Yesterday, September 29th, was the feast of the Three Archangels: Sts. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. I said the chaplet of St. Michael as a novena leading up to it. When I prayed it on the final day and as I was studying the salutations for each of the nine choirs, with their accompanying petition, the one for the Celestial Choir of Virtues hit me right between the eyes (No idea why I didn’t notice this before. Emphasis mine.)

By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Virtues may the Lord preserve us from evil and falling into temptation.
Amen.

It is the same petition at the end of the Our Father:

Our Father, who Art in Heaven

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy Will be done,

On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our Daily Bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

and deliver us from evil.

Amen.

There’s an entire celestial choir of angels who can help us with preserving us from temptations and delivering us from evil!

So, who are the Virtues?

The “Celestial Choir of Virtues” refers to one of the traditional nine choirs, or orders, of angels. They are not “virtues” like faith, hope, and charity. “Virtues” is the traditional English translation of the Latin Virtutes.

The traditional, three-tiered hierarchy, following Pseudo-Dionysius and St. Thomas Aquinas, is:

Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones in the upper tier; then:
Dominions, Virtues, and Powers in the middle; and
Principalities, Archangels, and Angels bringing up the bottom.

In the traditional angelology, the Virtues are responsible for assisting in God’s divine ordering of the created universe. St. Thomas Aquinas places them below the Dominions and above the Powers. A traditional explanation is that the Dominions receive and administer God’s commands, while the Virtues carry those commands into operation in creation. The Powers are then carrying out the commands of the Virtues to resist and restrain hostile spiritual forces that run amok in the Universe.

Hence the name Virtutes: it is related to the Latin virtus, which doesn’t only mean “moral virtue,” but also strength, power, efficacy, or capability. So, the Virtues are concerned with “the power to accomplish the right ordering of nature.” Not just human nature, but the exercising of God’s power in the natural world. Recall that Evil disrupts the divine ordering of creation. Remember Genesis 3 and the Fall of Adam and Eve. Everything was perfectly ordered until Adam and Eve misused their Free Will and succumbed to the Serpent.

Old, traditional accounts associates the Virtues with the movements of the heavens, planets, stars, the seasons, and so forth; that angels ‘guide’ the orbits of stars and planets, etc. We can ‘modernize’ that by thinking of the Virtues as the source through which the laws of science as we understand it govern the Universe. God exists, He created the universe, established its order (science!) and ordinarily governs His creation through secondary causes—including, in Catholic theology, the ministry of angels. (God always works through His creation. He doesn’t have to; He chooses to. I suppose we humans can be regarded as the tertiary creative powers in the Universe?) God 

All of this gives the fifth salutation of the Chaplet a little more impact. Since it asks:

“By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial choir of Virtues, may the Lord preserve us from evil and from falling into temptation;” we can see at work here God’s placing an entire order of angels in charge of restraining evil: at large in the Universe, or in our own particular, individual lives. Not bad, huh?

So, basically: the Virtues are traditionally understood as the angelic choir through which God’s creative and providential power is manifested and ordered in the created universe. Evil disrupts that power, and so the Virtues (and Powers) can help preserves us from that Evil when we make the petition through the Or Father prayer. (And especially when reciting the Chaplet!) The Virtues are not cute little angels who hand out “virtues” to people like Halloween candy or Christmas gifts. However, under their protection, you can grow in virtue. (Remember: virtue is the opposite of vice.)

You can read for yourself how to Say the Chaplet of St. Michael the Archangel courtesy of  EWTN and look at each of the salutations and what the petition is. I think all of us Sober Catholics should make a habit of reciting the St. Michael Chaplet as often as we can.

NOTE: ChatGPT assisted in the researching of this post (I wrote it.) 

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