Frangi-Panis

Angel a Day - March

2009-12-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Angel a Day - March

for Holy Week and Easter –

see the end of March

March 1

Guardian Angels

16^th century observed this date

as the Feast of the Guardian Angels

In the circumcision ceremony for Jewish infants, the rabbi invokes Elijah as the Angel of the Covenant and as the Guardian of the Child.

March 2

Familiar with the Angels

Birth – Pope Pius XII

During a general audience on October 3, 1958, Pope Pius XII urged his listeners to “have a certain familiarity with the Guardian Angels.” (as given in Lord, page 250)

“Everyone, no matter how humble he may be, has angels to watch over him. They are heavenly, pure and splendid, and yet they have been given us to keep us company on our way; they have been given the task of keeping careful watch over you, so that you do not become separated from Christ, their Lord.” (as given in Angel Letters, Burnham, page 32)

Joy of the Angels

Feast – St. Agnes of Prague

(Bohemia / Czechoslovakia)

In her Third Letter to Agnes, St. Clare of Assisi calls her younger sister Agnes the “joy of the angels”.

Related entry – St. Clare – Aug 11

Angelic Spirits

Feast – St. Chad

In his reliable historical writings about the church in England, St. Bede describes how the monk named Owini of Lastingham saw an angelic vision with singing just before the death of Chad.

Chad, a 7^th century monk and bishop and native of England, went to Ireland for his education. He returned to England to serve the church.

When Owini spoke to Chad about his approaching death, Chad said he saw “angelic spirits” coming to summon him.

March 3

Angel Dolls

Japanese Doll Festival

On this day, children remember their ancestors by playing with dolls depicting the royal court of Japan.

In the mid 1990s, toy companies made angel dolls, among them – Sweet Angel and My Little Angel.

Angels and happiness

Observance - I want you to be Happy Day

This observance provides an opportunity to think of others as angels might think of others and to do something that makes someone else happy. Some angel books give ideas for angel attitudes of service to others.

March 4

Vivaldi’s Angels

Birth – Antonio Vivaldi

A CD and also music downloads offer “Gloria: Vivaldi’s Angels” – a selection of the Mass part called the “Gloria” in various settings composed by Antonio Vivaldi, a 17^th century musician in Venice.

March 5

Angel brings music

Death – Sergei Prokofiev

This 20^th century Russian composer, in his Third Symphony, has an angel bring music to a young girl.

Related entry – April 23

March 6

Great angel name

Birth in 1475 – Michelangelo

This great Renaissance artist gained inspiration from Fra Angelico. And, it was on Fra Angelico’s feast day that Michelangelo died.

Related entry – Feb 18 – Fra Angelico

Angel music

Death – Johann Pachelbel

This German composer wrote motets, Magnificats, and Mass settings in the late 1600s. These compositions include Angel Gabriel, Christmas angels, and more.

Angel in the bush aflame

Birth – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In her poem, Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth speaks of “every common bush being aflame with the fire of God”. She writes that those who see this take off their shoes and those who don’t see it “sit around and eat blackberries.”

Also in Aurora Leigh, she writes: “their angelic reach of virtues chiefly used to sit and darn” as the poet comments on the education given to girls and the accomplishments expected of them.

First Friday in March

Angels at prayer

World Day of Prayer, sponsored by Church Women United

March 7

Shepherd Angel

Feast – SS. Perpetua and Felicity

Perpetua with her maid Felicity and several others met martyrdom in 203 CE (AD). In the diary she kept, Perpetua recorded a dream about the figure of a shepherd on a ladder with many thousands of other beings all clad in white. In the dream, four angels carry her teacher Saturus with Perpetua at his side to a garden. Perpetua experiences the presence of her teacher as a guardian angel in her dream.

In many 2^nd and 3^rd century representations of angels, the artists dress them in white goatskins and give them white hair. The artists make the connection of the angels with heaven with the image of a ladder. Later, angel art adds wings to the figures.

Theodora Ward, in her book Men and Angels, devotes several pages to the dreams of Perpetua about her mentor angel.

Angels in popular music

1917 – birth of jazz music

Surveys in 1994 showed that about one in ten popular songs used the word – angel – in their lyrics.

March 8

Ministering Angels

International Women’s Day

This is a good day to reflect on the line in Shakespeare’s Hamlet – “a ministering angel shall my sister be”.

March 9

Constant Companion

Feast – St. Frances of Rome

Frances found that the brightness of an archangel’s face hurt her eyes while the vision of the angel’s person bathed her in a softer light.

This saint enjoyed almost constant companionship with her guardian angel. Artists often depict her with a boy angel of about 10 years of age at her side. This boy angel saved her from drowning in the Tiber River.

In the 15^th century, Antoniazzo Romano painted frescoes, which show several scenes with an angel by the side of Frances.

Office for the Angels

Birth – Pope Leo X

On March 1, 1519, Pope Leo X approved a special prayer service known as an office in honor of the Guardian Angels. The office consists of a hymn, psalms, canticles, intercessions, and prayers that honor the angels who serve as guardians.

March 10

Angel Movies

Observance of first movie in Hollywood

Here are some movies with angels. You may think of others as well.

Heaven can Wait

City of Angels

Angels in America

Michael

The Preacher’s Wife

Angels in the Outfield

It’s a Wonderful Life

March 11

Angel Stamps

Observance of Lithuanian Independence

On March 11, 1990, Lithuania gained its Independence form the Soviet Union. They marked the day with the issue of a new stamp bearing the image of the Angel of Peace.

Preaching an angel message

Observance of Johnny Appleseed Day

Birth – John Chapman, AKA, Johnny Appleseed

Johnny followed the teachings of Emmanuel Swedenborg, mystic and theologian. As Johnny traveled from town to town and farm-to-farm across America, he preached the coming of the New Jerusalem as he planted apple orchards. He kept telling everyone who would listen that across the ocean Mr. Swedenborg heard angels speak to him and through him to others. It seems that Johnny made rather converts to Swedenborgianism, but his apple orchards became legends.

March 12

Gandhi’s ‘salt march’

Angels in the art of India

On March 12, 1930, Gandhi and 78 activists began the ‘salt march’ in opposition to the British monopoly on salt.

Hindus tend to speak of spiritual beings rather than angels per se. The many deities of the Hindu religion bear some similarities to angels in other religions.

March 13

Angel Windows

Death – Evie, Hone, maker of stained glass

Stained glass windows in many places of worship show angels.

Today might be a good day to visit a church to look for angels in the windows or to visit a library and look for stained glass angels in art books.

There is also a type of window called and “angel windows” –the small circles between arches in the design of stained glass windows.

Swiss Angel

1940 – Nazi troops threatened Switzerland

Swiss troops saw a large hand in the evening sky as it stretched over the region with blessing and peace.

March 14

Angel Guardian

Feast – St. Matilda

This 10^th century queen and mother believed that any angel from the nine choirs of angels could serve as a guardian for an individual on earth.

Related stories – Nov 8, John Duns Scotus and Nov 16, St. Gertrude

Angels in the Kabbala

1492 – Royalty of Spain expel 150,000 Jews

The Kabbalah (Qabala) of the Jews contained a highly developed symbolism of good and evil with corresponding angels and demons. The presence of Jews (and also Muslims) in Medieval Spain meant that some of the ideas of the Qabala worked their way into the general culture and the Christian culture.

March 15

Crackdown on Angels

Feast – St. Zachary, pope

During the reign of this pope, the church made a crackdown on angels and tried to give them a lesser place in devotions.

Roman Angels

44 BCE (BC) –

death of Julius Caesar / Ides of March

In Roman times, the name for the guardian spirit of a man was – genius, and for a woman – juno. Roman birthday parties honored the genius and the juno, not so much the human being having the birthday. Some say that the growing belief in guardian spirits caused the idea of celebrating birthdays to prosper in those days, and down through the centuries.

Romans also honored guardian spirits for their home, their foods, and many other daily items of life.

Related entry – Dec 23, Angels of Pompeii

Voice of an Angel

1840 – Jakob Lorber experienced an angel

This Austrian musician heard a voice that told him to write down what he heard. His manuscript, called the New Revelation, of 10,000 pages, written day after day until his death, contains scientific and religious information that could come only from an other worldly source, the voice of angel.

March 16

Black Press Day

Black Angels

Are there angels in the writings of Africans and African Americans?

March 17

Angel Victor

Feast – St. Patrick

The Angel named Victor helped St. Patrick convert Ireland to Christianity. Victor also predicted and helped Patrick prepare for death.

One prayer attribute to Patrick begins:

“I arise today:

in the might of the cherubim,

in obedience of angels,

in ministrations of archangels…”

Irish Angels

National Day – Ireland

Some Irish folk legends hold the belief that fairies are the children of fallen angels.

Angels carry that special feeling in some Irish songs:

“When Irish eyes are smiling ... you can hear the angels sing.”

Angels at Christ’s Death

Feast – St. Joseph of Arimathea

In the Pieta of Filippino Lippi, angels assist Joseph of Arimathea with the winding cloths as Mary holds the body of the dead Jesus. This painting belongs to the National Gallery in Washington, DC.

Related Entry – Good Friday – end of March

March 18

Spiritual manifestations

Birth – Edgar Cayce

During the 1930s in the US, this rural healer and seer gave a series of spiritual talks on angels in their inner and outer manifestations. As a Christian, Cayce always pointed out that Jesus Christ is the dominant guiding force with angels as helpers.

“They (angels) are the spiritual manifestations in the spiritual world … that aid in the development of the mental and spiritual forces.” – Cayce, as given in Humann, page 40

Jane M. Howard bases her book, Commune with the Angels: A Heavenly Handbook, on the psychic readings of Edgar Cayce.

March 19

Angel Dreams

Feast – St. Joseph of Nazareth

Messenger angels appear to Joseph in dreams to advise him to go ahead with plans to wed Mary, to warn him about danger, to advise him to relocate in Egypt, and to tell him when the troubles are over, and it is safe for him to bring his family back to Nazareth.

Related Scripture – Matt 1:20, 24 and 2:13 – 19

March 20

Angel Collector

Birth – Margaret Strong, collector of dolls, Rochester, NY

Joyce Berg of Beloit, Wisconsin, had collected more than 10,500 angel statues, dolls, and artifacts in the 1990s. The Angel Museum of Beloit houses her collection and others added since that time.

I have personally visited this museum several times.

In 1976, Mary Matthews and Theo Marie Sponsler founded the Angel Collector’s Club of America. In the mid 1990s, the club reached a membership of about 1,600. The non-profit group publishes a quarterly newsletter called Halo Everybody. Its biannual conventions and membership lists puts like-minded angel collectors in touch with each other.

