Angel

ANGEL. - A spiritual creature, messenger (ἄγγελος from ἀγγέλλω = announcement) of God and his minister in his relations with men.

1. THE ANGEL IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

In the Old

Testament, the Hebrew mal'akh (messenger) often means an intermediate being who is a mediator between man and God; the Septuagint translates it ἀγγέλος. Only the Sadducees denied the existence of angels (Acts 23:8).

In the Bible many apparitions of angels are described, not only in vision or in a dream, but in the context of external historical episodes. They appear, among others, to Hagar (Gen. 16:7), to Abraham (Gen. 18:1-2; 22:1-18), to Lot (Gen. 19:1), to Jacob (Gen. 28:12). In the Old Testament there is no explicit mention of the creation of the angels, but it is implicit in the fact that the one God is described as creator of all beings (Ex. 20:11; Ps. 148:2-5). They existed before man sinned in the earthly paradise: the presence of the cunning tempter in the form of a serpent (Gen. 3:1-15) hints at the fall of the angels (transformed into demons), described in the New Testament. The cherubim placed to guard the garden of Eden present themselves as angels, ministers of God (Gen. 3:24).

From the Bible it emerges that the angels are innumerable (Gen. 32:2-3), they constitute the "armies" of Yahweh (cf. the phrase Jahweh sebhā'ath), they are powerful, messengers and executors of the divine orders (Ps. 102:20 ff.), they are intelligent (II Sam. 14:20), holy (Ps. 88:6-8): for this reason they are called "sons of God" (Job 1:6) and also "gods" in a broad sense (Gen. 33:10), but infinitely distant from the one God their creator, who finds imperfections in them (Job 4:17 ff.).

They appear to men in human form (cf. Dan. 9:21). Only the cherubim (v.) and the seraphim (v.) present themselves as winged. They have care of men: they save Lot (Gen. 19), Isaac (Gen. 22:11), the three young men in the furnace (Dan. 3:49). They bring men's prayers to God and bring back his graces (vision of Jacob's ladder, Gen. 28:12). One of them, Raphael, acts as a visible guardian to the young Tobiah (Tob. 5:17). From the book of Daniel it can be deduced that even individual nations (Israelites, Persians, Greeks) have an angel (called šar "prince") as protector (Dan. 10:13, 20).

Sometimes the angels by divine order punish men (e.g.: Gen. 19:11; II Sam. 24:16-17). In Prov. 17:11 there is mention of a cruel angel who will be sent by God against the sinner.

From the Old Testament it does not emerge clearly that the angels are pure spirits. Ps. 103:4 "Qui facis angelos tuos spiritus" deals with the winds poetically presented as messengers of God. In certain codices of the Septuagint the sons of God who committed carnal sins with the daughters of men (Gen. 6:2) are called ἀγγέλοι. This fact is both an indication and a cause of doubts, quite widespread in Judaism and among the ancient Christian writers, about the perfect spirituality of the angels (cf. G. E. Closen, Die Sünde der Söhne Gottes, Rome 1937). In the New Testament the angels are presented instead more clearly as spirits (Hebr. 1:14), invisible (Col. 1:16), who have no carnal relations (Mt. 22:30), and there is explicit mention of their fall (Iud. 6; II Pt. 2:4).

In the most ancient texts there are few traces of a hierarchy of angels. In Daniel there is mention of angelic "princes", among whom Michael and Gabriel are named (8:10; 9:21; 10:13). In Tob. 12:15 a third is mentioned, Raphael, as "one of the seven who stand before the Lord" (cf. Apoc. 1:4; 4:5). In the Greek version of Dan. 12:1, Michael is called ἀρχάγγελος; the "archangel" (v.) occurs in I Thess. 4:14 and in Iud. 9. Besides the cherubim and the seraphim known from the Old Testament, the New Testament alludes to classes called thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities and powers (Col. 1:16; Eph. 1:21; 3:10); but the hierarchical distinction is not clear. In the apocrypha the classification and the nomenclature reach fantastic proportions: Enoch lists as many as 150 names of angels.

