“Esto Praesidium”: gli Angeli come difensori del morente. Alcune tracce nella testualità medievale

This essay focused on the motif of defense of human beings by angels, pursuing two main lines: (a) the genesis of the idea of the combat between angels and demons at the moment of the death of the human being; (b) the presence of Saint Michael the Archangel, the defending angel par excellence, in hagiographic testimonies that have had a significant impact at the level of authority and circulation. a) A number of perspicuous sources have been analysed, starting with the famous Visio Pauli of the 2nd century and then moving on to the Visio Fursei of the 7th century, the Dialogus inter Christum et diabolum and, finally, to late medieval hagiographies, in particular the Life of Saint Catherine of Siena and the Artes bene moriendi in order to reconstruct at least one of the possible paths along which the theme of the extreme struggle between angels and demons during the moment of human agony developed. b) We have highlighted the presence of St Michael the Archangel in hagiographic tales of great fame and diffusion, starting with his appearance in the Lives of Leo the Great and Gregory the Great, thus tracing his elaboration in the annalistic sources - and in particular in the Historia Francorum of Gregory of Tours - and in those linked to the liturgical cycle - and in particular in the Legenda Aurea of Iacopo da Varagine-, but also in hagiographies that had a more local resonance and circulation, such as the Life of Saint Catellus, bishop of Stabia, or of Boniface, evangeliser of the Germanic peoples. Finally, its presence can be traced in the hagiography of Francis of Assisi, where St Michael appears as the archangel to whom Francis pays devotion and the performance of a particular ritual, the so-called Lent of St Michael. In Francis' hagiography, moreover, the devotion for saint Michael appears as a viaticum of preparation for the saint's stigmatization, which took place through a Seraphim, and then his holy death. In conclusion, the article showed some of the systems and cultural paths through which the conviction of being able to count on a special angelic presidium at the topical moments of one's existence, and especially at the moment of approaching death, became established and widespread among the faithful in the Middle Ages.