March 21

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus

Birth – Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach composed many Mass settings of which the Sanctus echoes the hymn the angels sing before the throne of God. Bach’s Mass in B minor provides an outstanding example of this Mass hymn of the angels.

Dr. H. C. Moolenburgh says that in his opinion “ Bach comes close to them (angelic choirs) in his two great Passions.” (Meetings, page 21)

March 20 or 21

First Day of Spring

Angels of Spring

John Milton Hay, in Little Breeches, writes how Little Breeches believes in God and angels ever since “one night last spring.”

“ … the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy.” (Job 38:7, in speaking about Creation)

“Praise be to God, Creator of the heavens and the earth! He sends forth the angels as His messengers, with two, three, or four pair of wings.” (Quran 35:1)

March 21

Angels of Color

International Day for elimination

of racial discrimination

How does the use of color affect the meaning of angels?

Do angels come in all the skin tones of the various races?

March 22

“Sing, my Angel of Music”

Birth – Andrew Lloyd Weber

This British composer of the Phantom of the Opera music, has the Phantom, in the title song, sing to Christine: “Sing, my Angel of Music”. The Phantom himself conveys the image of a dark angel not unlike Israfel, the angel of music in Edgar Allen’s poem, Israfel.

In Weber’s version of Les Miserables, after the presentation of the scene of the French Revolution, the announcer recites: “Les Miserables – the voice of angels can be heard.”

March 23

Angel Foods

Birth – Fannie Farmer, the cooking expert

This food expert would be right at home with chocolate angels, angel food cake, devils food cake, and other foods named for angels and devils.

In 1994, according to Be An Angel newsletter, a group is working on an angel cookbook.

In the March 1993 Angel Watch newsletter, Editor Eileen Elias Freeman writes about the advertising use of angels with baked goods, especially cakes and cookies.

Angel hair pasta, angel cream doughnuts also come to mind.

March 24

Gabriel the Archangel

Feast – formerly observed on March 24

(from 1921 to 1969)

Now observed on September 29

In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), Gabriel explains to Daniel in prison what his dreams mean. In the Christian Scriptures (New Testament), Gabriel announces to Zachary the coming birth of John the Baptist and to Mary the coming birth of Jesus the Savior. Gabriel also leads the glorious host of angels who sing that first Christmas night.

Muslims call this archangel – Jibr ‘il / Gibrail and believe that he dictated the Quran to Muhammad.

Patron of Telecommunications

In 1951, Pope Pius XII declared Gabriel the patron of telecommunications. The Catholic award for excellence in television programming bears the name of the Gabriel Award.

Patron of Postal Workers

I 1982, Pope Paul VI put postal workers, mail carriers, telephone and telegraph operators, and by extension of like interest stamp collectors, under the protection of Gabriel. The Guild of St. Gabriel, an international organization, comprises those who collect stamps with religious topics on them.

Gabriel at the Computer

In May 1994, the Catholic Press Association (CPA) of the US presented a second place award in the category of cover design to the magazine called Catholic Outlook for its cover showing an angel at a computer. The judges remarked, at the time, that “the clever illustration of an angel at a computer is eye-stopping and ideal for ‘Church of Change’.” (Catholic Journalist, May 1994)

San Gabriel Arcangel Mission

In the string of missions along the California coast, San Gabriel Arcangel, founded in 1791, sits near the city of Los Angeles. A tower of four bells at the mission still sounds great. Some of the exterior beauty of the building seems lost in the suburban sprawl. The interior of the church, especially the sanctuary with its main statue of Gabriel in fine Baroque sculpture, complements the Spanish and Mexican paintings.

Stained-glass Angels

Birth – William Morris

This 19^th century British craftsman and poet formed a company of decorators who changed the taste for wallpapers, furniture, tapestries, and the like in the Victorian Age. A number of stained-glass windows designed by William Morris adorn the Cattistock in Dorset, England.

Among them, a Minstrel Angel holds a dulcimer, alongside another Minstrel Angel and a Censing Angel.

A little book, called Choirs of Angels in Stained Glass, edited by Samuel J. Walker, Jr., contains reproductions of these three windows. The book also shows other angels in stained glass by other artists.

March 25

Annunciation

Feast –

Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary

The Angelus prayer and the Hail Mary prayer commemorate the visit of the Angel Gabriel to Mary as well as Mary’s response to the Angel.

Artists have made many paintings of the Annunciation over the centuries.

Among these:

The Annunciation, by the Hispano-Flemish Master, in the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum collection of San Francisco.

The Annunciation, by the Master of Barbarini Pastels with its kneeling angel holding a lily, a symbol of her purity, in the National Gallery of Art n Washington, DC.

The Annunciation, by Guiseppe Cesari, in which Gabriel bends his knee as a half dozen child angels surround a spot of light from heaven through which the Holy Spirit comes to Mary

You may wish to search Google Images for Annunciation art.

Scriptures:

Luke, Chapter 1

Judges, Chapter 13: 1 – 5

You may also call to mind or search for various settings of the Ave Maria.

Winged Angels

Greece – national holiday

The Byzantine Museum in Athens has on display an icon, most likely Coptic, of Archangel Michael slaying the Dragon. (MacGregor, page 187)

The ancient Greeks depicted Sleep and Death as angelic figures with wings. Christian imagery incorporated this wisdom into its association of sleep with angels and of death with angels.

March 26

Gabriel in the East

Orthodox feast of Gabriel the Archangel

March 27

Angels and Miracles

March 28

Angels of the Crucifixion

Death – Raphael, the artist

Raphael painted the Angels of the Crucifixion

Angel a Day - February

2009-12-09T11:28:00.001-08:00

February

"Some have entertained angels unaware." - Hebrews 13:2

Black History Month

International Friendship Month

Jewish feast of Purim

Feb 1

Celtic angels

Feast - St. Brigid of Ireland

Angels abound in Irish folklore and songs.

The Celts have always held strongly to a belief that every soul has a guardian angel, who watches over it from before birth until death.

These deeply religious people known as Irish developed a lay mysticism in the integration of personal angels with daily life.

Gaelic poetry preserves the angel tradition in poems like Michael, the Victorious, which praises the Archangel as Shepherd-Angel and Light-Angel.

The guardian angels and persons who may be called soul-friends are links with the invisible world. The Celtic word - Anamchara - conveys this idea of a soul-friend linking the visible world with the invisible world.

The folk imagination of the Celts has kept alive the world of fairies, which some associate with angels. Some say that fairies were once angels who now have diminished size and diminished powers.

For some, Like AE (George Russell), the fairy world belongs to a chain of beings descending from human life downward, much as angels ascend from human life upward. The folklore and fairy tales from every culture along with all sorts of nature spirits might just be manifestations of a multi-dimensional angel image and archetype.

Feb 2

Hovering angels

Feast - Presentation of the Lord in the Temple / Candlemas Day

In artistic representations of the Presentations of Jesus in the Temple 40 days after his birth, many artists pain baby angels hovering just above the scene.

Mass texts echo angel praises

Death in 1594 –

Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina

His birth falls on

Feb 2 or 3 in 1525 or 1526

Considered the most outstanding Italian composer of the late Renaissance, Palestrina composed over 100 settings of the Mass texts - including the Gloria and the Sanctus, which echo angel voices in the Gospels.

Feb 3

Healing angels

Feast - St. Blaise

Through the intercession of this saint, God gives blessings and healings, especially of throat ailments. It makes sense that God also sends angels to bring blessings and healings to those who ask in prayer.

Dr. Moolenburgh, an angel scholar, and others say that it is the Holy Spirit who brings healings, which may also be accompanied by an angelic presence, if God so wishes.

The name of the Archangel Raphael means - "God heals."

See related entry - Sept 29

Feb 4

Angels of the Four Winds

Observance of peacekeeping with the forest spirits - by natives of Alaska

This observance brings to mind the connection between trees and angels.

Trees and angels in Scriptures include Genesis 18; Judges 6:11 - 12; Zechariah 1

Indigenous peoples who are close to nature also value the meaning of the four winds and the four directions.

See related entries - Arbor Day on April 30; also William Blake on Nov 28

Feb 5

Agatha's Angels

Feast - St. Agatha

When St. Agatha appears to someone in need, she brings angels with her.

At St. Agatha Parish, we call those who clean the church - Agatha Angels.

Angels at home / at home with angels

Observance in China - honoring the kitchen god

Dr Moolenburgh devotes an entire chapter of his second book, Meeting with Angels, to angels who appear in the home, in the kitchen, in the bedroom. He also asks if angels would feel right at home in your house, in my house.

Feb 6

Angel at My Table

National Day –

Waitongi Day in New Zealand

The movie titled – Angel at My Table – tells the three-part story of the life of Janet Frame, a gifted writer of New Zealand.

Feb 7

Ministering Spirits

Birth of Jessica Powers

AKA

Sister Miriam Therese of the Holy Spirit

Born in 1905, in rural Wisconsin, Jessica grew up on a farm, trained as a journalist at Marquette University in Milwaukee, worked as a secretary, became a Carmelite nun, and crafted poems of beauty and spiritual meaning.

In Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers, edited by Sister Regina Siegfried, ASC, and Bishop Robert Morneau, a section is devoted to “Of God and Angels, and other Glorious Things,” and another section to “Angels”.

The poems contain words, images, and meanings about angels, like “in a Cloud of Angels,” “Like the Bright Seraphim,” “Ministering Spirits,” and “Michael”.

In “ministering Spirits,” Jessica speaks of the soul taking “radiance from the angels.”

In Mantras from a Poet – Jessica Powers by Bishop Robert Morneau (1991), the line “radiance from the angels” becomes a mantra, a seven-syllable prayer, and a theme for meditation on angels.

In the same book, Bishop Morneau shares part of a letter (pages vii and viii) that he received from Jessica. She thanks him for some angels (presumably statues or figurines) that he had sent to her. And she writes of how the nuns had been thinking and talking about angels, how they resolved to pray more in the presence of angels, how angels hover around the Eucharist and the tabernacle where the Eucharist lies in repose.

Jessica also writes of a holy card with a beautiful angel pictured on it, how she brought the card with her to Carmel, and how that card of an angel influenced her life as a source of beauty and grace for her.

Angels visit Scrooge

Birth of Charles Dickens

It was Dickens who wrote A Christmas Carol in which God sends three ghosts who are really angels to save the old miser Scrooge form his misery and teach him to be generous.

Also, Dickens wrote in David Copperfield that Miss Wickfield had an angel-face”.

