Sanctified Time and the Lost Feast of Michaelmas

Sep 28

4 min read

Years ago, an Orthodox priest, Father John Schettig, gave me a most intriguing poster called Sanctified Time: Calendar and Paschal Tables. It was a circular calendar with symbols and cycles, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a Christian calendar. But somewhere in the midst of multiple moves, including a cross-country move from CA to TN, I lost track of it. Recently, it came to mind, and I began wondering where it had gone. A week or two later, I heard that Father John had reposed. Around that same time, the poster resurfaced and was mailed to my home in TN.

I’m still learning how to decipher it. The circle brings together the movements of the sun and moon, Pascha, sacred history, and the feasts and fasts of the Christian year. Christ is at its center. What draws me to this calendar is the intention behind its creation: to help us engage with God and His creation as one harmonious whole, our "inner cosmos" aligned with our "outer cosmos."

It looks vastly different from the calendar I’m used to: a graph with numbers in each corner and squares to be checked off, and holidays that our country has declared holy.

Repackaged Holidays

I’ve always loved holidays. Decorating for Christmas and gathering with family have given me some wonderful memories. But even while enjoying those celebrations, I’ve longed for something deeper, a way of marking the year that connects my faith with the changing seasons and the life I’m actually living. Walk into a big-box store in September, and you will probably not only see Halloween decor but also Christmas decorations. The same big-brand candy manufacturer repackages and sells us the same candy at each holiday, only in slightly different shapes and packaging. As soon as one celebration passes, the shelves move on to the next.

Looking at Father John’s poster, I wondered how Christians before us marked the year. What feasts did they look forward to that I’d never even heard of?

Michaelmas is one of them.

A Feast at the Turn of the Season

Michaelmas, the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, falls on September 29. Michael appears in Scripture as a protector and as the leader of the angels in the struggle against the dragon in Revelation 12. His name asks a question: Who is like God?

Michaelmas comes shortly after the autumn equinox, and as the light changes, this feast helps us remember courage, protection, and the presence of God.

For centuries, Christians celebrated Michaelmas by gathering for worship and a meal. Maybe they would roast goose and make oatcakes. Michaelmas was also a quarter day, when rents and accounts might be settled. Faith, food, work, community, and the harvest season met on the same date.

How Did We Lose Sight of It?

Michaelmas hasn’t vanished entirely in our modern world. Catholic, Anglican, Episcopal, Independent, and Lutheran churches still observe the feast, though many mainstream Christians have never heard of it. I certainly had not. In fact, it wasn’t until this year that I learned of it through a wonderful priest named Fthr. John Plummer.

So how did this beautiful holiday slip from our awareness? It seems to have disappeared in layers. During the Reformation, some Christians set aside saints’ days because they believed those observances drew attention away from Christ and were even idolatrous. Then, during the Industrial Revolution, people began living by the factory clock rather than by agricultural rhythms. Today, the holidays we notice most often are the ones marketed and promoted to us and tied directly into our economy. So this is why there’s no Michaelmas aisle to announce that September 29 is coming. It’s not a big money-maker.

But its absence makes me want to celebrate it, to reclaim it even more. What might we choose to celebrate, what holidays would we create if no store or government were making those decisions for us?

To be clear, Michaelmas is not marked on the poster the Father John gave me. But the poster did stir my desire to explore how Christians have marked time, and Michaelmas gives me one place to begin. This holiday could be reclaimed and marked in an uncomplicated way, perhaps by sharing a meal, reading Scripture about St. Michael, or praying for courage and protection for what lies ahead.

I’ll still decorate for Christmas. I’ll still enjoy the familiar holidays. But I’d also like to recover some of the days that help me remember and connect more deeply to God, creation, and the people around me. Little by little, the year might feel less like a rush toward the next occasion to spend and more like a cycle of sanctified days and seasons.

I have much more to learn about Sanctified Time. For now, it has helped me ask what I want my calendar to hold. And Michaelmas offers a question to us all as we ease into the darker months: Who is like God?

Watch the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHlQ0Lrfhls&t=336s