Angels & Dragons XX: “War in Heaven” (Rev. 12:7)

The Book of Revelation describes the “War in Heaven” (Rev. 12:7) between St. Michael and his angels against the Red Dragon and his angels, when a vision of a woman about to give birth is shown to them.

What was the first battle like? Why did it happen? What was the trial of the angels? Are there any revelations via the saints, mystics, or from exorcisms where the devil is forced to confess what happened? St. Faustina reminds us that St. Michael was the first Christian to do God’s will when he believed in the incarnation, fights for God, and thus passes the test,

“I have great reverence for Saint Michael the Archangel; he had no example to follow in doing the will of God, and yet he fulfilled God’s will faithfully [667].”

The mystic Venerable Mary of Agreda, who bilocated more than 500 times to America, writes in the Mystical City of God about this great battle that occurs in the heavens; however, not the real heaven where God abides,

“It was a wonderful battle…Saint Michael, burning with zeal for the honor of God and armed with divine power and with his own humility, resisted the arrogant pride of the dragon…”

Every creature has be tested before entering the beatific vision where God dwells, and the angels were no different. Patricia Devlin (blind mystic) captures the words of St. Michael concerning the great tribulation that all the angels faced before the battle,

“But the temptation to follow Lucifer that we all faced was so great. He could and did make it seem so logical that God’s way was crazy, that His plan for creation made no sense. ‘How,’ he asked us, ‘could we think for a moment that suffering and sorrow could bring any good?’ …Lucifer showed us a vision of Christ crucified and jeered, ‘See! This is the King you would follow, a King who has no followers, who does not raise a finger to protect Himself against those who will torture Him to death. What kind of God is this?’…He asked us, ‘If you open yourself to love, what will happen to you but that you will be hurt? Look at this: The God of the Universe will come to earth to dwell among the lowest of the creatures who could knowingly praise Him, and what will they do but kill Him? And He knows beforehand that they will do this!’ …He asked us how we could trust a God who could ask us to do such a thing. Was that God concerned for us at all, that He would ask it?’”

[Light of Love]

Place doubt in a creature and the house begins to crumble. Moreover, exorcists have long been able to force confessions from the devil during exorcisms and in an exorcism that took place from 1975 to 1978 the following statement is captured as the fallen angels begin to succumb to Lucifer’s temptation,

“Each day we became more gloomy. I must explain that in Eternity, one does not count in days, but speaking figuratively and according to your measurements, each day we became more gloomy, less majestic, so much so that Michael (the Archangel) who previously was still a little, unimportant angel… Ah! Michael, Michael! (At this name) we become frantic – that Michael, who was for us a little unimportant angel, can now exercise such domination and almost crush us. Almost everything that we lost has fallen to Michael’s lot.”

[Avertissements de l’Au’delà à l’Église Contemporaine – Aveux de l’Enfer]

The new Vatican’s Exorcist Fr. Francesco Bamonte has collected a series of forced confessions from Lucifer [meaning light bearer] who was the wisest, brightest, and mightiest of all the angels concerning their deeper rebellion over the vision in the Book of Revelation in chapter 12,

“I am Lucifer, the most luminous of all the angels of heaven. I rebelled against the will of God because I did not want to be under the majesty of the Nazarene. I was quite well being under the power of God. But under the power of the Nazarene, who would be born of a woman, I did not want to be. And so I said, ‘Either make me like you or I will battle against you, because I will never lower myself, never to a God who becomes human flesh and who assumes human traits and a human body…I am pure spirit. Why not I, why not I, a pure spirit? I am pure spirit. Why not I instead of That Nature? Why? Huh, huh, huh? Why that Nature?’ ‘That is only a creature. Not I. I am ‘god,’ and she was put over me. Why should she have been? And I did not want to, did not want to. I would never bow to a creature, one created to be below me.”

[The Virgin Mary and the Devil in Exorcism]

Lucifer before the fall was God’s greatest creation and in some senses like ‘the good son’ in the parable of the prodigal son. In his own words, Lucifer was ‘the Angel Par Excellence’ and a twelve winged seraph. With Lucifer’s beauty and intellect, he takes a third of the angels, “His tail swept a third of the stars from the sky (Rev. 12:3),” St. Michael rallies the rest of the angels with this battle cry that is heard in all the heavens as Venerable Mary of Agreda records,

“Come then, ye angels, follow me, let us adore Him, and extol his admirable and secret judgments, his most perfect and holy works. God is most exalted and above all creatures, and He would not be the Most High, if we could attain or comprehend his great works. Infinite He is in wisdom and goodness, rich in the treasures of his benefits. As Lord of all and needing none, He can distribute them to whomsoever He wishes, and He cannot err in the selection. He can love and confer his favor to whomsoever He chooses, and He can love whom He likes; He can raise up, create and enrich according as it is his good pleasure. In all things He will be wise, holy and irresistible. Let us adore and thank Him for the wonderful work of the Incarnation which He has decreed, and for his favors to his people and for its restoration to grace after its fall. Let us adore this Person endowed with the human and the divine nature, let us reverence It and accept It as our Head; let us confess, that He is worthy of all glory, praise and magnificence, and, as the Author of grace, let us give Him glory and acknowledge his power and Divinity.”