The origin of angelology has been the object of many studies. Almost all known religions believe in intermediary beings between man and the Divinity. Some scholars of the history of religions maintain that originally the Hebrews believed in the existence of certain minor divinities who were later demoted to the rank of angels, when Israel passed from polytheism or polydemonism to monotheism. This thesis, which is founded on the purely natural evolution of the religion of Israel, is refuted by the most recent investigations. If in the doctrine on the angels there were polytheistic traces, the prophets, bitter adversaries of polytheism, would not have favored it so much. Others affirm that the angelology of the Hebrews is a syncretistic synthesis of Assyrian-Babylonian and Persian elements, increased by Greco-Roman demonological conceptions in the New Testament and in ancient Christian literature (cf. U. Fracassini, A., in Enc. Ital., III, pp. 297-302). But this is refuted by the fact that faith in the existence of the angels is presupposed already in the most ancient books of the Bible. It is true, on the other hand, that Hebrew angelology developed especially from the 5th century B.C., with the progress of the knowledge of the absolute transcendence of God and with the contribution of certain Persian and Eastern Hellenistic conceptions. Such developments are noted already in the Septuagint version and especially in the apocryphal literature, as in Philo and the Essenes.

2. THE ANGEL OF YAHWEH (Hebr. Mal'āhī J.)

In various passages of the Old Testament there occurs an angel who presents himself as a divine messenger (of Yahweh or of Elohim) and at the same time speaks and acts as God. He makes promises like Yahweh himself (Gen. 16:10-13; 21:17-19; 22:11-17), identifies himself with God (Gen. 31:11-13; 48:15-16; Ex. 3:2-4, 10 [Act. 7:31-35]; Iud. 2:1-4; 6:11-24; 13:6-23; Zach. 3:1-6). At the end of the "covenant code", Yahweh promises "his angel" who will lead Israel (Ex. 23:20-23), the "angel of the covenant" (Mal. 3:1). Sometimes the angel of Yahweh is clearly distinct from Yahweh (Ex. 33:2-6; Num. 22:31; II Sam. 24:16). After St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., 4, 20; Demonstr., 45) many Greek and Latin Fathers saw in the angel of Yahweh a manifestation of the Word; Origen is very explicit on this point: Hom. in Gen., 8, 8; Tom. I in Io., 34; Tract. de ll. ss. Scripturarum, ed. P. Batiffol, Paris 1900, p. 33. St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, followed by the scholastics (St. Thomas, De Potentia, q. 6, a. 8 ad 3, and In Ep. ad Hebr., cap. 2, lect. 1) and by many modern theologians (Suárez, De Angelis, VI, 20; A. Lapide, In Exodum, III), see in it instead a created angel. D. Petavius collected the opinions of the Fathers in Theologic. Dogmatum, t. 3: De Angelis.

P. Heinisch observes that the ancient Israelites identified the angel of Yahweh with Yahweh without raising the question, and he declines to offer explanations for it. M.-J. Lagrange holds that the term "angel of Yahweh" was interpolated later into the texts where the appearance of Yahweh was spoken of, for the purpose of explaining it. According to certain recent Protestants (F. Hitzig, W. H. Kosters, K. Marti, R. Smend, etc.), down to the exile the angel of Yahweh would simply have been the appearance of Yahweh, and only later would it have meant one of his messengers. Today the discussion is very lively. Besides various Protestants (R. Kraetzschmar, W. Novack, E. König), the majority of Catholics (J. Knabenbauer, in Is. 63, 9; J. Rybinski; more decisively F. Stier) maintain the distinction between Yahweh and the created angel who represents him (theory of substitution). But, after A. van Hoonacker and J. Touzard (according to whom the ancient Hebrews did not distinguish between the angel of Yahweh and Yahweh, but later attributed the theophanies to an angel in order to safeguard the transcendence of God), B. Stein, limiting his investigation to the angel of Exodus (Ex. 3, 2; 14, 19; 23, 20-3; 32, 34; Num. 20, 16; Ios. 5, 14; Iud. 2, 1-4; Is. 63, 9; Mal. 2, 17; 3, 1), argues for identity: the angel of Yahweh is the same omnipresent God who emerges from his transcendence to appear and act in a place, and the expression was the most appropriate for distinguishing between God, immutable and invisible by nature, and God who manifests himself personally in time and space.

The passages of the New Testament in which these appearances are alluded to (Act. 7, 31-35; Gal. 3, 19; Hebr. 2, 2) seem to favor the linking of the divine mediator angel with the Word; this interpretation was falsified by the Gnostic, and later Arian, currents, so as to give rise to Christological subordinationism.

