GUARDIAN
50
GUARDIAN
and Christ set a seal upon the Old Testament teach-
ing; "See that you despise not one of these little ones:
for I say to \'ou, that their angels in heaven always see
the face of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt.,
xviii, 10). A twofold aspect of the doctrine is here
put before us: even httle children have guardian an-
gels, and these same angels lose not the vision of God
by the fact that they have a mission to fulfil on earth.
Without dwelling on the various passages in the N.
T. where the doctrine of guardian angels is suggested,
it may suffice to mention the angel who succoured
Christ in the garden, and the angel who delivered St.
Peter from prison. Heb., i, 14, puts the doctrine in
its clearest light: "Are they not all ministering spirits,
sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inher-
itance of salvation?" This is the function of the
guardian angels; they are to lead us, if we wish it, to
the Kingdom of Heaven. St. Thomas teaches us
(Sumraa Theol., I, Q. cxiii, a. 4) that only the lowest
orders of angels are sent to men, and conseciuently
that they alone are our guardians, though Scotus and
Durandus would rather say that any of the members of
the angelic host may be sent to execute the Divine
commands. Not only the baptized, but every soul
that Cometh into the world receives a guardian spirit;
St. Basil, however fllom. on Ps. xliii), and possibly
St. Chrysostom (Horn, iii on Ep. to Col.) would hold
that only Christians were so privileged. Our guardian
angels can act upon our senses (I, Q. c.xi, a. 4) and
upon our imaginations (ibid., a. 3), not, however, upon
our wills, except "per modum suadentis", viz. by
working on our intellect, and thus upon our will,
through the senses and the imagination. (I, Q. cvi,
a. 2; and cxi, a. 2). Finally, they are not separated
from us after our death, but remain w-ith us in heaven,
not, however, to help us to attain salvation, but "ad
aliquam illustrationem" (Q. eviii, a. 7, ad 3 '").
For bibliography see .\ngel; and St. Thomas, Summa Theo- logiai iloc. cit.), with the commentaries.
Hugh Pope.
Guardian Angels, Feast of. — This feast, like many others, was local before it was placed in the Roman calendar. It w-as not one of the feasts retained in the Pian breviary, published in 156S; but among the earliest petitions from particular churches to be allowed, as a supplement to this breviary, the canoni- cal celebration of local feasts, was a request from Cor- dova in 1579 for permission to have a feast in honour of the guardian angels. (Biiumer, "Histoire du Breviaire", II, 233.) Biiumer, who makes this state- ment on the authority of original flocuments published by Dr. Schniid (in the "Tiibinger Quartalschrift ", 1S84), 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, Valen- cia also obtained the approbation in I'^ebruary, 1582, for special Offices of the Blood of Christ and the Guardian .\ngel3." So far the feast of Guardian .\ngels remained local. Paul \' placed it (27 Sept., 160S) among the feasts of the general calendar as a double "adlibitum" (Biiumer. op. cit., 11,277). Nilles gives us more details about this step. "Paul V", he writes, " gave an impetus to the veneration of Guardian .\ngels (long known in the East and A\'est) by the authorization of a feast and proper office in tlieir hon- our. .A.t the request of Ferdinand of Austria, after- wards emperor, lie 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 Sept.) the memory of all the angels as well as the memory of St. Michael (Xilles, "Kalendar- ium", 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
(0 .\pril, 1SS3) 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 sanc- tion of the Church's authority to an ancient and cher- ished belief. The multiplicity of feasts Ls in fact ijuite a modern development, and that guardian angels were not honoured with a special feast in the early Church is no evidence that the}" were not pra3'cd to and rever- enced. There is positive testimony to the contrary (see Bareille in Diet, de Theol. Cath., s.v. Ange, col. 1220). It is to be noted that the Feast of the Dedica- tion 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 Basilics 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 bj- the protecting power of his heavenly ministers (s-ujicrno-
rum proesidiis vnmstronim). In
one of the prefaces, God is praised and thanked for the favour of angelic patronage (patrociniifi .... aiujel- orum). In the collect of the third Ma.ss the interces- sory power of saints and angels is alike appealed to "qua; [oblatio] angelis tuis sanctisque prccantibus et indulgentiam nobis referat et remedia prociu'et a>ter- na" ^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 ed., 329-334) entitled "A supplicatory canon to man's Ciuardian Angel composed by John the Monk" (Nilles, II, 503), which contains a clear expression of belief in the doc- trine that a guardian angel is assigned to each indi- vidual. This angel is thus addressed "Since thou the power (l(Tx{>v) 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 Ma.ss in the Roman Mi-ssal, 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 mcs.sengers, and to watch over mortal men. "Let us praise the Lord whom the Angels praise, whom the Cherubim and Seraphim pro- claim 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" (Ex. xxiii; capitulum ad Laudes). The Gospel of the Mass includes that pointed text from St. Matthew, xviii, 10: "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to j-ou that their angels in heaven alwa.vs see the face of my Father who is in heaven." .\lthough 2 October has been fixed for this feast in the Roman calendar, it is kept, by papal privi- lege, 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; Inter- cession.)
Nilles. Kalendarium Manuale utrijisque EccUsub Orientalis et Occiilentalis (Innsbruck, 1S96); BXuMER, Geschichte des Breviers, Fr. tr. BiHON' (Pari". 190.5t; Sncrameniarium LconiO' num. ed. Feltoe (Cambridge, 1896); Roman Missal and Breviary.
T. P. GiLMARTIN.
Guardian of a Religious Order. See Custos.
