Gabriel the Archangel Throughout Salvation History
By: Joe Calabrese
Tags: Christianity, Christmas, Religion, Saint, Catholic

Saint Gabriel is most well-known by Christians as the angel who announced the coming births of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ in the first chapter of Luke. Yet he has a number of other scriptural and traditional appearances, as well. He is considered to be among the order of archangels, alongside Raphael and Michael. Though there exist many angels and heavenly spirits, these three archangels comprise three of only five angels named in the Bible (the other two being the demon Abaddon/Apollyon and Satan himself). Though Catholics tend to hold Saint Michael in the highest esteem and are often most devoted to him among the angels, Gabriel is arguably the most important of the three named archangels due to his mission’s continuous closeness to our Lord.

Angel or Archangel?

First of all, what is an archangel? The Church traditionally considers there to be a whole hierarchy of heavenly spirits, with archangels and angels occupying the “lower” end of the hierarchy. “Angel” means “messenger,” and so an “archangel” is a “chief messenger.” Saint Gregory the Great explained this in the sixth century:

Angels are called those who announce things of lesser importance, Archangels those who announce the most high. This is why it was not an Angel, but the Archangel Gabriel whom God sent to the Virgin Mary. In such a ministry, indeed, it was fitting that the greatest of the angels should come and announce the greatest news. — Homily 34, Pope St. Gregory I

It is noteworthy that Gabriel (along with Raphael) is never actually referred to as an archangel in the canonical Scriptures; only Michael is given that title in the Bible with certainty. Gabriel is only referred to as an angel in the text. However, it is reasonable to assume that Gabriel holds this distinction as well. Firstly, as Saint Gregory says above, if an archangel is one who delivers particularly important messages, then what angel is more worthy of the title than he who announced the Incarnation of Christ Himself?

Secondly, Raphael appears to hold a particular significance among angels, a significance apparently shared by Gabriel. Raphael calls himself “one of the seven, who stand before the Lord” (Tobit 12:15, DRA). Gabriel later refers to himself with similar language, saying to Zechariah, “I am Gabriel, who stand before God” (Luke 1:19, DRA). It seems that Gabriel is also one of these seven “important” angels Raphael speaks of.

Thirdly, a connection between Scripture and liturgy implies that the Church’s Tradition has long considered Gabriel and Michael to be in the same rank in the hierarchy. Gabriel is said to be “standing on the right side of the altar of incense” (Luke 1:11). Curiously, the same language is used for Michael instead of Gabriel in the traditional Offertory prayers of the Mass:

Through the intercession of Blessed Michael the Archangel, standing at the right hand of the altar of incense, and of all His elect may the Lord vouchsafe to bless this incense and to receive it in the odor of sweetness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. — Missale Romanum, 1962

If Michael is known through Scripture to be an archangel, and occupies the same “position” as Gabriel, then it makes sense that Gabriel would also be considered an archangel.

Gabriel’s Messages to Daniel

The first named appearance of Gabriel in the Scriptures is in the book of the Prophet Daniel. In chapter eight, Daniel receives a vision of a rampaging ram being destroyed by a one-horned goat. The goat’s horn was then replaced by four horns, one longer than the others, which knocked many of the stars from the sky and took away the continual burnt sacrificial offering from before the Prince of the heavenly host. The angel Gabriel was then sent to Daniel to interpret this vision:

“Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end… As for the ram which you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia. And the he-goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their rule, when the transgressors have reached their full measure, a king of bold countenance, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great, and he shall cause fearful destruction, and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people of the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall magnify himself. Without warning he shall destroy many; and he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes; but, by no human hand, he shall be broken.” — Daniel 8:17, 20–25 (RSV-CE)

Gabriel’s interpretation of Daniel’s vision reads like a prophecy both of upcoming historical events (the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great and its aftermath) and of the apocalypse (“the time of the end,” the casting down of the stars as in Revelation 12, etc.).