110: A. Lemonnier, Angéologie chrétienne (for the N. T.), in DBs, I, coll. 255-62; H. Lange, Engel, in LThK, III, coll. 672-76; J. Bonsirven, Le Judaïsme palestinien au temps de J.-C., I, Paris 1934, pp. 222-39; L. Lanzoni, Gli a. nella Divina Scrittura, Domodossola 1935; E. Langton, The Ministries of the Angelic Powers according to the Old Test. and later Jewish Literature, London 1936; id., The Angel Teaching of the New Test., ibid. 1937; P. Heinisch, Theologie des Alten Testamentes, Bonn 1940, pp. 100-107; G. Philips, De angelis in Antiqua Testamento, in Evangelio, sec. 1. Paulum, in Revue ecclésiastique de Liège, 31 (1940), pp. 44-52, 172-79, 226-34.
On the a. of Yahweh: M.-J. Lagrange, L'ange de Jahvé, in Revue Biblique, 13 (1903), pp. 212-25; J. Touzard, Ange de Jahvé, in DBs, I (1928), coll. 242-55; id., in Revue Biblique, 36 (1927), pp. 764-65, 181-83, 186-88; J. Rybinski, Der Mal'ah Jahvé, Paderborn 1930; F. Stier, Gott und sein Engel im Alten Testament, Munich 1934; B. Stein, Der Engel des Auszugs, in Biblica, 19 (1938), pp. 286-307; P. Heinisch, Theologie des Alten Testamentes, Bonn 1940, pp. 75-77. - On the relations between the a. of Yahweh and the divine Word: F. Cavallera, Une prétendue controverse sur le Christ-Ange, in Recherches de Science religieuse, 2 (1911), pp. 36-50; D. Finestone, Is the Angel of Jehovah in the Old Test. the Lord J. C.?, in Bibliotheca Sacra, 91 (1938), pp. 372-77; J. Barbel, Christus-Angelos: die Anschauung von Christus als Bote und Engel in der gelehrten und vollbeständlichen Literatur des christlichen Altertums (Theophaneia)*, 31, Bonn 1941.
Antonino Romeo

3. THE ANGEL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

In the New Testament there are, in substance, the same ideas as in the Old Testament. But the ministry of the a. appears in a new framework, of which here are some of the most notable points: 1) The a. always form the court of God. If they are present throughout the whole life of Jesus, it is precisely because he is God and with him the kingdom of God has come down to earth. This presence of the a. is especially notable in the nativity of Jesus (annunciation to Mary, apparitions to Joseph, apparition to the shepherds, flight into Egypt and return to Galilee), at the beginning of the public ministry (Mt. 4, 11), in the passion (Mt. 26, 53; Lk. 22, 43), in his triumph of the resurrection and ascension (Mk. 16, 5; Lk. 24, 23; Jn. 20, 12; Acts 1, 10), in the future judgment (Mt. 13, 39, 41, 49; 16, 27; 24, 31; 25, 31; Mk. 8, 38), in the definitive triumph of heavenly glory (Rev. 1, 11; 8, 2 ff.). - 2) The a. are subject to the Son. In the Epistles, especially in those of Paul, against the danger of certain gnostic-Judaic tendencies that exaggerated the importance and the cult of the a., insistence is placed on their subordination to Christ (Col. 2, 14 ff.; Gal. 3, 19; Heb. 1, 14 ff.). In St. Paul angelology is closely connected with soteriology and christology. - 3) The subordinate work of mediation of the a. between God and the earth remains always of the highest importance, both social and individual. They are the particular protectors of the apostles and of the Christian community. Especially remembered is "the a. of the Lord," particular protector of the new Israel, as he had been of the old (Acts 5, 19; 8, 26; 10, 3 ff.; 12, 7 ff.; 27, 23). They are protectors of individuals or guardian a. (Mt. 18, 10; Acts 12, 15); they take the greatest interest in the salvation of every man (Lk. 15, 10); they are sent by God to the "service" of men (Heb. 1, 14). - 4) On the nature and condition of the good a., the following can be noted. They appear in white and shining garments (Jn. 20, 12; Acts 1, 10; 12, 7), to signify their celestial nature. In the word of Jesus that the a. protectors of children "always see the face of the Father" (Mt. 18, 10, bearing in mind Ex. 33, 18 ff. and the discussions to which this question had given rise among the rabbis; cf. H. Strack-P. Billerbeck, Das Evangelium nach Matthäus erläutert aus Talmud und Midrasch, Munich 1922, p. 783 ff.), some see affirmed that the a. enjoy the beatific vision. Others note their elevation to the supernatural order from the fact that the future happiness of the elect is assimilated to that of the a. and will be in their company, a company already begun here below, so that we are their fellow citizens (Heb. 22, 12). The knowledge of the a. is limited and admits of progress (Mt. 24, 36; Mk. 13, 32; Eph. 3, 10; I Tim. 3, 16). Their number is very great (Heb. 12, 22; Rev. 5, 11). There is also a certain diversity among them; named are: a., archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities, powers that dwell in the regions above the earth (Eph. 1, 21; 3, 10; 6, 12; Col. 1, 16-20).