Feb 8

In Dialogue with Angels

Birth - Martin Buber

Considered by some as the “greatest … Jewish philosopher” of the first half of the 10^th century, Martin Buber’s mystic thinking and concepts influenced both Jewish and Christian thinkers. As described in his book titled I-Thou, Buber tells of his belief that human beings and God are in constant dialogue. Buber also wrote Spirit and Reality, as well as Tales of Angels, Saints, and Demons.

Buber is quoted in Celebrity Register (1959, page 110) as saying” The answer to evil is vigorous and decisive pursuit of the only true existent direction, the direction toward God.”

This is in keeping with the theme of this blog / book that angels may well be moments of God’s grace in the lives of humans. Also, that everything is always and everywhere directed toward God, even when humans don’t realize it.

Good angel, bad angel

Birth – Robert Burton

“Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long.” – The Anatomy of Melancholy, as given in Harper, page 30

Feb 9

“When we grow wings”

Death – Dostoyevski

“All the Utopias will come to pass only when we grow wings and all people are converted into angels.” (As given in Seldes, page 112)

In his book – The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevski wrote of Alyosha Karamazov that he “is merry like an angel”.

Feb 10

Prayed to Guardian Angels

Death Pope Pius XI

People remember this pope for telling his audiences that he prayed daily, every morning and every evening, to his guardian angel. This pope also said tat he asked his guardian angel to speak to the guardian angels of others with whom he spoke, so that the conversant and resolution of differences might go well.

Angel Wings – and Cruciform Shadows

Birth – Boris Pasternak

This Russian author wrote in his book - Dr Zhivago - about angel wings that cast “a cruciform shadow”.

Archangel – “a little damaged”

Birth – Charles Lamb

This author referred to Samuel Taylor Coleridge as “an archangel a little damaged”.

Feb 11

Angel of Healing

Feast – Our Lady of Lourdes

Many miracles of healing have taken place at Lourdes since the 1858 apparition of Mary – Our Lady of Lourdes – to Bernadette. Some attribute the healing miracles to angels stirring the waters of the stream at Lourdes.

Related entry – April 16 –

Feast of St. Bernadette

Angels of Healing

Observance – World Health Day

The Archangel Raphael, usually depicted in blue robes, the color of water, is considered the angel of healing.

Scripture – John 5:4

Dr. Moolenburgh and others say that healing is always the work of the Holy Spirit, even though the healing may be accompanied by the presence of angels.

Related entry – October 24 – feast of Raphael

Vohu Manah – messenger angel

National day of Iran (ancient Persia)

The Persian messenger angel Vohu Manah (Good Mind) brought God’s message to Zoroaster at least a thousand years before the birth of Christ.

Zoroaster of ancient Persia developed an elaborate system of angels. Born to an unwed 15-year-old mother, Zoroaster, when her reached age 15, devoted his life to religion. At 30, he experienced a call into the presence of the Supreme Being, Ahura Mazda. He claimed that he was appointed to the work of a prophet at this time.

When the Hebrews (Jews) lived in captivity in Babylon they learned many of the Persian notions about angels. They incorporated some of these ideas into the Jewish religion.

The Avesta, the sacred scriptures of the Zoroastrian religion, contains five main groups of writings. The fourth part called Yashta contains worship hymns, an anthology of poetry, and invocations to 21 angels and heroes.

The followers of Zoroaster believe in an army of Good Spirits as separate beings from the deity (God). They call the major group of angels – the Bountiful Immortals. They call the minor group – guardian angels. They also had an array of evil spirits. They believe that two angels record each person’s deeds: one angel, the good deeds, and an evil spirit, the bad deeds.

Feast – St. Caedmon of England

“Like to the Light Stars”

To this 7^th century Anglo-Saxon poet Caedmon goes the credit for the first recorded verse (poetry) in the English language. Caedmon tended sheep for some monks. After an angel appeared to Caedmon, he began to write poetry. Later, he joined the monks and continued writing devotional poetry.

In one of his poems, He told how God had “Angel-tribes”, ten in number, and

“That they His service

Would follow,

Work His will;

Therefore, gave He them wit, …”

The poem goes on to tell how one of the angels (“He was like to the light stars”) rose up against God, how the “angel of presumption” and the angels who listened to the wicked ways were “hurled from heaven” and placed in hell.

Feb 12

Angels of Mercy

Birth of Abraham Lincoln

This US president called the nursing sisters on the battlefields of the Civil War – “Angels of Mercy”.

President Lincoln also said that he often felt that he was in the presence of angels.

Angels descending

Death – Fanny Crosby

In the hymn, Blessed Assurance, of this blind poet, we read / sing the lines:

“Angels descending bring from above …”

“Hail Him! Hail Him! Highest archangels in glory.”

Observance of St. Michael

12^th of each month

Chaplet of St. Michael

The special rosary, called a chaplet, of St. Michael consists of praying on a string of beads with nine groups of three each. The nine represent the nine choirs of angels. A medal of the holy angels is attached to the chaplet. A single bead separates each group of three. Our Fathers are prayed on these beads. Hail Marys are prayed on the three beads.

Feb. 13

Cherub with whirling, flaming sword

Observance of Adam and Eve

Old legends say that Adam and Eve sinned on the 13^th of the month. A Cherub with a whirling, flaming sword drove them out of the Garden of Paradise because of their sin.

Several artists have depicted this scene of banishment from Paradise.

William Blake, in his illustration of Paradise Lost, shows Archangel Raphael telling Eve and Adam that God has forbidden them from eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

Related entries – Jan 2, Dec 24

Der Engel

Death – Richard Wagner

This German composer’s song – Der Engel – tells about the specific task of being a guardian angel.

Also, the Valkyries, used in the Ring Cycle, are the pagan equivalents of angels as derived from Norse mythology.

Feb 14

“Loving is Angelic”

Feast – St. Valentine

Artists and makers of valentines use cupid angels with arrows of love and cherubs as images of love.

Alphonse de Lamartine writes in Graziella, part IV, Ch 5, that “to love for the sake of loving is angelic.

Laura Levine created an art piece titled Cherubs of Love, in which a couple with a heart between them stands amid six angels on white clouds. Two angels shoot arrows. One plays a string instrument and another a horn. One plays on a swing while the sixth angel wraps a red banner, which says TRUE LOVE, around the couple. All of this is on a blue background while an angel face with wide wings sits atop the whole picture. All the angels have golden wings.

Time magazine, in its December 27, 1993, issue, page 59, ran this piece of art in its article on angels at the height of popular interest in angels.

National Read to Your Child Day

Angel books

A list of books about angels for children is given on April 2 of this project.

Feb 16

Angel Guardians of Children

Birth of Father Baker

At Our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, NY, angels (statues) gather young children under their protective arms and wings. Father Baker initiated and oversaw the orphanage and other child services at Our Lady of Victory.

Angel of Love

Death – Emil Waldteufel

This man wrote the song called Angel of Love.

Angel Stamps

National Day – Lithuania

In 1990, Lithuania issued its first independent postage stamp since its 1940 conquest by Stalin. The stamps (five and ten kopek ones) showed an angel holding a lamp against a background of a map of Lithuania. Many considered these stamps a political statement and weapon in the country’s search for freedom. In 1991, Lithuania broke free of Kremlin control.

Feb 17

“Watchin’ Over Me’

Birth – Marian Anderson

Black spirituals, of which Marian Anderson sang many, often mention Angels, especially those found in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

Feb 18

Angel Names

Feast – and death –

Bl. Angelico, AKA Fra Angelico

This saint stands as one of the greatest angel artists. He depicted the Angel Gabriel as well as the Virgin Mary in his painting of the Annunciation. While copies of this famous painting are found all over the world, the original hangs opposite the staircase in the monastery of San Marco in Florence, Italy. The entire building including the cloister, the stairwell, and even individual friar’s rooms remain home to many of Fra Angelico’s best works, the originals of them.

The painting titled Angel Musicians of Fra Angelica belongs to the Museum of San Marco in Florence. This painting appears in copies around the world.

Artist named Michaelangelo

Death in 1564 – Michaelangelo

His very name and also his are speak of angels. In his painting of the Creation of Adam, Michaelangelo surrounds God with many angels

Related entry – September 12

Angelica

The Town

On Feb 17, 1836, Narcissa Whitman and her husband Marcus were married in the tiny town of Angelica, NY. The very next morning, they left to travel west and do missionary work.

Feb 19

Children’s Angels

Kiddie Carnival – in Trinidad and Tobago

Dr. Moolenburgh devotes an entire chapter of his second book, Meeting with Angels, to children’s angels.

Feb 20

Angel of Peace

Feast – Jacinta Marto

This young visionary, along with Franceco and Lucia, saw and prayed with the Angel of Peace in their visions at Fatima.

Feb 21

Angel Faces Smile

Birth in 1801 – John Henry Newman

This man wrote how he missed “those angel faces smile” in his poem titled – Lead Kindly Light.

In his long poem, The Dream of Gerontius, Cardinal Newman narrates the dying and passing from earth to heaven of Gerontius in the company on the Angel.

“Every breath of air and ray of light and heat, every beautiful prospect, is, as it were, the skirts of their garments, the waving of the robes of those whose faces see God.” – Cardinal Newman

Related Entry – Edward Elgar, who set the poem of The Dream of Gerontius to music.

As an Angel

Feast – St. Robert Southwell

“The vision this time is different. I choose to think of it as an angel …”

Jean McClung puts these words into the mouth of Robert in her Christmas story of Robert in Mischief and Mercy – Tales of the Saints.

During his stay in prison, Robert told his worries to this angel. During several visits, the angel brought pen and parchment and wrote down Robert’s words. The influence of this angel kept Robert at peace during his exile in prison.

As a 16^th century Jesuit priest in England, Robert worked in London from 1584 to 1592. He was betrayed, jailed, tortured, and martyred. Some of his poems, such as The Burning Babe, still survive. Robert was beatified in 1929 and canonized as a saint in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.

Feb 22

Margaret’s Guardian Angel

Feast – St. Margaret of Cortona

After several years as the mistress of a young nobleman and living in ostentatious luxury, Margaret repented of her sins. The Lord Jesus visited her in visions and forgave her. Jesus told her that He sent her guardian angel to remind her that she had been forgiven.

Margaret became a Franciscan Third Order lay member and devoted herself to the care of the sick.

Angel at Valley Forge

Birth – George Washington

The story about the angel that visited George at Valley Forge as come down to two centuries later. During that harsh winter of 1777 during the Revolutionary War, George camped with his troops at Valley Forge.

Dr. Moolenburgh devotes several pages to the apocalyptic experience of George Washington as told by George himself to an 18-year-old staff member named Anthony Sherman.

An “extremely beautiful woman” angel showed George the birth, progress, and destiny of the new nation that became the United States of America. The angel also said that three great disasters would befall this new country.

