The Seven Archangels

Full Explanation

Three archangels are named in Scripture, and each is given a job rather than a personality. Michael is the defender. His name is a question, Who is like God, and it is the question that settles every argument about rank in the universe. Revelation puts him at the head of the heavenly army. He is the one Catholics have turned to under threat for as long as there has been a Church. Gabriel is the messenger. He appears to Daniel, to Zechariah, and to Mary, and every appearance is an announcement that changes what happens next. When he introduces himself to Zechariah he does it by describing where he normally is: standing in the presence of God. Raphael is the healer, and his story is the most human of the three. In the Book of Tobit he travels with a young man for the entire length of a journey disguised as an ordinary companion, arranges a marriage, drives off a demon, and heals an old man’s blindness, and only at the end does he say what he is. Anyone who has ever wondered whether help was present without being recognised is reading their own situation in that book. So where does seven come from? From Raphael himself. At the moment he reveals his identity he says he is one of seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints and go in before the glory of God. That single line is the whole scriptural basis for the number, and Scripture never supplies the other four names. Names do circulate: Uriel most commonly, then variations such as Selaphiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel, Raguel. They come from writings outside the canon, chiefly 1 Enoch, and their history is tangled. The Church has been deliberately cautious here, and the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy discourages giving angels names other than the three Scripture provides. That caution is not fussiness. Devotion attaches itself to names, and a name that arrived through an uncertain channel can quietly carry other things with it. The three named angels are more than enough, and each one covers something people actually need: defence, a word from God, and healing on a road you are already walking.