The patristic tradition. - Jewish and Hellenistic ideas had at times a notable influence on certain conceptions of various ecclesiastical authors in angelological matters. The Hellenistic influence was greater in demonology than in angelology properly so called. Here are the most salient points: 1) The perfect spirituality of the a. began to be rightly conceived especially from the 6th century onward with pseudo-Dionysius. Before, and sometimes even after, it was rather glimpsed than clearly affirmed. A most subtle ethereal body was attributed to the a. - 2) In the question of the knowledge that the a. have, the Neoplatonic theory of illumination had a notable influence, especially in Augustine. Opinions remained divided as to whether the a. had known the Christian mysteries in advance, especially the Incarnation. Before Augustine the negative was rather held. - 3) Likewise before Augustine some held that the a., after the first trial, had not been definitively determined to good, and that therefore they could still fail, be punished or merit. - 4) Under the influence of the Jewish exegesis of Gen. 6, 2 (pseudo-Henoch) several held that the sin of the fallen a. had been the sin of the flesh. - 5) Also with regard to the celestial hierarchy, opinions differed: Origen derived it from diversity of functions and merits; Methodius, and after him many others, from metaphysical diversity of natural constitution. Pseudo-Dionysius divided it into a hierarchy of three choirs each. - 6) It is generally held that all the a. can be sent on mission to men, but pseudo-Dionysius, and some others after him, admit this only for the a. of inferior category. Often, under the influence of pseudo-Henoch, and perhaps of the Hellenistic environment (Stoic panpsychism and popular beliefs) a protector a. was assigned not only to every individual, nation and community, but also to every material element of this world, an idea however that others rejected. Others, finally, like Augustine, under the influence of certain Hellenistic theories (Peripatetics, Philo, Plotinus), asked themselves whether the stars were not animated by motor a. - 7) As long as the pagan danger lasted, the Fathers were generally very wary in permitting the cult of the a.

Scholastic theology. - The great development that angelology underwent in the 12th-13th centuries was caused principally by the application to traditional and scriptural data of Aristotelian metaphysics and psychology, and of certain theories of Arab philosophers on separate substances. St. Thomas has a notable treatise on angels (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ, qq. 50-64, 106-14; De substantiis separatis, ed. P. Mandonnet, Opuscula omnia, I, Paris 1927, pp. 70-144). The diversity of currents within Scholasticism had its influence on angelology. Thus Scotus represents the tendency opposed to St. Thomas, while Suárez later took an intermediate position, often eclectic in nature. The questions most discussed among the Scholastics were: 1) the composite or simple nature of angels and their relation to space; 2) the analysis of their act of knowledge and of will; 3) the state in which they were created and the moment of their elevation to the supernatural order; 4) the nature of their trial; 5) the cause of the different degree of beatitude given to them; 6) their hierarchy; 7) their mutual illumination and speech; 8) their action upon nature and upon man. Angelology thus takes on a very metaphysical aspect and provides occasion for clarifying the philosophical concepts of spirit, matter and form, intellectual knowledge and will.

