Since St Michael’s Day is coming soon, 29 September, I thought it might be appropriate to write something about his feast day. Saint Michael the Archangel was the leader of all angels of God, often portrayed fighting a dragon or the Devil with the evil one on the losing side. Or he is represented riding a white horse and carrying a three-pronged spear in his right hand and a three-cornered shield in his left.
St Michael the Archangel
Many Christians believe St Michael takes those who died without mortal sin to heaven. In the High Middle Ages, Christians thought he was the saint who saved them from purgatory. If you died guilty of mortal sins, to hell you would go. If you died with a load of lesser sins, you might go to purgatory to serve your ‘sentence’. But the clergy taught that prayer reduced your time there. Kings, nobles, wealthy merchants established monasteries with clergy galore to pray to St Michael to ‘spring’ them from this celestial prison. Today in many countries, he is the patron saint of the military, police and seafarers.
St Michael in Celtic Countries
Three favourite saints of Gaelic Scotland (the Highlands) are St Brigid, St Columba and St Michael. In Gaelic Scotland and Ireland, St Michael was the patron saint of the sea, travelling and horses. Gaels remember Là Fhèill Mìcheil, St Michael’s Day, as the best holiday of the year with plenty of food, sports, and lots of singing and dancing.
Every year, on Carrot Sunday, Dòmhnach Curran, the Sunday before St Michael’s Day, women went to the fields near their village to collect carrots. As was usual, they sang as they dug out the carrots to add to the feast. They also made the Sruthan Mhìcheil, the St Michael’s Day cake with grains grown locally, barley, oats and rye in equal amounts. Occasionally, berries, fruits or honey were added. The sruthan was prepared on St Michael’s Eve and taken to the priest for a blessing the following day. The cakes could be named for absent or deceased family and friends and then given to the poor.
Sruthan is pronounced stroo-un or stroo-hun
Michael was called the brian Mìcheil, that is, the ‘god Michael’. The god Michael, you say? But he’s not a god. He’s an archangel and a saint. How do you explain that? Brian is an ancient word for a king thought to be divine or have divine powers. It’s not used in modern Gaelic. Rìgh is the word today, but brenin is the Welsh word for king, a cognate of brian. So brian is a type of king, a king of angels.
The Brian Mìcheil in Song
| Bu tu gaisgeach na misnich Dol air astar na fiosachd Is tu nach siubhladh air criplich Ghabh thu steud briain Micheil E gun chabstar na shliopan Thu mharcachd air iteig Leum thu thairis air fiosrachadh Naduir. | You were the courageous warrior Going on the journey of prophecy, You did not travel on a broken-down animal, You took the stallion suitable for the god Michael, He was without bit in his mouth, You rode him as he flew You increased the knowledge of Nature. |
As patron saint of the sea, St Michael had teampaill, temples, really churches, dedicated to him near the coasts or rivers such as those in the Uists of Scotland. St Michael has been the patron saint of the burghs of Linlithgow and Dumfries since his churches were built in the 12th century and 14th centuries. The most spectacular churches dedicated to the saint were built on a hill on Le Mont-Saint-Michel in Brittany and another on Mount St Michael in Cornwall, islands north and south of each other across the English Channel.
A Recipe for Sruthan
Scone
24 oz self-rising Flour
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
6 oz butter or margarine
1/2 pint full cream (whole) milk ( \more if dry)
Bake at 200C (400F) for approximately 22 mins
Topping
4 large eggs
5 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tin treacle (molasses)
small cup cream milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 lb sieved, self-raising flour
2 tablespoons cooking oil
Break eggs into a bowl, add sugar, mix with mixer till frothy, add treacle small cup milk mix again for a few minutes.
Add baking powder and flour (might need a wee bit more flour if too runny). Now add cooking oil. Bake the bottom first then turn the scone over and bake the second side.
Reduce temperature again in the last 5 mins on the second side of the topping. It should take 15 minutes on the first side and 20 minutes on the second side.
Note: Treacle tins are 11 oz or 16 oz. A cup is 8 oz, and a small cup might be 6 oz. Not sure which is meant. You have to experiment!
This recipe for sruthan is based on the one from the Facebook page of the Uibhist a Deas/South Uist Appreciation Society