Feb 23

Did martyrs become angels?

Feast – St. Polycarp

St. John the Evangelist served as mentor for this 2^nd century Asian bishop named Polycarp. In the dispute between the east and west branches of early Christianity over the date for Easter, Polycarp suggested that the two groups agree to differ in charity over the two traditions.

Polycarp provided a link from the Apostles to Christians of the next generation in those early days, a link between the Apostles and the early Church fathers.

Polycarp thought that the martyrs became angels at the times of their heroic deaths. This popular view, then and since and now, resurfaces sometimes.

The Catholic Church maintains that angels are always angels and human beings are always human beings. Humans do not become angels when they enter heaven.

Angels in bright raiment

Birth – George Frideric Handel

This highly original composer of the early 18^th century England composed the oratorio titled – the Messiah – with its angel choruses for the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ. In the hymn – Thine be the Glory – in his oratorio – Judas Maccabeus, Handel penned the line: “angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away.”

Feb 24

Calendar Angels

1582 –

Gregorian calendar replaces Julian calendar

Pope Gregory XIII took the lead in correcting the discrepancies in the Julian calendar, which by this time was in error by about 10 days. In October 1852, the Gregorian calendar went into effect in most Catholic countries.

Britain adopted it in the 18^th century and Russia in 1917.

The Gregorian calendar is now the most widely used calendar in the world, though some nations still use the Julian calendar. This means that they celebrate feasts and holidays several days later than users of the Gregorian calendar.

Lunar calendars, used by Jews and Muslims also have great variations from the Gregorian calendar.

Many art calendars depict angels for each month of the year.

Guardians of

Policia Armada

In 1926, the Sacred Congregation of Rites issued a decree declaring the Guardian Angels to be the patrons and protectors of the Policia Armada – the Spanish armed police.

Feb 25

Angel of Light

Birth – Ida Lewis

This keeper of a lighthouse off the coast of New England worked as an “angel” in her ministrations of warning, rescue, and hope to lost sailors.

Moveable –

Feast of Purim

Esther, hero of the Jewish people, rescued her people from harm like an “angel” who brings new hope.

Feb 26

Seeing angels

Birth in 1802 – Victor Hugo

“Angel is the only word in the language which can never be worn out. No other word would exist under the pitiless use made of it by lovers.” – Victor Hugo in Les Miserables, as given in Harper, page 30

There is a long tradition that claims that language itself was a gift of the angels and that is why those who write words find their muse in angels and why poets are considered to be angels.

Angels who foretell death

Birth – Johnny Cash

Johnny tells of his own experiences of seeing angels, once at the age of 12, and again as a grown man. The angel he saw foretold death both times.

Bright Angel

Observance – Grand Canyon Day

In 1919, on this day, an act of Congress established the Grand Canyon as a national park. Among the attractions of this park, people love to visit Bright Angel Canyon.

Feb 27

Forget me not angels

Birth – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In his poem, Evangeline, Longfellow likened the stars of the heavens to “forget-me-nots of the angels”.

In another poem, Tales of a Wayside Inn, Longfellow writes about a Spanish Jew who tells a tale of King Solomon and Azrael, the Angel of Death.

In Longfellow’s poetic drama, Christus: A Mystery, it is said that the angel of death makes the dogs howl at night.

Longfellow honors the legendary angel Sandalphon in one of his best-known angel poems, Sandalphon. This Angel of Glory, Angel of Prayer hears the prayers of the broken-hearted and changes those prayers into garlands of flowers.

Longfellow translated a French poem by Jean Reboul and gave this line: “An angel with a radiant face” whispered to the soul of an infant child: “Come with me!”

Astral and angelic orders

Birth – Rudolph Steiner

This seer with a “second sight” could “see” the spiritual world. He developed anthroposophy as a spiritual science. His angels took a prominent part in the personification of extern powers and forces. The names of Steiner’s angels come from the religions of both East and West. He organizes his angels into hierarchies. He drew parallelism between the astral world and the angelic hierarchical orders.

Shrine at Michaelion

Birth – Constantine

It was under the rule of this 4^th century emperor that persecution of Christianity stopped and the empire accepted the religion. 313 CE (AD) is the exact year that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

With influences from Persian art and Greek art, such as the winged Nike, angel art flourished. Christians began to depict their angels with wings.

After he experienced a vision of St. Michael the Archangel, Constantine built a shrine honoring Michael in a town he named Michaelion, some 50 miles south of Constantinople. Many physical cures and spiritual conversions took place at this shrine. Today, the site sits in Turkey, an area mostly inhabited by Muslims. Pilgrims continue to come to intercede with Michael for miracles. Muslims also honor angels.

Feb 28

Protecting Angels

Ten Boom family

On this day in 1944, the German Gestapo arrested Corrie ten Boom, her father, and her sister were arrested in Holland for hiding Jews. During their time in prison, Corrie personally experienced protection by God’s angels.

Feb 29 – in Leap Year

Angels and Anglos

Feast – St. Oswald

In the 7^th century, Oswald brought Christianity to England, land of the Anglos. St. Gregory referred to the people of England as “not Anglos, but Angels.”

Related entry – Sept 3 – St. Gregory

Solemn angels at Mass

Birth – Giacchino Antonio Rossini

This Italian composer of the 1800s wrote the Petite Messe Solennelle in 1864. The Mass hymns include the Gloria as sung by the angels at Bethlehem and the Sanctus as sung by the celestial angels at God’s throne.

Moveable –

Beginning of Lent

An Angel’s pardon

St. Michael’s Shrine at Gargano

The primary ministry of the Benedictine priests at this shrine is to offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation / Confession to those who come on pilgrimage. Part of the penitent’s journey includes the prayerful descent of the 86 steps down into the cave of the shrine.

First Sunday of Lent

Ministering Angels

After Jesus resists the three temptations of the devil (Satan), angels come and minister to Jesus. See – Matt 4: 6 to 11

In The Temptation of Christ, of the New York Frisk collection, the artist Duccio has painted two angels in white robes stand ready to minister to Jesus. Meanwhile, Jesus points at Satan in black, saying “Begone, Satan.”

Feb 5

2009-01-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

Agatha's Angels

Feast - St. Agatha

When St. Agatha appears to someone in need, she brings angels with her.

At St. Agatha Parish, we call those who clean the church - Agatha Angels.

Angels at home / at home with angels

Observance in China - honoring the kitchen god

Feb 4

2009-01-14T11:53:00.000-08:00

Angels of the Four Winds

Observance of peacekeeping with the forest spirits - by natives of Alaska

This observance brings to mind the connection between trees and angels.

Trees and angels in Scriptures include Genesis 18; Judges 6:11 - 12; Zechariah 1

Indigenous peoples who are close to nature also value the meaning of the four winds and the four directions.

See related entries - Arbor Day on April 30; also William Blake on Nov 28

Feb 3

2009-01-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

Healing angels

Feast - St. Blaise

Dr. Moolenburgh, an angel scholar, and others say that it is the Holy Spirit who brings healings which may also be accompanied by an angelic presence, if God so wishes.

The name of the Archangel Raphael means - "God heals." See related entry - Sept 29

Feb 2

2009-01-14T11:46:00.000-08:00

Hovering angels

Feast - Presentation of the Lord in the Temple / Candlemas Day

In artistic representations of the Presentations of Jesus in the Temple 40 days after his birth, many artists pain baby angels hovering just above the scene.

Mass texts echo angel praises

Death in 1594- Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina

His birth falls on Feb 2 or 3 in 1525 or 1526

Feb 1

2009-01-14T11:37:00.000-08:00

Celtic angels

Feast - St. Brigid of Ireland

Angels abound in irish folklore and songs.

The Celts have always held strongly to a belief that every soul has a guardian angel who watches over it from before birth until death. These deeply religious people known as irish developed a lay mysticism in the integration of personal angels with daily life.

Gaelic poetry preserves the angel tradition in poems like Michael, the Victorious, which prises the Archangel as Shepherd-Angel and Light-Angel.

The folk imagination of the Celts has kept alive the world of fairies, which some associate with angels. Some say that fairies were once angels who now have diminished size and diminished powers. For some, Like AE (George Russell), the fairy world belongs to a chain of beings descending from human life downward, much as angels ascend from human life upward. The folklore and fairy tales from every culture along with all sorts of nature spirits might just be manifestations of a multi-dimensional angel image and archetype.

February

2009-01-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

"Some have entertained angels unaware." - Hebrews 13:2

Black History Month

International Friendship Month

Jewish feast of Purim

Jan 31

2009-01-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

Angel's desire to help

Feast - St. John Bosco

"Our guardian angel's desire to help us is much greater than our desire to be helped by him"

- St. John Bosco, as quoted in Huber, page 76

Gabriel's message in music

Birth in 1797 - Franz Schubert

In his rendition of Ave Maria, Schubert celebrates and preserves Gabriel's message from God to Mary, asking her to be the Mother of God.

End of January

Angel Fire

At Angel Fire, New Mexico, a winter fest with all the cold weather and snow sports and activities gets under way.

Jan 30

2009-01-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

Hierarchs of angels and saints

Feast - in Greece - SS. Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom

See related entries - Jan 2 and Sept 13

Jan 29

2009-01-14T06:54:00.000-08:00

Gifts from the angels

Born in 1699 - Emmanuel Swedenborg

This man's thoughts, according to Parisen, pages 217 - 225), on angels fall into the themes of love, timelessness, freedom, innocence, peace, wisdom, joy, sorrow, perception, attitude, power, harmony, and unanimity.

At age 56, in a state of intense spiritual anxiety, Swedenborg came to a spiritual insight, a time of conversion. He conversed with spirits and kept a diary which shows how he lived and conversed in both the physical and spiritual worlds.

Swedenborg's descriptions of angels as male and female and of a three-layered heaven evoke images of 18th century gardens and needlework. Everything is orderly and finely detailed. Freedom of will becomes the basic principle.

Swedeneborg thought that angels live in heavenly communion with those who are of a like state of psycho-spiritual development.

It is reported that Swedenborg's father also saw angels.

Swedenborg considered his visions and ideas as special gifts from the angels.

"I have seen a thousand times that angels are human forms, or men, for I have conversed with them as man to man, sometimes with one alone, sometimes with many in company."

(Seldes, page 403)

Jan 28

2009-01-14T06:44:00.000-08:00

Angelic Doctor

Feast - St. Thomas Aquinas

The thoughts of Thomas Aquinas appear in many of his writings, especially in The Summa 1, sections 50 to 56. He devoted about one-twelfth of the Summa to speculation on angels. Thomas praised the purity and simplicity of the intuitive intellects of angels.