[Mystical City of God]

The vision of the Woman in the Book of Revelation becomes the victory banner and standard for St. Michael and the holy angles. Already, in humility they submit their will and intellect, and they accept her as their future Queen – “Queen over all things (CCC 966).” The vision becomes a sign of their new source of strength, hope, and grace as Venerable Mary of Agreda describes,

The great sign of the Woman served the good angels as a shield and as arms of battle against the evil ones; for at the sight of it, all their power of reasoning weakened and was brought to confusion and silence, since they could not endure the mysteries and sacraments contained in this sign.” [Mystical City of God]

A great battle with flaming swords ensued between all of God’s angels. Good versus evil, humility versus pride, envy versus love, David versus Golaith, “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough, and no longer was any place found in heaven for him and his angels. And the great dragon was hurled down (Rev. 12:7-9).” The new Vatican’s Exorcist Fr. Francesco Bamonte details Lucifer’s confession of their loss in this great battle,

“Michael and the others with him hurled me ‘down.’ They were many and they had the power of the Almighty with them. Michael and all the others told me, ‘From this moment you are nothing.’ I fought but Michael sent me away. With his sword he made me fall and told me, ‘Depart from me! This is no longer your place. Go into the abyss, go into the darkness!’ And I had to go away together with the others. While we were falling, I said that we would fight them and take souls from God… (To God I said) the power of sin will be our altar on which we will sacrifice the souls of your accursed children. On that altar we will make the blood of your accursed children run.’”

[The Rebellious Angels]

Mary of Agreda explains that Lucifer blasphemed and screamed throughout the heavens, ‘Adore me, I am god!’ But, there was also the great and powerful battle cry of St. Michael “Who is like God?” answering such a blasphemy. Lucifer’s cry turns him and his followers into dragons and creatures without light. Beauty, wisdom and the great faculties with which they were created in their original state are gone or darkened,

“But St. Michael answered: Who is there like unto the Lord, who dwells in the heavens, or who to compare himself to Him? Be silent, enemy, cease thy dreadful blasphemies, and since iniquity has taken possession of thee, depart from our midst, wretch…The holy prince Michael hurled from heaven the dragon Lucifer with the invincible battle-cry: Who is like unto God?…So powerful was this cry that it sufficed to precipitate that proud giant and all his host to the earth and cast him in dreadful ignominy to the center of the earth. From that time he began to be called dragon, serpent, devil and Satan, imposed upon him by the holy archangel in that battle as a testimony of his iniquity and malice.”

[Mystical City of God]

The battle is no different today! Lucifer, now called Satan [meaning adversary] after the fall, is still trying to wage war between God’s children as he did at the very beginning of time. His temptation is the same, ‘You are gods!’ ‘You can save yourselves!’ ‘You are number one.’ He further says to us also ‘if you love you will be hurt.’ ‘You cannot trust a God who cares for the weak, lost, and those who are different.’ ‘You have to look out for yourself,’ or as Fr. Francesco Bamonte records Lucifer,

“I am the exterminator angel, and I want to exterminate all. I want to ‘murder’ everyone. But that one [Michael] always comes, he always opposes me. He is always with me. He comes with his sword and “cuts me up,” and I cannot do that which I would like to do. I want to bring war to humankind, and he [Michael] is looking to make peace in order to stop the wars among you. He fights me in this way, looking to destroy all that I try to do. I seek to do all that I can and he comes and always does the opposite of what I want to do. When you pray to him [Michael], he bothers me because he THWARTS my plans and destroys them.

[The Rebellious Angels]

So let us pray the St. Michael Prayer daily but especially after all our masses that he may THWART Satan’s plans to destroy humanity, for “he knows that his time is short (Rev.12:12)…”

“After God, I am your protector and your support. Have recourse to me. If you knew my power, you would be more eager to address your prayers to me each day.”

The words of Saint Michael to Mystic and Stigmatist Marie-Julie Jahenny on September, 29 1877