29 September: All Angels Day

Today is All Angels Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about angels.

1. The word angel derives from the Latin word angelus, meaning "messenger".
2. The Bible only mentions two angels by name - Michael, the angel who helped God cast down Satan and who leads the heavenly armies, and Gabriel, the messenger angel who announced the coming of Jesus. The angel Raphael is mentioned in the Apocryphal book of Tobit.
3. The theological study of angels is called angelology.
4. According to the Bible, there are nine different types of angels, arranged into a distinct hierarchy. Archangels aren't at the top. Not even close. The Seraphim are at the top, followed by Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers and Principalities. Archangels are second from bottom with only Angels below them.
5. This lowest category would be the ones that are most likely to be the “guardian angels” who assist, guide and possibly even save lives. It's likely they look human, for the Bible says that if you entertain strangers, you could be entertaining angels without realising it.
6. Cherubs are not fat, cute, naked babies with wings. They are humanoid, but have hooves instead of feet, four wings and four faces - the front face is that of a man, the right face is a Lion, the left a bull (or ox), and the rear face is that of an eagle. Their wings are covered in eyes, and they glow as if on Fire. So they are described in Ezekiel 1:5–11.
7. Angels were created by God and in the Christian tradition, have free will. Most of them chose to serve God but the fallen angels, the best known being Lucifer/Satan, were the ones who chose not to.
8. In 1978, over half the people in the U.S. who were asked, said they believed in angels.
9. Most, if not all the major religions believe in angels. In Islam, angels are made of pure light, so are usually invisible. Angels in Islam don't have free will.
10. Sometimes angels are depicted as women, sometimes as men. So which gender are they? According to scripture, they're neither.

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