Thomas wrote in his hymn called Sacris Solemnis / Panis Angelicus of "Angels' Bread" becoming the "Living Bread" for the poor and lowly who receives Eucharist.

Thomas bears the title Angelic Doctor and Angel of Schools because of his great learning.

"An angel can illumine the thought and mind of man by strengthening the power of vision and by bringing within his reach some truth which the angel himself contemplates."

angel quotes -

Thomas said that each person receives a guardian angel at birth and that this angel continually lights, rules, guards, and guides the person entrusted to the guardian angel's care.

Jan 27

2009-01-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

Angels in church music

Birth in 1756 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

This composer echoes the angels' song in the Gloria and the Sanctus of the Coronation Mass, the Mass in C Minor, and the Sanctus in his Requiem Mass in D Minor.

Angels speak to Joan

Death in 1901 - Guiseppe Verdi

This composer expressed the difference between the good and the bad angels in Giovann D'Arco (Joan of Arc). He has the bad angels speaking to Joan of Arc as they sing a Neapolitatn bordell (brother) song and the good angels speak to her by singing church music.

Jan 26

2009-01-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

"Angel of mercy in a straw hat"

Australia Day

In A House of Trees: Memoirs of an Australian girlhood, Joan Colebrook describes her mother standing in the yard listening to someone's troubles as "an angel of mercy in a straw hat". (page 16)

Jan 25

2008-12-26T11:00:00.001-08:00

Paul's vision of angels

Feast - St. Paul

An apocryphal piece of writing called the Apocalypse of Paul tells how an angel took Paul on a tour of heaven where he met good angels, evil angels, guardian angels, judge angels, every kind of angel. Over the centuries, many have used apocalyptic visions of angels in their descriptions and depictions of heaven.

Pauline Christian Scriptures about angels:

Acts 27:23

Galatians 1:8, 3:19, 4:14

Romans 8:38

1 Corinthians 4:9

Hebrews 2:2

Jan 24

2008-12-26T10:54:00.000-08:00

Familiar with the Angels

Feast - St. Francis de Sales

Before he began preaching, Francis like to take a look around at all the listeners and greet their invisible guardian angels. (Huber, page 24)

"The guardian angels never abandon us, though we may abandon God."

(St. Francis de Sales, as quoted in Huber, page 114)

St. Francis advised his readers to make themselves "familiar with the angels."

David Garrick said of Oliver Goldsmith that he "wrote like an angel ..." This might also be said of Francis de Sales, patron of writers.

Angels are sometimes depicted with swords in their hands. The sword is a symbol of the power of truth, and the power of the pen, and the power of words, and the power of the Word. Not all swords mean war.

Jan 23

2008-12-26T10:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Angels

Feast of Happy Endings - in Brazil

Many legends and stories attribute happy endings to the work of angels.

Jan 22

2008-12-26T10:44:00.000-08:00

Angel of Life

Anniversary of Roe v Wade

Some believe that angels guard and teach the prenatal child in the womb. Jewish tradition says that Archangel Gabriel personally gives instruction to souls in pre-born babies in the womb while they await birth. Some say that Gabriel protects and insturcts the soul for the whole nine months of pregnancy.

"As far as Gabriel is concerned we can say that we have all known him before we were born." (Moolenburgh, Handbook, page 112)

Frederick Delius, an early 20th century musician, composed A Mass for Life with orchestra. The musical settings for Masses include the Gloria and the Sanctus, both hymns of angels.

Angels - "out of tune"

Born in 1788 - Lord Byron

This 17th - 18th century English Romantic poet claimed in one of his poems that the angels sang "out of tune".

"The angels all were singing out of tune, ..."

(from The Vision of Judgement, as given in Harper, page 30)

Angels - as lookers on

Born in 1561 - Sir Francis Bacon

"But men must know, that in this theater of man's life, it is reserved only for God and the angels to be lookers on."

(As given in Seldes, page 27)

"The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; but in charity there is no excess; neither can angel or man come into danger by it."

(As given in Seldes, page 28)

Jan 21

2008-12-26T06:56:00.001-08:00

Winged St. Agnes

Feast - St. Agnes of Rome

This 4th century teen martyr was a real person of the Roman upper class. She has a real grave on the Via Nomentana where the cemetery bears her name.

A web of legends surrounds the story of her brief life.

When Emperor Diocletian sent her into a house of prostitution, angels protected her, one legend says. Other legends tell of several escapes from harm and evil that Agnes received through the miraculous assistance of angels.

In the end, she was beheaded at the site of her grave.

John Keats, in his poem, The Eve of St. Agnes, uses several images and references related to angels. In the poem , Keats tells of -

"The carved angels, ever eager-eyed, ..."

Keats likens Agnes to an angel when he writes " ... and winged St. Agnes' saintly care."

The poem proceeds with a focus on the British practice of young maidens going to bed without supper on the Eve of St. Agnes. In bed, the maidens dream of the young men who might win their hearts.

Keats narrates how the aged woman named Angela lets in Porphyro to see the young maiden of the poem at prayer. Angela advises the young man to let the maiden dream alone "with her good angels" and he sees her as "a splendid angel" kneeling there.

Angels as ministers and messengers and as guardians and protectors abound in the lives and legends of other early women saints of Christianity. These include Agatha, Barbara, Cecilia, Dorothy, and Margaret of Antioch.

Go to - Eve of St. Agnes

Jan 20

2008-12-26T06:49:00.000-08:00

Peasants pray the Angelus

Death in 1875 - Jean-Francois Millet

Millet painted a scene of peasants praying the noonday Angelus while working out in the fields. The Angelus prayer of dawn (6 a.m., noon, and dusk (6 p.m.) honors the Angel Gabriel's visit to the Virgin Mary.

See - Millet / Angelus

In earlier times, the bells marked time for those who did not have clocks.

See - Edith Stein and Angelus bells - on Aug 9

In the new world, the explorer Champlain required the Angelus bells to ring out the time for the settlers.

Jan 19

2008-12-26T06:31:00.000-08:00

Angel Israfel

Birth in 1809 - Edgar Allen Poe

This U.S. poet wrote in Annabel Lee of "winged seraphs" coveting the love of the poet for Annabel.

In another poem, Israfel, Poe wrote about an angel in the Islamic tradition. Israfel's heartstrings make a lute and from it comes the voice of all of God's creatures. Though Poe wrote a footnote saying that Israfel is named in the Qur'an, actually this is not so.

See - Israfel

In his poem, Lenore, Poe wrote of the maiden "whom the angels name Lenore."

Guardian Angel Chapel

Angel experience of Alphonse Tobin Ratisbonne

Born into a wealthy Jewish family, Alphonse became a lawyer and a banker. He and his family harbored a particular aversion bordering on hatred for Catholics.

When Alphonse visited his friend Gustave Bussiere in Rome, Gustave's little daughter gave Alphonse a miraculous medal, a Catholic object of devotion.

Angered at first by this Catholic thing, Alphonse agreed to keep the medal to please his friend and not offend the little girl.

On the evening of Jan 19, Alphonse had a dream of a cross. The next morning, he experienced a sense of protection from a threatening dog. Upon seeing lights, Alphonse entered the Guardian Angel Chapel of St. Mary Major Church in Rome. There he felt and saw a vision of Mary as depicted on the miraculous medal given to him by the child.

This heralded a conversion experience for Alphonse. He took instructions, became a Catholic, and went on to become one of the greatest promoters of the miraculous medal devotion.

See - Alphonse Ratisbonne

See - miraculous medal

Related entries - see July 19, Nov 28

Jan 18

2008-12-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

Angel of the Annunciation

Feast - St. Priscilla

In the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria in Rome, a fresco of the Annunciation shows the Angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she is to be the Mother of Jesus. This cemetery includes one of the oldest catacombs (underground burial places) of the early Christians.

Jan 17

2008-12-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

An Angel Angler

Feast - St. Antony (Anthony) of Egypt

This prototype of desert monks began his hermit life at age 20. Antony established religious life by gathering other hermits into loose communities.

At age 90, Antony defended the Christian Church against the Arian heresy. Antony died at his hermitage on Mount Kolzin near the Red Sea.

One story about Antony tells how he was very hungry and saw his double in a pool. This double turned out to be his guardian angel who showed him how to catch fish and satisfy his hunger.

Antony had this to say about the joy and pain that humans cause the angels:

"Our turning aside from the Way is not a loss to use only, but a weariness for the angels and for all the saints in Christ Jesus. Our humiliation gives grief to them all, and our salvation gives joy and refreshment to them all." (Quotable Saints, page 194)

This thought connects with the verse in Luke 15:20 about the joy the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents.

Isaak Newton also had fun with words angel, Anglo, and angler.

See related Entry -

St. Gregory the Great also made a play on the words of angel, and Anglos (the English).

See related Entry - Sept 3.

Earthquake Angels

1994 - Los Angeles earthquake

The city of Los Angeles, founded in 1781 as a Spanish mission, has grown to a city of vast proportions and a city continuously threatened by earthquakes.

The Angel Watch newsletter of April 1994 ran the photo of a store front in the aftermath of the earthquake there. The picture shows a large window boarded up with a sign that read - Open for Business - with the outline of an angel's halo and wings at the top of the sign. The photo caption read: "The people of the City of Angels know how to keep their spirits up (pun intended!.)

Related entries - see August 2 and Sept 4

Jan 16

2008-12-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

Free as an Angel

Religious Freedom Day

On this day in 1786, the state of Virginia adopted a religious freedom statue, which later became the model for the 1st Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Related Entry - see July 4

Visions of Angels

Feast - St. Fursey (Furseus)

This 7th century Irish monk became famous for his ecstasies about which St. Bede the historian made comments. In these ecstasies, angels took Fursey up to heaven and from there Fursey could see the world below. Fursey established monasteries in England and France. He was buried at Picardy in France. A shrine honoring him lasted there until French Revolution destroyed it.

3rd Sun of January

2008-12-22T06:56:00.000-08:00

Presiding Angel / Master Angel

Observance - World Religion Day

"Mystical writers confirm the legend that every temple, mosque, cathedral, abbey, and church is placed under the direction of a presiding angel. Furthermore, they say, all great civilizations have a master angel who guides it according to some divine plan toward a worldwide order." (Humann, page 15)

The words for angel in different languages and religions makes for an interesting study. Here's a beginning for you:

Ingel, Evangel, Angelus, Engel, Ange, Angel ...

The Baha'i religion sponsors World Religion Day. The Baha'i religion derives some of its knowledge and beliefs about angels from the ancient Persian religion and the teachings of Zoroaster. The three Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also trace their angels to ancient Persia.