Conclusions on the doctrine of the Church. - 1) The existence of angels as personal natures is of faith: it is the unanimous attestation of Scripture and of tradition as interpreted by the Church. It is therefore contrary to the Catholic faith to see in angels only poetic modes of expression or personifications of virtues and moral vices or of forces of nature. The resemblances with certain opinions of other religions are explained by the tradition of a common revelation, which remained pure only among the Jews. - 2) It is likewise of faith that the angels were created by God (Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed: visibilia et invisibilia; Fourth Lateran and Vatican Councils: Denz-U., 428 and 1783). - 3) Generally, after the Scholastics, it is held that they were created at the beginning of time simultaneously with the material world, contrary to the opinion of many Fathers who believed instead that they had been created before. The Fourth Lateran and Vatican Councils, although saying: simul ab initio temporis, did not intend to define the question. - 4) The pure spirituality of angels, notwithstanding the hesitations of the Fathers and the personal opinion of those of the Second Council of Nicaea (787), is today considered certain, although it is not defined as of faith even by the Vatican Council. The manner of explaining their objective apparitions (accidental movers of a material body) and their natural immortality follows from their pure spirituality. - 5) Their number is very great, but no further precision can be given. - 6) There are differences among the angels, but the origin and the precise mode of them are not established. The division into nine choirs (angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, thrones, cherubim and seraphim) has been generally accepted after pseudo-Dionysius, but it is not absolute. It is likewise a matter of free discussion whether all the angels are of the same species or whether there are as many species as there are choirs, or whether each individual constitutes a species of its own (St. Thomas). So too the manner of conceiving in detail the natural knowledge of the angels, the way in which they communicate among themselves, their act of will, how they are in in a place, what the measure of their duration is, depends on philosophical presuppositions, which from the point of view of dogma are secondary. It is certain that the angels naturally have a limited knowledge, do not naturally know the mysteries that are properly divine, and have full free will. — 7) The angels were raised to the supernatural order, whose end is the beatific vision of God. This follows from the ordinary magisterium interpreting Scripture and tradition. This vision is gratuitous (condemnation of the doctrine of Baius; cf. Denz-U., 1001 ff.), but there is discussion about the moment at which it occurred: St. Thomas affirms that it took place in their very creation; others of the Scholastics assert that it took place after a certain time. It is furthermore of faith that the angels had to undergo a trial; but precisely what trial, and how and how many angels fell, is not known. After the trial the time for meriting came to an end for them; the good angels enjoyed and enjoy forever the beatific vision, and the evil angels were condemned to eternal punishment. This too is of faith. — 8) The ministries of the angels are: toward God, to adore him, praise him, serve him; this is of faith. It is equally of faith that they are God's ministers among men. — 9) The existence of guardian angels, who have the special ministry of protecting men, is certain. Tradition and the ordinary magisterium have always admitted that at least every Christian (and therefore from Baptism) has his guardian angel. It is also a commonly held opinion today that every man (from birth) has his own, who never abandons him. Many Fathers admitted this also for every nation and community. — 10) The cult of the angels is legitimate. This is of faith according to the ordinary magisterium interpreting tradition, especially after the 5th century (condemnation of the iconoclasts at the Second Council of Nicaea, cf. Denz-U., 320, and of the Protestants' doctrine on the cult of the saints at the Council of Trent, ibid., 984 f.).

For the doctrine from the 5th century to St. Thomas: F. Suárez, De Angelis, Louvain 1620; F. Frassen, Scotus academicus, IV, Rome 1900; Cl. Baeumker, Witelo, Münster 1908, p. 523 ff. (important for the Scholastic milieu of the 13th century); A. Vacant, Angélologie dans l'Église latine depuis le temps des Pères jusqu'à s. Thomas, in DThC, I, II, col. 1222 ff.; id., Angélologie de s. Thomas d'Aquin et des scolastiques postérieurs, ibid., coll. 1228-48.

For the more recent doctrine: Joannes a s. Thomas, Cursus theologicus, ed. Vivès, IV, Paris 1884, p. 559 ff.; J. K. Oswald, Angélologie, 2nd ed., Paderborn 1889; W. Lueken, Michael, Göttingen 1898 (for the guardian angels of peoples); L. Janssens, Tractatus de Deo creatore et de Angelis, Freiburg im Br. 1905; E. Caretti, Gli angeli, Bologna 1925; Chr. Pesch, Die Hl. Schutzengel, 2nd ed., Freiburg im Br. 1925; P. A. Arrighini, Gli angeli buoni e cattivi, Turin 1937; J. Duhr, Anges, in DSp, I, col. 586 ff.; J. Bernhart, Der Engel des deutschen Volkes, Munich 1939; H. Leclercq, Anges, in DACL, I, 2nd part, coll. 2080-2161 (especially for the cult: col. 2144 ff.). — For the other exegetical particulars, v.: G. Kurze, Der Engelsund Teufelglaube des Apostels Paulus, Freiburg im Br. 1915; F. Prat, La théologie de s. Paul, II, pp. 493-502; A. Lemonnier, Angélologie, in DBs, I, coll. 255-62.

