Michael

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In Purgatory, the souls of the second circle recite a choral prayer corresponding to the Litany of the Saints: after the invocation to Mary, the supplication rises to the angels, of whom the first is Michael, and then to the saints, of whom the first is Peter, listed in a row with the formula "ora pro nobis." Dante records the cry of the penitents who name the archangel Michael alongside Peter and all the saints, showing how the ecclesial supplication celebrates the communion of spiritual goods among all Christians, the so-called dogma of the communion of saints. The note to the passage further specifies that this prayer is assigned to the envious, just as the Pater Noster had been assigned to the proud, and that its supplicating rhythm underscores the wretched condition of those souls.