"No one religion can claim them (angels) exclusively, and yet all religions can embrace them." (Lord, pages 36- 37)

" ... there are most likely angel protectors for religions." (Lord, page 37)

Jan 15

2008-12-22T06:40:00.000-08:00

Holy Angels

Feast - St. Macarius of Egypt

This 4th century father and mystic of the early Christian church composed many homilies, letters, and prayers. A Prayer to the Guardian Angel asks:

"Holy angel, ...

guide me by your influence ...

Yes, holy angel, God has given you charge ...

Protect me during the coming night ...

Intercede for me with the Lord ..."

Cherub Faces

Feast - St. Paul the Hermit

In a piece found in the Kress Collection of New York, two full-bodied angels assist the dying saint. Meanwhile two cherub faces with wings hover above the scene in the painting of the Death of St. Paul the Hermit by Sebastian Ricci.

Tender Angel

Feast - St. Habakkuk

This man served as one of the 12 lesser prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures in the 7th century BCE.

Chapter 14 of the Book of Daniel tells the story of how Habakkuk was taking a basket of bread to some workers in the fields. An angel grasped Habakkuk by the hair of his head and carried him off to feed the bread to Daniel trapped in the lions den. This experience of Habakkuk prefigures the events at the Last Supper when Christ takes bread, blesses it, and feeds it to his Apostles. In this way, Jesus Christ institute the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Bread of Angels.

In a Vatican art treasure, Habakkuk and the Angel, Gian Lorenzo Bernini sculpted an Angel pointing to Daniel. Bernini depicted the angel as boyish, tender, and almost chubby, with soft-looking hair and fluffy wings.

Angels - on Whose Side?

Persian Gulf War began in 1991

It was said that Saddam Hussein told his troops that the angels were on his side. Those defending Kuwait claimed that the angels were on their side.

In a war, whose side are the angels on? In a war, whose side is God on?

Scripture: 2 Kings 19:5, 1 Chronicles, Ch 21, and 32:21

Jan 14

2008-12-09T11:27:00.000-08:00

Angels - in Silence

Birth in 1913 - Tillie Olsen

This Jewish feminist writer found great meaning in silences and wrote much about the good use of silence. Her book - Silences - was published in 1978, and reprinted in 1988, and again in 2003

Some consider angels as the voice in the silence, - the still, small voice.

Tobias Palmer writes in An Angel in My House that "Even when an angel crosses our path in silence" we know of God' presence in our lives.

"Ein Engel flog durchs Zimmer"

"An Angel flew through the room."

This German proverb in modern idiom - "An Angel just passed"

It is sometimes said when a group of people fall silent, as sometimes happens 20 minutes into a meal or at other social gatherings. Further meanings are derived, for example, if one of the persons has his or her feet crossed, it is not a good angel that has passed.

Jan 13

2008-12-09T11:22:00.000-08:00

Prophets and Angels

Feast - St. Hilary of Poitiers

This saint makes the connection between prophets and angels.

"The prophet hastens to accomplish the action

which the Angels contemplate spiritually."

( - St. Hilary, as quoted in Wilson, page 74)

Blessed Angels

Death in 1599 - Edmund Spenser

In his epic poem, The Faery Queen, Spenser wrote:

"The blessed angels He sends to and fro."

And also:

"Her angels' face"

made a shay place into sunshine

Jan 12

2008-12-09T11:08:00.001-08:00

Angels and Fairies

Birth in 1628 - Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault authored many fairy tales. People today make connections between fairies and angels as ephemeral beings and spiritual guides.

Angel prince

Egyptian church honors Michael, Archangel, on 12th of each month.

The Book of Daniel mentions Michael by name twice - 10:21 and 12:1. The Book of Revelations mentions Michael in 12:7 - 9. Here the writer describes the great battle of the end times between Michael and Satan.

Older Catholics may remember the prayer at the end of Mass years back:

St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle;

be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

Related: see entries for May 2, Pope Leo XIII, and for Sept 29.

Jan 11

2008-12-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

Adoration of Angels

Death - Domenico Ghirlandaio

This artist painted the Adoration of the Magi, which shows adoring angels along with adoring kings.

Other artists also place angels in their depictions of the Magi adoring the newborn Christ Child. Link

Jan 10

2008-12-03T07:16:00.000-08:00

Angel Choirs

Midwinter

In the Huron Christmas carol, 'twas in the moon of wintertime, by Father John de Brebeuf, SJ, 17th century missionary to the Huron tribe of North American, there is a ling that tells how "Mighty Gitchi Manitou" sent "angel choirs" when all the birds had feld. This hymn is found in the St. Pius X Hymnal #171, and is included in some recordings of Christmas carols. You can also find many versions of it on iTunes.

In the presence of the angels

1889 - Reception and Clothing as a nun of St. Therese of Lisieux

In her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, Therese describes the day of her reception and clothing at Carmel, the day of January 10, 1889. In speaking of the visiting bishop's kindness to her, she wrote that "God reminded me of the caresses He will bestow upon me in the presence of the angels and saints, and now He was giving me only a faint image of this." (page 156)

And a few paragraphs later, in speaking of heavenly treasures attained through suffering, Therese writes that the treasure "must cause a holy jealousy to the angels of the heavenly court." (page 157)

Related: see entries of April 9 and Oct 1.

A Time of Angels

1920 - Founding of the League of Nations

I came across a book in a library. It's title - A Time of Angels - caught my attention. Its subtitle - The Tragicomic History of the League of Nations (1975). Its author - Elmer Bendiner.

Jan 9

2008-12-03T07:11:00.000-08:00

Black Angels

Asian-American observance of the "The Black Nazarene"

Most angel authorities hold the idea that people tend to see angels in the racial and cultural features with which they are familiar.

Is it racist to think that all angels are white ?

"A missionary to the Andes saw an angel that looked like a national from Ecuador;

"A Mexican family saw two angels who looked like Mexicans;

"In Haiti the angels were very black;

"White Americans saw angels who resembled their neighbors;

"Black persons saw black angels."

(Webber & Webber, page 162)

Jan 8

2008-12-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

Angel Artist

Death in 1337 - Giotto

Giotto painted angels into his renderings of the Last Judgement. He also shows the sing-winged serpah angel in his painting of Francis Receives the Stigmata.

To see angels in Giotto paintings, click on this link.

Related: see entry for Sept 17

Angel books

World Literacy Day

This is a good day to find a book about angels at your local library or bookstore.

Jan 7

2008-12-03T07:06:00.000-08:00

Snow Angel

Any winter day

Some day in winter, when there's snow on the ground, make a snow angel or show a child how to do it.

Early January

2008-12-03T06:56:00.001-08:00

Angels at the Jordan

Moveable feast - the Baptism of Christ

Scripture: Mark 1:3, Luke 4:10

When artists have painted the scene of Christ's Baptism at the Jordan River, they have often included angels.

Angels appear in the painting of the Baptism of Christ by Tintoretto.

Two angels stand on the shore holding the robes and clothes as John baptizes Jesus in the river in the painting of The Baptism of christ by artist known as the Master of the Life of St. John the Baptist. The National Gallery in Washington, DC, houses this painting.

To see paintings of the Baptism of Christ, click on the underlined words. Many of these have angels hovering around Jesus and John.

Jan 6

2008-12-03T06:37:00.000-08:00

Abraham,God and two angels
Source - commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Doré?uselang=fr
Gustave Doré, 6 avril 1852
Permission - This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: this image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

Warned by an Angel

12th day of Christmas

Feast of Three Kings

Scripture: Matt, Ch 2

The three kings - Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar - also known as Magi - received a warning from an angel to not return to King Herod.

A bishop and an angel

Birth in 1913 - Loretta Young

Loretta played the wife in the movie called The Bishop's Wife. In the movie, an angel helps the bishop to see that his wife and daughter are more improtant than the building of a new cathedral.

Loretta also read the story of the Littlest Angel for TV at Christmas time.

Related: see entry for Dec 25

Angel Artist

Birth in 1832 - Gustav Doré

This artist created lithographs of the large folio Bible and also of the Inferno of Dante. Angels abound in both sets of art prints and often show up in contemporary books about angels. See artwork at beginning of this post.

Jan 5

2008-12-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

Feast - St. John Neumann

Holy Guardian Angels

This 19th century missionary priest from Bohemia to the Niagara Frontier of Western New York - my hometown area - and later bishop of Philadelphia, mentions angels (and demons - fallen angels) in some of his written prayers which have survived.

In his Prayer to the Child of Bethlehem,

John asks the "angels and saints of God" to "teach me how to adore the dwelling of the Divine Child".

In his Prayer in Discouragement,

John prays that Jesus may "banish the demon of discouragement."

In his Prayer for Those in our Charge, John wrote and prayed:

"Holy Guardian Angels of these dear ones, teach me how to act towards them so as to be able to instill into their hearts the maxims of faith and true love of God."

John prayed:

"My holy Guardian Angel, my faithful guide, accept my tears of repentance and present them to my Judge and to my Redeemer."

And,

"Before all the angels and saints, I promise that I will love Thee in joy and consolation."

I selected this sampling of John's awareness of angels as seen in his prayers from a small booklet of prayers adapted from his diaries and printed in 1964 by the St. John Neumann Center in Philadelphia, Penn.

Jan 4

2008-12-02T06:32:00.000-08:00

Feast - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

An Angel said; "Peace"

Scripture: Book of Tobit, Book of Daniel, Gospel of Luke

Wife and mother, educator and founder, Elizabeth's canonization in 1975 made her the first native-born U S citizen to receive the title of saint in the Catholic Church.

In a book, titled Elizabeth Seton's Two Bibles: Her Notes and Markings (1977), author Ellin M. Kelly shows how Elizabeth read, marked, made notes, and pondered the words of Scripture.

This author points out in particular the markings that Elizabeth made in the Book of Tobit, the Book of Daniel, and the Gospel according to Luke.

For Tobit 3:25, Elizabeth noted that God sent Archangel Raphael to heal. In Tobit 6:7, she noted that Tobias addressed the Angel as Brother Azariah. In Tobit 11:2, she noted that this Angel addressed Tobias as brother. In Tobit 12:7, she wrote that the Angel said to them: "Peace."

In her markings in the Book of Daniel, for 9:21, Elizabeth underlined twice the phrase - "man Gabriel".

In Luke 1;11 and 1:19, Elizabeth marked "I am Gabriel" and also "the angel Gabriel was sent from God."

These selections give a feel for how Elizabeth found and valued the angels she found in the Scriptures.

Feast - St. Angela of Foligno

Angels bring Joy

This 13th century mother and Third Order lay Franciscan told how the sight of the angels brought her such great joy that had she not experienced it herself, she would never have believed it could be true.

