In the Novus Ordo calendar the 26th Ordinary Sunday supplants the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. In the traditional calendar, these Archangels have their own feasts. This Sunday is Michaelmas, Dedication of the Basilica of St Michael in Italy.
Drawing on Scripture, theologians such as Pseudo-Dionysius and St Thomas Aquinas designate a triad of triads of angelic choirs according to their missions: Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; Dominions, Virtues and Powers; Principalities, Archangels and Angels. Within these choirs there is hierarchy, no two angels being alike. As pure souls, “separated substances”, not individuated in matter, every angel is his own unique species, as unlike to each other as a giraffe is from a platypus.
