St Michael guards Eve's body

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martinezc5

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I heard someone say St Michael guards Eve’s body until the end of time. I had never heard this. Is it true? If yes, who said it, and why must he guard her body?
 
martinezc5 said:
I heard someone say St Michael guards Eve’s body until the end of time. I had never heard this. Is it true? If yes, who said it, and why must he guard her body?
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I’ve never heard this either. You always have to be careful with this kind of stuff.
 
There are a lot of nifty legends from the medieval days.

Another is that the Good Thief protected the Holy Family from his wicked companion who wanted to rob them as they fled to Egypt.

Not Biblical, but essentially harmless.
 
The section of the “Revelation of Moses” in question appears to be this one (from New Advent, Alexander Walker/ Edinburgh edition of Revelation of Moses):
And when [Eve] was dead, the archangel Michael stood beside her; and there came three angels, and took her body, and buried it where the body of Abel was. And the archangel Michael said to Seth: Thus bury every man that dies, until the day of the resurrection. And after having given this law, he said to him: Do not mourn beyond six days. And on the seventh day, rest, and rejoice in it, because in it God and we the angels rejoice in the righteous soul that has departed from earth. Having thus spoken, the archangel Michael went up into heaven, glorifying, and saying the Alleluia: Holy, holy, holy Lord, to the glory of God the Father, because to Him is due glory, honour, and adoration, with His unbeginning and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
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It appears that Michael was not guarding the body in the sense of guarding it from anything.
He was acting as an “Honor Guard”, similar to when a military member dies and there’s other military who stand respectfully at the grave for a while.

This is all apocryphal as well - not part of the Church’s official scripture, but simply a very old pious legend about the purported life and death of Adam and Eve.
 
Scripture does tell us that St Michael disputed with the devil over the body of Moses. In that case, I suppose St Michael was literally guarding Moses’ body. I wonder if this tradition was inspired by that account…
 
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