Feast of Guardian Angels

This feast, like many others, was local before it was placed in the Roman

calendar. It was not one of the feasts retained in the Pian breviary, published in

1568; but among the earliest petitions from particular churches to be allowed, as

a supplement to this breviary, the canonical celebration of local feasts, was a

request from Cordova in 1579 for permission to have a feast in honour of the

guardian angels. (Bäumer, "Histoire du Breviaire", II, 233.) Bäumer, who makes

this statement on the authority of original documents published by Dr. Schmid (in

the "Tübinger Quartalschrift", 1884), adds on the same authority that "Toledo

sent to Rome a rich proprium and received the desired authorization for all the

Offices contained in it, Valencia also obtained the approbation in February, 1582,

for special Offices of the Blood of Christ and the Guardian Angels."

So far the feast of Guardian Angels remained local. Paul V placed it (27

September, 1608) among the feasts of the general calendar as a double "ad

libitum" (Bäumer, op. cit., II, 277). Nilles gives us more details about this step.

"Paul V", he writes, "gave an impetus to the veneration of Guardian Angels (long

known in the East and West) by the authorization of a feast and proper office in

their honour. At the request of Ferdinand of Austria, afterwards emperor, he made

them obligatory in all regions subject to the Imperial power; to all other places he

conceded them ad libitum, to be celebrated on the first available day after the

Feast of the Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel. It is believed that the new

feast was intended to be a kind of supplement to the Feast of St. Michael, since

the Church honoured on that day (29 September) the memory of all the angels as

well as the memory of St. Michael (Nilles, "Kalendarium", II, 502). Among the

numerous changes made in the calendar by Clement X was the elevation of the

Feast of Guardian Angels to the rank of an obligatory double for the whole

Church to be kept on 2 October, this being the first unoccupied day after the

feast of St. Michael (Nilles, op. cit., II, 503). Finally Leo XIII (5 April, 1883)

favoured this feast to the extent of raising it to the rank of a double major.

Such in brief is the history of a feast which, though of comparatively recent

introduction, gives the sanction of the Church's authority to an ancient and

cherished belief. The multiplicity of feasts is in fact quite a modern development,

and that the guardian angels were not honoured with a special feast in the early

Church is no evidence that they were not prayed to and reverenced. There is

positive testimony to the contrary (see Bareille in Dict. de Theol. Cath., s.v.

Ange, col. 1220). It is to be noted that the Feast of the Dedication of St. Michael

is amongst the oldest feasts in the Calendar. There are five proper collects and

prefaces assigned to this feast in the Leonine Sacramentary (seventh century)

under the title "Natalis Basilicae Angeli in Salaria" and a glance at them will

show that this feast included a commemoration of the angels in general, and also

recognition of their protective office and intercessory power. In one collect God is

asked to sustain those who are labouring in this world by the protecting power of

his heavenly ministers (supernorum . . . . praesidiis . . . . ministrorum). In one of

the prefaces, God is praised and thanked for the favour of angelic patronage

(patrociniis . . . . angelorum). In the collect of the third Mass the intercessory

power of saints and angels is alike appealed to (quae [oblatio] angelis tuis

sanctisque precantibus et indulgentiam nobis referat et remedia procuret

aeterna" (Sacramentarium Leonianum, ed. Feltoe, 107-8). These extracts make

it plain that the substantial idea which underlies the modern feast of Guardian

Angels was officially expressed in the early liturgies. In the "Horologium

magnum" of the Greeks there is a proper Office of Guardian Angels (Roman

edition, 329-334) entitled "A supplicatory canon to man's Guardian Angel

composed by John the Monk" (Nilles, II, 503), which contains a clear expression

of belief in the doctrine that a guardian angel is assigned to each individual. This

angel is thus addressed "Since thou the power (ischyn) receivest my soul to

guard, cease never to cover it with thy wings" (Nilles, II, 506).

For 2 October there is a proper Office in the Roman Breviary and a proper Mass

in the Roman Missal, which contains all the choice extracts from Sacred

Scripture bearing on the three-fold office of the angels, to praise God, to act as

His messengers, and to watch over mortal men. "Let us praise the Lord whom

the Angels praise, whom the Cherubim and Seraphim proclaim Holy, Holy, Holy"

(second antiphon of Lauds). "Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before

thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have

prepared. Take notice of him, and hear his voice" (Exodus 23; capitulum ad

Laudes). The Gospel of the Mass includes that pointed text from St. Matthew

28:10: "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you that

their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."

Although 2 October has been fixed for this feast in the Roman calendar, it is

kept, by papal privilege, in Germany and many other places on the first Sunday

(computed ecclesiastically) of September, and is celebrated with special

solemnity and generally with an octave (Nilles, II, 503). (See ANGEL;

INTERCESSION.)

NILLES, Kalendarium Manuale utriusque Ecclesiae Orientalis et Occidentalis (Innsbruck, 1896);

BAUMER, Geschichte des Breviers, Fr. tr. BIRON (Paris, 1905); Sacramentarium Leonianum, ed.

FELTOE (Cambridge, 1896); Roman Missal and Breviary.

T. P. Gilmartin

Transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook

Benedictus Deus qui misit angelum suum

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII

Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org