Equally misused is Seraph—now a lady’s name, as Seraphine in France; Serafina, in Spain and Italy. The word seraph, or saraph, signifies burning, or fiery, and would apply to that intensity of glory that Ezekiel struggles to express in the cherubim by comparisons to amber and to glowing embers, or to their intense fervour of love.
Three individual angels have been revealed to us by name as of the seven that stand in the presence of God, and foremost of these is Michael (who is like unto God), he who was made known to Daniel as the protector of the Jewish people; to Zechariah, as defending them from Satan; to St. Jude, as disputing with Satan for the body of Moses; and to St. John, as leading the hosts of Heaven to battle with the adversary and prevailing over him.
His name would have seemed in itself fit only for an archangel, yet before apparently he had been made known, it had been borne by the father of one of David’s captains, and by a son of Jehoshaphat, and it was almost the same as Micaiah, the name of him who foretold the destruction of Ahab.
Constantine the Great dedicated a church in his new city in honour of St. Michael, the archangel, and thenceforth Mickaelion, or Mikael, have been favourites with all branches of the Eastern Church.
An appearance of the archangel in Colosse led the way to another legend of his descent upon Monte Galgano in Apulia, somewhere about 493. Then came a more notable vision, seen by Gregory the Great himself, of the angel standing with outstretched sword on the tomb of Adrian, which has ever since been called the castle of St. Angelo. In 706, St. Michael was again seen to take his stand upon the isolated rock on the Norman coast, so noted as the fortress and convent of Mont St. Michel. Moreover tradition placed him upon the Cornish rock,—
“When the great vision of the guarded mount
Looked towards Namancos and Bayona’s hold.”
He was above all others the patron of the Christian warrior; his armour-clad effigy was seen in almost every church; the young knight was dubbed in his name, as well as that of the national saint; and since the prevalence of saintly names, his name has been frequently bestowed. It is, perhaps, most common in the Greek and Slavonic countries; but Ireland makes great use of it; and Italy has united it with the epithet angel, in the one distinguished instance of Michelangelo Buonarotti.
| English. | French. | Spanish. | Italian. |
| Michael | Michel | Miguel | Michele |
| Mick | Michon | ||
| Mike | Michau | ||
| German. | Dutch. | Swedish. | Russian. |
| Michael | Michiel | Mikael | Michail |
| Micha | Micheltje | Mikel | Michaila |
| Micha | Mikas | Misha | |
| Mischenka | |||
| Slavonic. | Servian. | Lett. | Hungarian. |
| Miha | Miljo | Mikkelis | Mihaly |
| Mihal | Miho | Mihal | |
| Mihaljo | Misa | Miska | |
| Mijailo |
There is some confusion in the German mind between it and the old michel (mickle, large), which, as a name, it has quite absorbed. It has the rare feminines,