Gabriel returns in the following chapter to deliver a prophecy of Jerusalem’s desolation and, fittingly, of the coming of the Messiah:

“Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.” — Daniel 9:24–27 (RSV-CE)

Gabriel Announces the Immaculate Conception

The Protoevangelium of James is not considered canonical, inerrant scripture. Nevertheless, a good deal of its content was adopted as Catholic tradition, including the names of Mary’s parents (Saints Joachim and Anna) and the Presentation of the child Mary at the Temple (which is celebrated as a feast day on November 21). So although it is considered apocrypha and not an apostolic text, much of its narrative is held in high esteem by the Church. In the Protoevangelium, Joachim and Anna pray for a child in their old age. Unnamed angels are sent to respond to their prayers:

And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: “Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.” And Anna said: As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life.” And, behold, two angels came, saying to her: “Behold, Joachim your husband is coming with his flocks. For an angel of the Lord went down to him, saying: ‘Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold, your wife Anna shall conceive.’” — Protoevangelium of James

There is a tradition that the primary messenger among these angels was Gabriel himself. For example, a version of events similar to the one in the Protoevangelium appears in the seventeenth century private revelations to Venerable Mary of Ágreda:

The holy archangel Gabriel humbled himself before the throne of the most blessed Trinity, adoring and revering the divine Majesty in the manner which befits these most pure and spiritual substances. From the throne an intellectual voice proceeded, saying: “Gabriel, enlighten, vivify and console Joachim and Anne, our servants, and tell them, that their prayers have come to our presence and their petitions are heard in clemency. Promise them, that by the favor of our right hand they will receive the Fruit of benediction, and that Anne shall conceive a Daughter, to whom We give the name of MARY.” — Sister Mary of Jesus of Ágreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. 1, Chapter XIII, trans. Fiscar Marison

Gabriel Foretells the Births of John and Jesus

Gabriel’s next named appearances in the Bible are both in Luke 1 (previously discussed in more detail here). He is sent first to the priest Zechariah to tell him that his wife Elizabeth will, despite her lifelong infertility, conceive a child who will be the Messiah’s forerunner. When Zechariah expresses doubt, he is struck mute at Gabriel’s word until the child, John the Baptist, is born. Some months later in the same chapter, Gabriel most famously appears to the young Mary to announce her virginal conception of the Son of God by the overshadowing of His Holy Spirit.

After realizing his betrothed has become pregnant, an unnamed angel comes to Saint Joseph in a dream:

[A]n angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” — Matthew 1:20–21 (RSV-CE)

As in the Protoevangelium, there is a tradition that the unnamed angel is in fact Gabriel:

Yet though Joseph think on these things, let not Mary the daughter of David be troubled; as the word of the Prophet brought pardon to David, so the Angel of the Saviour delivers Mary. Behold, again appears Gabriel the bridesman of this Virgin; as it follows, “Behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph.” — Pseudo-Augustine

Although the Bible itself does not confirm the identity of this angel, is it not fitting that the archangel who has at least thrice foretold the coming of Christ (first to Daniel, second to Zechariah in relation to the Messiah’s forerunner John, and third to Christ’s own mother) should be the same angel who entrusts the coming Christ to His foster father Joseph?

“The Annunciation” by Fra Angelico

Other Possible Appearances

An old Divine Office hymn for the feast of Saint Gabriel from the Dominican Breviary, called “O robur Domini”, sings of Gabriel’s various scriptural appearances. Two verses in particular preserve yet more traditions that identify unnamed angels with Gabriel.

One verse claims that Gabriel is the angel who announces the birth of Christ to the shepherds near Bethlehem in Luke 2:8–14:

Good shepherds of the night / Heard angel voices sing, / As thou [Gabriel] didst come in light / Tidings of joy to bring / For them and all the earth: / That God, the King of might, / Hath taken form by human birth. — “O robur Domini”, translation from The Hymns of the Dominican Missal and Breviary, ed. Aquinas Byrnes, O.P.

Another verse identifies Gabriel as the angel who strengthened our Lord before His Passion during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22:43:

To Christ, when in His prayer / Great pain turned sweat to blood, / Thou didst bring strength to bear / God’s anger in full flood / Let loose upon His Son — / The Son He would not spare / Until the Holy Will was done. — “O robur Domini”, translation from The Hymns of the Dominican Missal and Breviary, ed. Aquinas Byrnes, O.P.