While praying in the cathedral at Foligno, Angela would call on the angels and they would appear to her.

(Huber, page 116)

"The presence of the angels filled me with joy; if I had not felt it I would not have believed that the sight of angels could cause such joy."

(- St. Angela of Foligno, as given in Huber, page 116)

Jan 3

2008-12-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

Clouds as angels

Lakota Lost Bird - Zintkala Nuni

On Jan 3, 1981, on the killing fields of the Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, one infant girl was found still alive, protected by the dead body of her mother. An army family adopted this Native American child of the Lakota Tribe.

As an adult, Zintkala worked for the Wild West Show of Buffalo Bill. At her death, she was buried in California.

In 1991, on Jan 3, her native people brought her body back to Wounded Knee for final burial among her own.

In their Invocation for Storing Corn, the Nahuatl Indians of 17th century America invoke the Goddess of Corn to "hold up the four directions." A missionary priest who recorded and preserved the native Mesoamerican beliefs feels that the Indians believed the "clouds are angels."

(Women in Praise of the Sacred, page 147)

20th Century Michael

birth in 1892 - J(ohn) R(onald) Tolkien''

Dr. H.C. Moolenburgh says that:

"It is clear that Tolkien has taken the angel Michael

as an example in his prophetic work."

(Handbook, page 106)

In Tolkien's post-war novel, The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf stands as a mighty power and force for good. He is so old that he is immortal. He is a fiery personage dressed in shining white on a great white horse. He comes from the East carrying a sword called Glamdring. He is the 20th century Michael in all his radiance.

Jan 2

2008-12-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

Prince of the heavenly Hosts

Feast - St. Basil

This 4th century bishop and doctor of the church saw Michael as the highest among the angels. Even though an archangel from the second lowest choir of angels, Michael is seen as associated with the highest choir, the seraphim. Basil saw Michael as a Prince of the heavenly Hosts.

Also, St. Basil says:

"Sin turns away angels

as smoke turns away bees

and as a nasty stench puts to flight doves."

(Long, page 97)

Another saying of Basil:

"It is a teaching of Moses

that every believer has an Angel

to guide him as a teacher and a shepherd."

(Wilson, page 73)

And yet another:

" ... each one of the faithful has an Angel

who directs his life as a teacher and a shepherd."

(Lord, page 53)

The Catechism of the Universal Church, 1994,

uses this thought of Basil's, expressed as:

"Beside each believer stands an angel

as protector and shepherd leading him to life."

(Par, 336)

Feast - Abel of the Hebrew Scriptures

Cherubim with Sword

Scripture - Genesis 3:24

The Angel of Light and the Angel of Darkness played out their struggle in the story of Cain killing his brother Abel, as told in the Book of Genesis. Eve and Adam, the parents of these two boys, would have told them about the Cherubim with the flaming sword guarding the gates of the Garden of Eden.

Jan 1

2008-12-01T07:04:00.000-08:00

Feast - Mother of God / Theotokos

Accompanied by Angels

Many have noted that wherever Jesus and Mary are, there are angels accompanying them, host of angels with them.

World Day of Peace -

Angel of Peace

The Fatima Angel asked the children to pray for world peace.

One of the ways to discern a true angelic experience is by the peace and goodness which follows the moment.

"And let it be that angels lead us in peace ..."

(As given in A Prayer to Got to Paradise with the Donkeys, by Francis Jammes, 1956)

Related: See May 13 and Oct 13 - Angel of Fatima

Fire and Light

Feast - St. Fulgentius of Africa

This bishop thought that good angels had bodies of fire and light and that evil angels (devils) had bodies of only thin air.

Andy Lakey - Famous Angel Painter

Angel Assemblage 2000

Andy believed that angels saved him from a near death experience in 1986. He began painting angels with texture to the artwork so that people with blindness could feel them. His vision of creating 2000 angel paintings done in time for the dawn of the new millennium, the year 2000, came together at New Year's of 2000.

The book, Art, Angels and Miracles, 1996, by Andy Lakey and others provided 100 of the paintings in color and stories of those who found hope in the artwork.

Dec 31

2008-11-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

"The angel did say"

Christmas hymn - The First Noel

This 17th century English hymn narrates the story of how the first Nowell (Noel - French word for Christmas) was told by an angel to the shepherds who saw a star. The same star also led the three magi to the place of Jesus' birth.

Personal -

One year, a girl asked to take the name - Noel - as her Confirmation name. At first, I wasn't sure. Then, I saw that it is simply the French word for Christmas and I agreed to the girl's use of the name of Noel.

Last Day of the calendar year

The world religions generally accept the idea that the great archangels - Michael and Gabriel who come on the last day. Gabriel will blow his horn. Michael will gather everyone.

Quran -

"Surely there are guardians watching over you, noble recorders who know of all your actions." 82:9

Quran -

"... it is righteousness -

to believe in God,

and the Last Day,

And the Angels,

And the Book,

And the Messenger." 2:177

Dec 30

2008-11-26T07:18:00.000-08:00

"Angels bending near the earth"

Christmas hymn - It came upon a midnight clear

With words by Edmund H. Sears and melody by Richard S. Willis, this 19th century carol lives on as one of the all-time favorites.

The hymn tells of

"angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold"

as each verse resounds with " ... the angels sing."

Dec 29

2008-11-26T07:15:00.001-08:00

Angels in the Psalms

Feast - King David of the Hebrew Scriptures

Scripture - 1 Samuel 29:10 / 2 Samuel 14:17 - 20 and 19:28

Also - many of the Psalms

People can learn from King David about fallen angels and how to deal with them. People can find many aspects of the angels in the 150 psalm prayers attributed to King David.

Dec 28

2008-11-26T07:08:00.000-08:00

Angel Children

Feast - Holy Innocents

Mary V. Hill in Angel Children describes the comforting presence she recieved from her dead son, a 4-month-old infant who died of a congenital heart defect.

Often, people refer to dead children as becoming angels. This isn't really so. Angels are angels and children are children.

Angels - a great idea

Birth in 1902 - Mortimer Adler

As part of the Great Books educational program, Adler met opposition when he suggested that angel were among the world's greatest ideas. From his reading and study, he drew the conclusion that nearly every great thinker in every culture had thoughts on these beings of the spiritual realm. Angels stayed on the list of great ideas, and as it turned out, they placed first on the alphabetical listing.

Adler's thoughts on the topic of angels came to published form in the early 1980s as a book titled The Angels and Us, a book that remained popular through the end of the 20th century. He treats the subject with a philosophical and historical bent. His leaning toward St. Thomas Aquinas shows through in his notion of absolute ideas.

Dec 27

2008-11-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Winged Eagle / Logos Angel

Feast - St. John, Beloved Disciple and Evangelist

Scripture - John 1:51 / John 20:12 / Revelations 1:1 / Revelations 5:2

In the Gospel according to John, Jesus is called the Logos, the Word. In literature and in art, the Logos Angel is considered an epiphany of Jesus the Word.

The Book of Revelations, authored by John, is from beginning to end about the work of angels. Also known as the Apocalypse, the Book needs to be read and interpreted as apocalyptic literature.

Christmas Hymns

These abound in angel references. Hark the Herald Angels sing.

Also - Cantique de Noel - O Holy Night - "O, hear the angel voices." This hymn was composed in 19th century France by Adophe Charles Adam.

Dec 26

2008-11-26T06:57:00.000-08:00

Face of an Angel

Feast of St. Stephen, protomartyr

Scripture - Acts 6:5 / Acts 7:53

Scripture writers tell that this very first martyr (proto) had "the face of an angel" at the time of his being stoned to death for his faith in Jesus.

link

Dec 25

2008-11-26T06:39:00.000-08:00

Angels herald the Birth

Feast - Birth of Jesus - Christmas Day

Scripture - Luke 2:15

The first Mass of Christmas Day, often celebrated at midnight, carries the name of the Mass of the Angels. The second Mass, the Mass of the Shepherds, and third Mass, the Mass of the Divine Word, follow in the morning.

Personal -

For many years, my brothers were given the altar boy assignment of the Mass of the Shepherds, which in the 1950s took place at 1 a.m. after the Midnight Mass. This meant that our family went to Midnight Mass and stayed on for the second Mass too. Nowadays, the second Mass is usually at dawn or early morning.

In the Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem, a church bears the name of the Chapel of the Angels.

Angel of Great Counsel is a name given to Jesus. The phrase appears in the Introit (Entrance verse) of the Third Mass of Christmas Day. It is a title of the Messiah and is derived from Isaiah 9:6. The Eastern Church uses the title in its Greek texts. The title did not carry over into the Hebrew versions.

A pious legend says that the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael go every Christmas Day to purgatory and bring home to heaven the souls still waiting there.

The Nativity at Night

An early 16th century painting titled The Nativity at Night was done in the style of the Dutch artist Hugo van der Goes. Seven adoring angels hover around the Child Jesus from whom rays of light emanate. This light appears brighter than the candle which Joseph is holding. The painting belongs to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Paintings like this incorporate the mystical writings of St. Bridget of Sweden who described her visions of the Nativity as a Child in radiant light in the midst of a darkened stable with Mary kneeling in adoration. Four of the angels also kneel in adoration while three hover just above the light coming from the Child who lies on a little bit of straw.

Many, many angels make their appearances at Christmas - atop the tree, at the nativity scene, as cookies, ornaments, children in pageants and plays, and more.

Angelus Bells

Death in 1635 - Samuel de Champlain

It was the French explorer Samuel de Champlain who made the ruling that the angelus bell should ring in the new world, morning, noon, and night as a reminder of the Angel Gabriel's message to Mary. The ringing of the bell also served as a way of keeping time - dawn, noon, and dusk - in the primitive villages.

Related entry: See March 25, feast of the Annunciation

Dec 24

2008-11-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Cherubim with flaming sword

Feast - Adam and Eve

Scripture - Genesis 3:24

In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve show how they coped with Satan and how God banished them from the Garden of Eden. A Cherubim Angel guards the age to the Garden of Paradise with a flaming sword.

Some Freudian psychologists see the libido as the banished cherubim capable of destruction, as the evil lurking within. Other thinkers see something of a balance of good and evil forces with the psyche. This is sometimes imaged with an angel perched on one shoulder and a devil perched on the other; both whisper words of enticement - to good and to evil, respectively.

In an 1808 watercolor, William Blake shows two angels watching, as guarding angels do, over Adam and Eve as they sleep. Blake's inspiration seems to have come from the setting of the Garden of Eden in Milton's Paradise Lost.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, holds the Giovanni de Paolo painting titled The Annunciation and Expulsion from Paradise.

In it, the scene of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden shows an angel taller than the figures of Adam and Eve.

