(LifeSiteNews) — Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, explained that her husband had a devotion to St. Michael the Archangel, a devotion that was evidenced by the medal he wore along with a cross.  

In a video clip that is again circulating on the internet, Erika recounted how when she began dating Charlie, she asked him “Why don’t you wear a cross? You say you’re a Christian but you don’t wear a cross.” 

Charlie responded, “I’m not a jewelry guy.”

“So for his first birthday present I got him this cross,” Erika said, “and then throughout time I would always add different medals to it.”    

“He loved St. Michael, so every time he put this on he just felt like it was his armor,” said his widowed bride as she showed the camera Charlie’s St. Michael medal and cross.

Erika Kirk reveals the devotion Charlie had to St. Michael the Archangel and shows on camera the medal he wore.

“He loved St. Michael, so every time he put this on he just felt like it was his armor” pic.twitter.com/C2DB2RqkAE

— Catholics for Catholics 🇺🇲 (@CforCatholics) November 6, 2025

Charlie started wearing the necklace with the cross and St. Michael medal as “he felt the weight of the world on him,” Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet told Fox News. “He never took it off again, until he was assassinated, and the people caring for him ripped it off as they tried to save his life.”

Erika wore Charlie’s cross and St. Michael medal as she spoke before a crowd of 70,000 people gathered at her husband’s memorial service on September 21 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. 

In 1886, Pope Leo XIII composed the Saint Michael the Archangel prayer in response to the threats of evil consuming the world and required it to be recited after the celebration of every Holy Mass.  

The shortened version for use by the laity reads:

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan, and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Dom Prosper Gueranger (1805-1875), explained St. Michael’s extraordinary role in his classic work, The Liturgical Year:

The very name of Michael urges us to honor this glorious spirit; it is a cry of enthusiasm and fidelity, for it signifies: “Who is like unto God?” Satan trembles at hearing this name, for it reminds him of the noble protest wherewith the bright archangel answered the call of the rebel angels.

Michael proved his strength and prowess when he fought the great battle in heaven. On that account, he was made the guardian and protector of God’s people – of the Jews first, and afterwards of the Christian Church, for the synagogues forfeited all her honors. Michael now watches over Jesus’ Spouse, our mother; he supports her in her trials, and she wins no triumph in which he has not had some hand.

But we are not to suppose that the holy archangel is so engaged in looking after the general interests of Christ’s kingdom on earth that he cannot attend to the prayers of each individual member of the Church. God has given him a compassionate love for men; and there is a not a single soul that escapes his notice. He wields the sword in defense of the Spouse of Christ; he wars with the dragon, who is ever lying in wait for the woman and her Child; (Apocalypse 12:3) – but at the same time, he is attentive to each one of us; for, after having confessed our sins to Almighty God, and to the Blessed Mary ever virgin, we acknowledge them likewise to Blessed Michael the Archangel and beseech him to pray for us to the Lord our God.

He assists at every death bed, for his special office is to receive the souls of the elect, on their quitting the flesh. He, with loving solicitude and princely bearing, presents them to the light eternal, and introduces them into the House of God’s glory. It is holy Church Herself that tells us, in the words of Her liturgy, of these prerogatives of the great archangel.

She teaches us that he has been set over paradise, and that God has given him the charge of leading to heaven the souls of them that are to be received there. On the last day, when our risen Jesus is to appear on the clouds of heaven to judge mankind, Michael will have to fulfill a ministry of awful import: he, with the rest of the angels, will have to separate the good from the bad, all of whom will then have resumed their bodies in the general resurrection.