Gregory Palamas, a fourteenth century post-schism saint of the Orthodox Church, preserves a tradition that the “angel of the Lord [who] descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it,” whose “appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow,” (Matthew 28:2–3) who announced Christ’s Resurrection “was, after all, that same angel of the Annunciation, Gabriel” (Homily of Gregory Palamas For the Sunday of The Myrrhbearing Women).

(There is some controversy over how Catholics should view Gregory Palamas. On one hand, he was canonized by the Orthodox, not the Catholics, after the Schism; and some of his theology is controversial to say the least from the western point of view. On the other hand, he is still liturgically commemorated by some Eastern Catholics, and Saint John Paul II held him in some esteem. Regardless of this Orthodox saint’s status in Catholicism, he did not inherit this view of Gabriel as the angel of the Resurrection from nowhere.)

Gabriel’s Horn

Saint Paul the Apostle teaches that Christ’s Second Coming will be announced by an archangel and a trumpet:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. — 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (RSV-CE)

Nowhere in Scripture indicates who the trumpeting archangel is. Yet it should come as no surprise by now that at some point a tradition arose that just as Gabriel announced Christ’s First Coming, he will be assigned to ring out His Second Coming. In 1375, the “proto-Protestant” John Wycliffe implied that Gabriel would be the trumpeting archangel in a turn of phrase:

And men must needs see here, that their priest bindeth man above earth, when he bindeth man after God, and not for the flesh, nor for covetousness. And so this pope should teach men that he bindeth thus above earth, and neither in the earth, nor under the earth, but according to the keys above. But this will he never teach, before that Gabriel blows his horn. — John Wycliffe, De Ecclesiae Dominio

(Regardless Wycliffe’s heretical views, he lived in the thoroughly Catholic context of fourteenth century England. As with Gregory Palamas, his mention here of Gabriel is really unrelated to his non-Catholic views, but rather indicative of a tradition he likely inherited rather than pulled from thin air.)

Interestingly, all the way across Europe in Armenia, evidence of belief that Gabriel is the archangel of 1 Thessalonians can be found in a manuscript illustration from 1455, showing an image of him trumpeting as the dead rise:

“Dining in Paradise and the Resurrection of the Dead” (Walters MS W.543, fol. 14r)

The fact that an identical tradition existed in fourteenth century Catholic England (preserved by Wycliffe) and in a fifteenth century Armenian Orthodox monastery (preserved in the manuscript illustration) seems to indicate some currently unknown common source of this tradition from a previous date. This is reasonably strong evidence that Gabriel is indeed Paul’s archangel.

Conclusion

God created Gabriel, alongside all other angels and heavenly spirits, before He created time and space. Gabriel’s mission was to announce the coming of the Messiah, a mission he would begin carrying out centuries before Christ’s birth, most notably in his messages to the prophet Daniel. In preparation for the Incarnation, he foretold the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin to her parents. Later, he promised Zechariah that he would have a son, John the Baptist, who would be given the similar job of being the Messiah’s forerunner and preparing the Jewish people for Jesus’ life and preaching. Soon thereafter, Gabriel told the Blessed Virgin that she would miraculously conceive the Son of God and give birth to Him, and also encouraged Saint Joseph to be Jesus’ foster father. After Jesus’ Nativity, he revealed the world-changing event to humble shepherds. Due to his close connection to Christ’s coming, it was fitting that he was there to comfort and strengthen Him before His Passion. Then, just as He first announced Christ’s birth, he became the first to announce His Resurrection. Finally, how suitable it is that Gabriel will also be the one to announce Christ’s Second Coming, just as he did the First.

As Christians, we have a common apostolic mission to preach Christ and Him crucified and risen to the world. We should pray often for Saint Gabriel the Archangel’s help and intercession in this mission, which follows from his. His name signifies “Strength of God;” through his prayers may we be strong in our faith and prepared for our Lord’s return.

Gabriel is celebrated alongside Michael and Raphael on the Solemnity of St Michael and All Archangels on September 29.

He is celebrated on his own feast day in the Extraordinary Form on March 24, the eve of the Annunciation.