Cipriano Vagaggini

4. DEVOTION TO THE ANGELS

The earliest Fathers of the Church denied the angels the cult due to God, but not every cult; in this regard one must keep in mind their concern to safeguard the newly converted Gentiles against a return to the false cult of the Genii. Origen, in polemic against Celsus, maintains that Christians do not adore the angels, but render them a cult (θεραπεύειν), provided this word is rightly understood (C. Cels., VIII, 13: PG 11, 1533 c). In St. Justin (I Apol., 6: PG 6, 336 c) and in Athenagoras (10: PG 6, 909 b) are found the most ancient testimonies of the cult of the angels. Ambrose exhorts the faithful: « Obsecendi sunt angeli pro nobis, qui nobis ad praesidium dati sunt » (De Viduis, cap. IX, 55: PL 16, 264 c). Augustine concisely: « Honoramus eos (angelos) charitate, non servitute » (De vera relig., 55, 110: PL 34, 170), understanding by « servitus », Greek « λατρεία », the cult due to God alone. Canon 35 of the Council of Laodicea (4th century), if rightly understood, does not oppose right devotion toward the angels (Hefele-Leclercq, I, p. 1017). Didymus of Alexandria (d. 395) attests that from the earliest Christian times churches and oratories arose consecrated to God under the name of the archangels (De Trinit., II, 8: PG 39, 591 A. B). At Constantinople, after Constantine, about 15 churches were dedicated to St. Michael. In the time of Gregory the Great the cult of the angels and of St. Michael had a center on Monte Gargano; another center arose in France (8th century) on Mont Saint-Michel. In Rome (9th century) 7 oratories were dedicated to the same archangel. St. Benedict contributed to spreading the faith in the assistance of the angels: in his Rule he reminds the monks that the divine office is recited in the presence of God and of the angels (cap. 19).

A particular impulse to this devotion was given by St. Bernard, whose words the Church makes its own in the Breviary (feast of the guardian angels, Oct. 2, lect. 4-6). His comprehensive formula reflects the uninterrupted tradition of the Church: to the angels we owe « reverentiam pro praesentia, devotionem pro benevolentia, fiduciam pro custodia » (In ps. « Qui inhabitat », serm. XII, 6: PL 183, 233 c). From the 12th to the 17th century the scholastic theologians, rather than dwelling on the cult, investigate the angelic nature. But by now the devotion has entered into the common practice of the faithful. From the 13th century onward prayers to the guardian angels, edited by A. Wilmart, are widespread. Particularly widespread were the little work of Gerson, Sermo de Angelis (Op., III), and the seven Sermones of Denis the Carthusian on St. Michael and the angels (Op., XXXII, Tournai 1906). The latter echoes the thought of St. Bernard, establishing our relations with the angels as well: « diligendo (eos) cordialiter, quotidie honorando, assidue invocando, imitando, eis collaborando » (Sermo de Sanctis, ibid., pp. 351 and 421-45). Luther and Calvin, after the cult of the saints, rejected that of the angels. But this devotion received new impulse through the work of the Society of Jesus. St. Ignatius recommends to his religious that they imitate the purity of the angels (Reg. Summ., 28). Through the work of the Jesuits, treatises and manuals of piety on the angels multiplied, especially in the 17th century. Let us recall only: Trattato e pratica della Devozione agli a. by St. Francis Borgia and the very widely circulated Trattato dell'A. Custode by Fr. Francesco Albertini. Cardinal de Bérulle and the venerable Olier also contributed greatly to spreading this devotion. Notable is the recent theological appeal of E. Peterson to devotion to the angels, executors of the celestial liturgy and means of the union of the faithful with God.

5. THE FEASTS OF THE ANGELS

At Constantinople the « synaxis » of all the angels is celebrated, ἀσωμάτιον, Nov. 18 and Jan. 11.