The Finnish Angel

1939 - Finnish Russian War - Christmas Eve

The Finns found themselves in a hopeless military situation with no change of getting renewed supplies. Close to midnight, the soldiers saw a brightness that appeared as an angel holding a luminous cross pointing toward Finland. Somehow, the troops got supplies through that night and the Finns won the battle.

Dec 23

2008-11-25T07:06:00.000-08:00

Farmboy who saw an angel

Birth in 1805 - Joseph Smith

This founder of the Church of Christ of the Latter Day Saints, AKA Mormons, saw the Angel Moroni on Cumorah Hill in Palmyra, NY. Angel Moroni bid him to unearth a set of golden plates which held the scriptures for the people of America. When translated, this became the Book of Mormon.

Today, a huge statue of Angel Moroni overlooks the hillside where the annual summer pageant tells the story of this birthplace of the Mormons.

Related entries: see April 6, June 27, July 24, and Sept 23

Angels of Pompeii

Born in 1926 - Robert Bly

"I felt that the poetry of the angels

could best be communicated

when combined with the response of another artist

who perceived the angels message much the same as I."

This quote from Angels of Pompei by Stephen Brigidi and Robert Bly (1991) describes Brigidi's reason for inviting Bly to complement the photos with poetry.

On his first visit, Robert took photographs of the frescoes of angels on the ruins of the walls of Pompee. He returened again and again, growing in his fascination with the power, the mystery, the great "archetypal presence".

These still luminous images of ancient Roman gods and goddesses in the form of angels match well the poetry of Robert. The book uses poems both new and older with the photos to create a lovely art - poem.

National Day in Japan

Japanese Bagaku dancers appear as angels in a painting of Hanabusa Itcho and reproduced in Wilson (page 86). The caption points out that it is uncertain whether Japan and the Far EAst or the Middle East first came with angel images or whether it happened simultaneously as is often the case with archetypes of universal experiences.

Dec 22

2008-11-25T07:05:00.004-08:00

Dec 21

2008-11-25T07:05:00.001-08:00

Dec 20

2008-11-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

Angels make announcement

Preparing for Christmas

The Christmas hymn, People, Look East, with its words from Eleanor Farjeon and its melody from a Besacon melody, tells how the angels announce "with shouts of mirth" the coming of the Savior.

Dec 19

2008-11-25T06:58:00.000-08:00

The Littlest Angel

Preparing for Christmas

This child's story tells the beauty of Christmas. Loretta Young has read it for television audiences.

Dec 18

2008-11-25T06:41:00.001-08:00

Angels trim God's Lamps

Died in 1957 - Dorothy Sayers

In her poem, The Gates of Paradise, Dorothy says that angels abide in Heaven where they trim God's lamps and make light for those who travel the dim road of death.

When the time of death comes, the angels bring the light down to brighten the souls' walk to Paradise. Her poem goes on to tell how sin puts out this light and specifically how Judas, the betrayer of Christ, lost his light but found another.

Angelus Novus

Born on Dec 18, 1879 - Paul Klee

This artist painted a watercolor titled Angelus Novus.

Angels attend our steps

Born in 1701 - Charles Wesley

This Methodist leader wrote in one of his many hymns about angels as those who guard and protect.

"Angels, Where'er we go,

Attend our step whate'er betide

With watchful care their charge defend,

And evil turn aside."

Many- splendoured thing

Born in 1859 - Francis Thomson

In his poem, Little Jesus,

Francis talks with Jesus and asks him if he wondered where the angels were when they didn't show up on earth to help him get dressed. And Francis himself wonders if Jesus played with the smaller angels using the stars for marbles.

(Personal note - I remember memorizing this poem when I was in grade school.)

Francis wrote in The Kingdom of God that the "angels keep their ancient places" and that it is our own estangement from them that causes us to miss "the many-splendoured thing."

Dec 17

2008-11-25T06:34:00.000-08:00

God's Angels Come in Silence

Born in 1807 - John Greenleaf Whittier

This American poet wrote in his poem, To my Friend on the death of his Sister, that God's angels come in silence as their blessing in the moments of great sorrow.

Link

He also wrote in My Soul and I:

"Like the patrirach's angel hold it fast

'Till it gives its blessing."

Related entry - April 16 - Jacob and the Angel

Dec 16

2008-11-23T08:46:00.001-08:00

Gloria and Sanctus

Born in 1770 - Ludwig von Beethoven

This German composer with a condition of deafness composed some great Mass settings for the Gloria and Sanctus, both types of hymns sung by the angels. Some of the most famous include Missa Solemnis and Mass in C.

When Beethoven came near to death, he announced:"I shall hear." Some feel that this conviction came from the presence of angel.

"Happy on Prayer and Music"

Born in 1863 - George Santayana

"If some angel appeared to me without a carnal body and assured me that it was perfectly happy on prayer and music, I should congratulate him, but shouldn't care to emulate him."

(- G. Santayana, in Letters, as given in Harper, page 31)

Dec 15

2008-11-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

Angels, Anglers, and Angles

Death in 1683 - Isaak Walton

This British writer had some fun with the words - angles, angels, and anglers. He wrote The Compleat Angler.

Related - see Dec 13 - More Angel Anglers

Also - Sept 3 - St. Gregory who made a pun with the words - Anglo and Angel.

There is a species of fish known as angelfish

Dec 14

2008-11-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

Alabama Angels

1819 - Alabama entered the U.S. as 22nd state

In The Alabama Angels (1993), authored and illustrated by Mary Barwick, two delightful stories entertain and teach readers and listeners of the presence of angels.

In the first story, Bubba, Sara, and Emily - the Alabama Angels - show up during the night to do unfinished chores and to rock the baby back to sleep.

In the second story, God sends the Angels to a small town - Anywhere L. A. (Lower Alabama) - to show the people how to work together to save the town.

Suitable for Christmas or Easter or any time, the stories bring the joy of angels in the "flutter of wings and footprints in the sound of tiny feet".

Related - Roger Whittaker song - Christmas angels

Beauty of Singing Angels

Death in 1985 - Catherine de Hueck Doherty

This woman who brought Russian spirituality to Combermere, Canada, tells of the beauty of singing angels in A Treasury of Russian Spirituality. (Where Angels Walk, page 227)

Dec 13

2008-11-23T08:23:00.001-08:00

Singing Angels

Death in 1466 Donatello

Italy has used Donatello's Dinging Angels on its national postage stamp.

Art prints, small and large, of the Singing Angles became very popular in the 1990s.

More Angel Anglers

Birth in 1890 Marc Connelly

In 1930, Marc received the Pulitzer prize for his play titled The Green Pastures, which ran for 640 consecutive performances in New York City. Adapted from Roark Bradford's Ol' Man Adam and His Children, the play tells the story of a Black boy who sees haven with large Black men sporting white wings who sit on clouds and fish. Angel Anglers.

Directed by Marc, the play also toured the country, became a film, went on television in 1957, and in 1959, restarted as a repeat as a play with the same all Black cast.

Dec 12

2008-11-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

Feast - Our Lady of Guadalupe

When an image of Our Lady appeared on the tilma (cloak) of Juan Diego, some said the angel holding her up is Michael; others said Gabriel.

Related - see Dec 9 - Juan Diego

'Drew one angel'

Death in 1889 - Robert Browning

In his poem, One Word More, Robert Browning speaks of a song which when sung "drew one angel".

Mountain of Brightness

National Day - Kenya

A prayer made by the Kikuyu of Kenya during a ritual under a Mugumu Tree (God's tree - fig tree) addresses Ngai (Sky God) and Mwene Nyaga (possessor of brightness) who lives on Kere Nyaga (mountain of brightness - Mount Kenya). (Shorter, #45)

Brightness and Light serve as images of God's presence in the form of angels.

Dec 11

2008-11-23T08:08:00.001-08:00

Birth in 1893 - Hector Berlioz

This 19th century musician of France composed L'Enfance du Christ, and a Requiem. Although a Requiem does not have a Gloria (song of the angels), the Sanctus derives from the words in isaiah where the Seraphim choir of Angels sings: "Holy, Holy, Holy".

Dec 10

2008-11-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

Panis Angelicus

Birth in 1822 - Cesar Franck

This 19th century composer and organist of Belgium, Germany, and France wrote several oratorios and Masses. His Panis Angelicus - Bread of Angels - remains a much loved hymn.

Angels save the House -

Santa Casa di Loreto (click on link)

Feast - Our Lady of Loreto

Legend has it that angels carried the home of the Holy Family from Nazareth to a new location when the invading Turks threatened to destroy the house. The story says that on May 10, 1291, the angels brought the holy house to the quiet little hamlet of Tersatto in Croatia, Yugoslavia. Three years later, on December 10, 1294, the house disappeared. Some shepherds reported that they saw it being carried away.

The house arrived in Loreto in Italy on December 10, 1294 - the same day - and people have revered it ever since as a holy place. Hundreds of saints and holy persons have visited the site. These include St. Francis of Assisi, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and Pope John XXIII.

Dec 9

2008-11-21T07:22:00.001-08:00

'Bright Seraphim'

Birth in 1609 - John Milton

In Paradise Lost and in Paradise Regained, Milton makes abundant use of angels, good and bad angels galore. Some have said the study of angels in these two works is a whole study in itself.

Also, in his work, At a Solemn Music, Milton wrote:

" ... the bright seraphim in burning row

Their loud up-lifted angel trumpets blow."

And, in On the Morning of Christ's Nativity:

"The helmed Cherubim

The sworded Seraphim

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd."

Dec 9, 1531 - Juan Diego's miracle

Juan Diego's tilma (cloak) receives the imprint of Our Lady of Guadalupe depicted as a young expecting mother supported by an angel and with the moon and at her feet.

This link will take you to the homily of Pope John Paul II as the biography of the Holy See for the canonization of Juan Diego.

Dec 8

2008-11-21T07:12:00.001-08:00

Feast - Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary

When Murillo painted his version of Immaculate Mary, he painted angels around her feet.

Devotional prayers and practices attribute to Michael the Archangel, the protection of Mary's purity from her immaculate conception in the womb of her mother Anna and throughout her life of virginity and purity.

Archangel Gabriel announced to Zachary the conception of John the Baptist in the womb of his mother Elizabeth. Some ponder the possibility that Gabriel also announced to Joachim, father of Mary, and Anna, mother, the immaculate conception of Mary.

Related - feast of St. Anne (Anna) - see July 26

Birth in 1894 - James Thurber

This humorist puts into the mouth of the baseball manager when the team is doing poorly in the story - Your Could Look it Up - "I wisht I was in heaven with the angels." (wisht - stet)