their position, not for personal glory and gain, but to honor God, and to spread word of Him, for the benefit of those under them.
Over all the Nine Ranks, the Lord appointed the Holy Archangel Michael (his name in Hebrew means “who is like unto God”), the faithful servitor of God, as Chief Commander. He cast down from Heaven the arrogantly proud Lucifer and the other fallen spirits when they rebelled against God. Michael summoned the ranks of angels and cried out, “Let us attend! Let us stand aright before our Creator and do not consider doing what is displeasing unto God!
According to Church Tradition, and in the church services to the Archangel Michael, he participated in many other Old Testament events.
And in the New Dispensation of the Risen Lord Jesus, there are events like this:
From ancient times the Archangel Michael was famed for his miracles in Rus. In the Volokolamsk Paterikon is a narrative of Saint Paphnutius of Borov with an account of Tatar tax-gatherers concerning the miraculous saving of Novgorod the Great: “Therefore Great Novgorod was never taken by the Hagarenes … when … for our sins the godless Hagarene emperor Batu devoured and set the Russian land aflame and came to Novgorod, and God and the Most Holy Theotokos shielded it with an appearance of Michael the Archangel, who forbade him to enter into it. He [Batu] was come to the Lithuanian city and came toward Kiev and saw the stone church, over the doors of which the great Archangel Michael had written and spoken to the prince his allotted fate, ‘By this we have forbidden you entry into Great Novgorod.
It is altogether a very natural and fitting thing, then, for Dixie to ask St Michael to come to our aid: “We invoke Saint Michael for protection from invasion by enemies and from civil war, and for the defeat of adversaries on the field of battle. He conquers all spiritual enemies.”
This is the key, though – We must ask. The Lord and His holy saints and angels are perfectly willing, and ready, to help us (and they do help us in many ways without our knowledge or our request because of their perfect love), but if we do not ask, we will not get much aid from them. Our Lord told us this in His Sermon on the Mount: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (St Matthew’s Gospel 7:7-8).
O holy and great Archangel of God Michael, first among the angels that stand before the inscrutable and transcendent Trinity, overseer and guardian of the human race, who with thine armies didst crush the head of the most-proud Morning Star in Heaven and dost ever put to shame his evil and cunning on earth, to thee do we flee with faith and to thee we pray with love; be thou an invincible shield and a firm bulwark of the Holy Church and our homeland, protecting them with thy lightning-bearing sword from all enemies, both visible and invisible.… And leave not without thy help and protection, O Archangel of God, also us who glorify thy holy name today; for behold, even though we be great sinners, nevertheless we desire not to perish in our iniquities, but rather to turn to the Lord and be quickened by Him unto good works. Illumine, therefore, our minds with the light of God’s countenance, which continually shineth on thy lightning-like forehead, that we may understand what the good and perfect will of God is concerning us, and know all that which we ought to do, and that which we ought to despise and abandon …
He who rose again from the dead, Christ our true God, through the intercessions of his all immaculate and all-blameless Holy Mother, (by the might of the precious and life-giving Cross; by the protections of the Honorable Bodiless Powers of heaven; at the supplication of the Honorable, glorious Prophet, Fore-runner and Baptist John; of the Holy, glorious, and all-laudable Apostles; of the Holy, glorious and right-victorious Martyrs; of our venerable and God-fearing Fathers; the Holy and righteous ancestors of God, Joachim an Anna;) of Saint(s) (N. NN.), whose memory we celebrate, and of all the Saints, have mercy upon us and save us, for as much as He is good and loveth mankind. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us and save us.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel (Letter to the Hebrews 12:22-24).
Such is the covering, such is the armor, such is the protection that Dixie can and should put on – Christ, His Most Pure Mother, the Cross, the angelic powers, the Apostles, and all the saints. Especially in this context, let us hymn, exalt, and pray to St Michael the Archangel, that the Lord would save the South from all her spiritual and physical enemies. It would be well for us to sing the Akathist Hymn to St Michael.
In addition, one could also pray to the Guardian Angels of the South using this Akathist hymn or this canon, substituting “Dixie” or the names of States, towns, neighborhoods, schools, churches, etc., where needed.
Thanks to Perrin Lovett for pulling my attention in the direction of the Archangel Michael. Walt Garlington is a chemical engineer turned writer and editor of the website Confiteri: A Southern Perspective. This longtime Southern Baptist, then Anglican, was united to the Orthodox Church in 2012 and makes his home in Louisiana where he attends a GOA parish.