The guardian angels were anciently honored together with St. Michael: Sept. 29 in the West and May 8 in the East. Their particular feast, instituted by Paul V (1608) for the States of the Austrian Empire, was extended to the whole Church by Clement X (1670). Leo XIII raised its rite (1883 and 1893). The Sacramentaries from the 9th century onward established the votive Mass of the angels for the first free day after that dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity or to one of the three Persons. When Sunday was reserved for the Most Holy Trinity, Monday was consecrated to the angels (15th century); now it is Tuesday. Devotion to the angels, particularly to the guardian angels, after the 17th century, has become one of the devotions most familiar to the Christian people. The Angele Dei, a concise expression of medieval prayers of the 11th-13th centuries, edited by A. Wilmart, is its most evocative expression.

Francesco Tinello

6. THE ANGEL IN ARCHAEOLOGY

The first representation of the angel in Christian iconography is, in accordance with the meaning of the name (ἄγγελος), in the form of a messenger in the fresco of the Annunciation (v.), preserved in the cemetery of Priscilla, and which dates back to the end of the 2nd or the beginning of the 3rd century. In it we find again, definitively as well, the type that will dominate in art: a human figure of youthful appearance, almost always beardless, in sacred garments, that is, tunic and pallium, of white color, according to the Gospel texts (Mt. 28, 3; Jn. 20, 2; Rev. 15, 6; Acts 10, 30). In a fragmentary painting of an hypogeum between St. Callixtus and St. Sebastian, two youths in tunic and pallium flanked the inscription of the deceased; near the surviving figure one reads angelus (Wilpert, Sarcofagi, p. 353). In funerary sculpture the angel represents divine assistance; thus it appears: in the sacrifice of Isaac (Wilpert, op. cit., pl. 217, 240); in the scene of the three youths saved from the flames, according to Dan. 3, 49 (Wilpert, op. cit., 262 ff., pl. 129, 2); in that of Daniel in the lions' den; of Balaam's ass (here the angel is bearded and wears the garment of the apparitores); of David and Goliath (Wilpert, op. cit., 264, pl. 194, 1-2), in which it also appears winged (Garrucci, Storia, V, pl. 341, 4); in that of St. Peter in prison (Wilpert, op. cit., p. 118, pl. 116, 3). Two angels also figure on a sarcophagus lid now in the Lateran Museum (Wilpert, op. cit., 251, 3). Later they replace the winged victories, as in two sarcophagi in the crypt of St. Victor at Marseilles; in the first two winged angels in flight support a disc in which Jesus Christ teaching is seated (Wilpert, op. cit., pl. 43, 4); in the other two winged angels support standing the triumphal crown that encloses Christ teaching (Wilpert, op. cit., p. 57, fig. 24). This motif will be taken up again in St. Vitale at Ravenna and in a rare Christian sarcophagus of Constantinople.

In non-funerary sculpture the angel appears to the pious women at the Sepulcher according to Mt. 28, 2-8 (Ravenna, St. Apollinaris the New, the Trivulzio ivory in Milan, etc.).

Two slabs of the 6th century belonging probably to the decoration of the church of the Theotokos at Carthage (v.), offer the winged angel announcing to the shepherds the birth of the Savior (Wilpert, op. cit., fig. 276 and pl. 298, 1) and the winged angel present at the offering of the Magi (Wilpert, op. cit., pl. 298, 2).

As in various imperial representations the sovereign appears surrounded by his retinue (scene of the congiarium in the arch of Constantine), so in some majestic scenes the Lord or the Madonna enthroned are assisted by angels (triumphal arch of St. Mary Major and St. Maria Antiqua).

The type of the adoring angels is found in the triumphal arch of the basilica of St. Paul on the Via Ostiense (442-60); with the six-winged cherubim in the miniatures of the Vatican codex of Cosmas Indicopleustes (vision of Isaiah); the angelic host also figures in the final judgment. In St. Vitale at Ravenna two nimbed angels support a clipeus with the gemmed cross; in the Murano diptych the cross in the triumphal crown. In the mosaics of St. Mary Major the angel has a face, hands and feet red as fire (Hebr. 1, 7; Sedulius, Carm. Pasch., V, 328; PL 19, 740). In St. Apollinaris the New at Ravenna in the mosaic with the separation of the flock (Mt. 25, 32) the Lord is assisted by two winged and nimbed angels, the angel on the right with the sheep is all red, the one on the left with the goats, all dark blue-violet. Kirschbaum has recognized in the red angel the angel of light, who stands in the starry region, in the ether; the blue angel instead is in the air, whose substance has no light; it is the angel of darkness (Riv. Arch. Crist., 17 [1940], pp. 209-48). The opposition of red angels with blue angels will later be repeated in European art between the 14th and 15th centuries and in Eastern icons down to the 17th. Distinction of colors according to the categories are also found in the Middle Ages: the seraphim in first place in red; then the cherubim in blue; third the thrones in yellow.

