Guardian angel (spirit)

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For other uses, see Guardian angel (disambiguation)

"Guardian Angel" (Schutzengel) (1840), by Matthäus Kern.

A guardian angel is a spirit who is believed to protect and to guide a particular person. The concept of tutelary angels and their hierarchy was extensively developed in Christianity in the 5th century by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The theology of angels, and tutelary spirits, has undergone many refinements since the 400's, and contemporary orthodox belief in both the eastern and western churches is that guardian angels protect the body and present prayers to God, protecting whichever person God assigns them to. The Roman Catholic Church calendar of saints includes a memorial for guardian angels on October 2.

1 History
2 Interpretations
3 Guardian Angel prayer
4 Notes
5 See also

[edit] History

The belief that God sends a spirit to watch every individual was common in Ancient Greek philosophy, and Plato alludes to it in Phaedo, 108. Similarly, the belief appears in the Old Testament, although it is not specifically articulated or delineated. In the Book of Daniel angels seem to be assigned to certain countries. Enoch 100:5, part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's inspired scripture, says that the just have protecting angels. In Acts 12:15 there is another allusion to the belief. In Matthew 18:10, Jesus says that children are protected by guardian angels:

"Never despise one of these little ones; I tell you, they have their guardian angels in heaven, who look continually on the face of my heavenly Father." (New English Bible)

[edit] Interpretations

Whether guardian angels attend each and every person is not consistently believed or upheld in patristic Christian thought.^[1] Saint Ambrose, for example, believed that saints lose their guardian angels so that they might have a greater struggle and persevere. Saints Jerome and Basil of Caesarea argued that sin drove the angels away.

The first Christian theologian to outline a specific scheme for guardian angels was Honorius of Autun. He said that every soul was assigned a guardian angel the moment it was put into a body, although such a thought requires the pre-existence of the soul/essence. Scholastic theologians augmented and ordered the taxonomy of angelic guardians. Thomas Aquinas agreed with Honorius and specified that it was the lowest order of angels who served as guardians, and his view was most successful in popular thought, but Duns Scotus said that any angel might accept the mission.

Guardian angels appear in literary works throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods. For example, the Anglican English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82), stated his belief in Religio Medici (part 1, paragraph 33):

Therefore for Spirits I am so farre from denying their existence, that I could easily beeleve, that not onley whole Countries, but particular persons have their Tutelary, and Guardian Angels: It is not a new opinion of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato; there is no heresie in it, and if not manifestly defined in Scripiture, yet is it an opinion of a good and wholesome use in the course and actions of a man's life, and would serve as an Hypothesis to salve many doubts, whereof common philosophy affordeth no solution.