Frightening details emerge in threats against Southern California Catholic monastery

A 38-year-old man from Alabama arrested and charged with weapons violations and making criminal threats against a Catholic monastery in Orange County reportedly claimed to be Michael the Angel of Death who was “sent to do the Lord’s reaping,” officials announced Wednesday.  

Joshua Michael Richardson,

a resident of Jemison, Alabama, a small town about 53 miles north of Montgomery, Alabama, allegedly began sending threatening emails to St. Michael’s Abbey, a sprawling 320-acre monastery in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon, on Aug. 19, according to a news release from the O.C. District Attorney’s Office.  

In the emails, Richardson, who also goes by the name Joshua Michael Jericho, allegedly called himself the “rider of the pale horse,” a Biblical reference from the Book of Revelation to the last of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  

“According to the Book of Revelation, the rider of the pale horse is the personification of Death who is given the power to kill through the sword, famine, disease, and wild animals, and is closely followed by Hades, who swallows the souls of the condemned,” the release noted.  

Richardson reportedly wrote in the emails that he was being “sent to do the Lord’s reaping before his harvest” and chose St. Michael’s Abbey because it is one of the few churches in the country that continues to celebrate Michaelmas or the Feast of St. Michael, celebrated at the Abbey on Sept. 29.  

Considered the greatest of the archangels, St. Michael is believed to be the defender of the church against Satan.  

“In his email, Richardson stated that he would be traveling to the church from Alabama soon,” prosecutors allege.  

Exactly one week later, on Aug. 26, a man later identified as Richardson attended an afternoon service at the abbey, after which he reportedly followed a priest into a private area and said that “he came to do the Lord’s work, to separate the weak from the weeds, and that he rode his pale horse from Alabama.” 

In addition to public services, the abbey is home to dozens of parishioners who live on the church’s compound.  

Two days after receiving the threat, on Aug. 28, one day after a gunman opened fire at Catholic school in Minneapolis, killing two children, injuring another 18 and three adults, a priest at St. Michael’s reported Richardson’s alleged threats to law enforcement.  

The 38-year-old was located the same day inside his vehicle in a Santa Monica parking garage in the 1500 block of Ocean Avenue.  

A search of his truck revealed six high-capacity gun magazines, a sword, a stun gun and several knives, along with body armor, duct tape, rope, walkie-talkies and other tactical gear.  

“No guns or ammunition were recovered,” authorities said.  

He has since been charged with one felony count of criminal threats, felony possession of brass knuckles and a dirk or a dagger, as well as misdemeanor possession of high-capacity magazines. 

“The walls of our churches are not just symbols of sanctuary; they represent the most sacred places of worship and of peace,” O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer said. “No one should have to worship in fear that a stranger would walk through the door with the intent to carry out their own day of judgement and determine who lives and who dies.” 

Richardson is currently being held without bail and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.