In ancient Christian inscriptions the deceased is wished the pax cum angelis; for a deacon, to be angelorum hospes; of those who died in tender age it is said accessitus or raptus ab angelis; of a woman it is affirmed that she was angelicae legis docta; in metrical inscriptions the angelici chori are recalled. The ancient Christians sometimes adopted the Jewish custom of using the names of the angels to drive away evil spirits. They used the abbreviation XMI (Χριστός, Μιχαήλ, Γαβριήλ); often they placed in their tombs sheets of gold, silver or other metal filled with names of angels and incantations; famous is the gold sheet, found in the sarcophagus of the empress Maria, wife of Honorius, with the graffito Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel.

On the island of Thera (Cyclades) a group of 48 Christian epitaphs contains dedications to the angels protectors or guardians of the Tomb.

Enrico Josi

7. THE ANGEL IN ART

The most ancient depiction of the tetramorphs dates back to the 6th century, on the columns reused in the ciborium of S. Marco in Venice, variously repeated in illuminated manuscripts, mosaics and frescoes, down to the thirteenth-century one in the crypt of the cathedral of Anagni without substantial iconographic variations; even the angel in tunic and pallium persists with unchanged characteristics from the 5th to the 9th century (SS. Cosma and Damiano; S. Maria Antiqua; S. Prassede; S. Maria in Domnica).

Around the 12th century art began to infuse life and movement into the figures: if the angels of the door of the Cathedral of Pisa, the work of Bonanno, still appear awkward to us, more alive and light are those of the thirteenth-century mosaics of the dome of the Baptistery of Florence, or of the contemporary sculptures of the French cathedrals. From that century, but even more in the fourteenth, the iconographic schemes are forced and the artists' imagination gives the angels varied feelings and freedom of attitudes: thus from Cimabue to Cavallini, to Giotto; from Orcagna in the Strozzi chapel at S. Maria Novella, to the Maestà of Duccio and Simone Martini in Siena and to the figurations of the Camposanto of Pisa, the angels emerge from their schematism and their transcendent impassivity to participate in the spirit of the composition.

In the 15th century the angels of Beato Angelico reconcile the medieval type of angel with the increasingly humanized one of the painters of the Renaissance, from Masaccio to Filippo Lippi, and so on down to Luca Signorelli, to Melozzo and to Perugino. Now abandoned the traditional garments of classical origin, they are often represented in the act of playing various instruments (musician angels), that is, as authors of that celestial music, in which perhaps as a reflection of Renaissance neo-Platonism was concretized the order and beatitude emanating from the Divinity (the best-known types being those of Melozzo da Forlì, of the Angelico, of Giambellino). The example of the angels who with the sound of trumpets (angel trumpeters) evoke the souls at the Last Judgment provided the starting point for a development of the theme according to the ideas and tastes of the time.

In the 16th century, alongside the angels, who are a pretext for expressing an ideal of flourishing youth, a new type begins to appear: the angel becomes first a winged putto, who accompanies Christ and the Virgin in their ascent to heaven, and, becoming even more dematerialized in the theophanies of the Counter-Reformation, is reduced in the end to a simple winged little head, blending with the iconography of the cherub. Giovanni da S. Giovanni in the apse of SS. Quattro Coronati in Rome has left a characteristic example of an angel in feminine aspect

(choir known as that of the angiolelle). The traditional type nevertheless remained in honor: from the musician angels of Reni (Rome, S. Gregorio) to those of Bernini and the Bernini school on the Ponte S. Angelo who each support a symbol of the passion of Christ. Bernini, especially in the group of S. Teresa and in the Cathedra of S. Peter, defined the type of angel with ephebic features of Correggio derivation. The most recent production has since then introduced no iconographic modifications worthy of particular note. - See Plates CXVII-CXVII.