Matthew 18:10 and the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 336 teach that each and every human person is assigned an angel who watches over us throughout our lives. But is there empirical evidence to support this Scriptural and Magisterial teaching?
In short: Yes. And here are accounts of four saints who saw their guardian angels.
Padre Pio counseled, “Develop the beautiful habit of always thinking of him; that near us is a celestial spirit, who, from the cradle to the tomb, does not leave us for an instant, guides us, protects us as a friend, a brother; will always be a consolation to us especially in our saddest moments.” Padre Pio was also one of the rare saints who also saw his guardian angel.
When a young friar, Padre Pio was tested by his confessor who sent him letters in languages he did not know — Greek, for one. Yet Padre Pio knew exactly what the letter said. Shortly after, Padre Pio revealed, “And while the mission of our guardian angels, is a great one, my own angel’s mission is certainly greater, since he has the additional task of teaching me these languages.” With his guardian angel’s help, he was even able to write in different languages.
Sometimes the help came late, for a purpose. Once being beaten by devils, Padre Pio called for his guardian angel to help but the saint later explained, “There he was, hovering close to me, singing hymns to the Divine Majesty in his angelic voice.”
Related: One Break-in, One Angel
“But what if Padre Pio was just speaking figuratively or poetically?” some may ask. Here’s a second account, this time by St. Gemma Galgani, that leaves no room for ambiguity:
“Gemma saw her guardian angel with her own eyes, touched him with her hand, as if he were a being of this world, and would talk to him as would one friend to another,” writes her spiritual director and biographer, Venerable Father Germanus Ruoppolo, in The Life of St. Gemma Galgani. She said, “Jesus has not left me alone; he makes my guardian angel stay with me always.”
Her angel inspired her during her meditations on the Passion of Our Lord. He would tell her, “Look at what Jesus suffered for men. Consider each of these wounds. It is love that has opened them all. See how horrible sin is, since to expiate it, so much pain and so much love have been necessary.”
Once suffering and absorbed in prayer, she saw her angel standing by her bed. He told her, “Jesus loves thee greatly. Love him greatly in return.”
It’s worth noting that St. Gemma’s quite visible and vocal guardian angel also encouraged her to venerate Mary.
So, what do guardian angels actually look like? We get a pretty good picture from St. Frances of Rome.
He was so brilliant and blinding that she could not look straight at him but only at the aura surrounding him. But when she was in deep prayer or being attacked by the devil, or mentioning him to her confessor, her angel let her look directly at him.
She said he looked like a boy around 9 years old. “His eyes twinkled and danced as he looked at her. He had the kindest, most loving expression on his face. His (blond) hair was like fine golden yarn. It reached down his neck and shoulders. The light from his hair enabled Frances to read her Office at night,” wrote Bob and Penny Lord.
Contra cartoons and greeting card companies, angels are pure spiritual beings who were never human. St. Frances’ guardian angel probably appeared to her as a child because his visible apparitions were sent by God to console the saint after one of her own children died.
And if you find these accounts of saints’ interactions with their guardian angels too saccharine or sentimental, leave it to St. Faustina Kowalska to end on a more sobering note.
In the 20th century, this apostle of Divine Mercy also saw her guardian angel as well as other angels. Because of her mission, her angel once took her to purgatory and to heaven, where she saw saints. She also received a vision of hell. From these trips that God allowed she was to write of these places to inform people who were more and more losing the faith.
When a young nun, Faustina traveled with her guardian angel “to a misty place full of fire in which there was a great crowd of suffering souls.” She wrote:
They were praying fervently, but to no avail, for themselves; only we can come to their aid. The flames which were burning them did not touch me at all. My guardian angel did not leave me for an instant. I asked these souls what their greatest suffering was. They answered me in one voice that their greatest torment was longing for God.
Keep in mind, that’s a description of Purgatory. St. Faustina’s description of Hell is far more intense.
Also remember that if her guardian angel stayed by her side there, yours will never abandon you here.
Glory and praise to God for the holy guardian angels!
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Yesterday, Oct 2nd was the Memorial of the Guardian Angels in the Church calendar.
And Sunday was the Feast of St Michael and All Holy Angels…unless that’s a moveable feast. The finer points of the Catholic commemoration calendar elude me. If I weren’t a rather Anglican sort of Methodist, I wouldn’t even know that much!
I met mine, long before I was a Catholic and didn’t understand at the time. The realization struck me like a thunderbolt years later, when I first encountered the Church’s teaching on guardian angels while reading Gabrielle Amorth’s book for a class.
Tell us the story, if you’d be so kind.
I was driving home at night during a rainstorm, and trying to navigate around flash floods. I encountered an impassable section of road and tried to turn around in a driveway, but missed and dropped the back of my truck into the ditch. Between the slope and the wet grass I couldn’t drive out. I had a phone but didn’t know the number of a tow company, so I started walking until I found a house with lights on. I knocked on the door, explained the situation, and asked to borrow her phone book. Once I had a tow on the way, I returned to my truck.
At this point I realized I had also locked the keys inside with the engine running. As I stood there contemplating my stupidity, the walk back to the house to call a locksmith, and the likelihood of one still being open at that hour, I started to panic and then to despair.
From out of the darkness a man approached. He wasn’t nearly so wet as I – my shoes were soaked through. I remember he had long, dark hair and wore a beanie. He asked if I needed help, and I told him my predicament.
He proceeded to take a giant ring of keys off his belt. It looked like it was nearly a foot in diameter. The keys were of all shapes and sizes, and I wondered that I hadn’t noticed them before. The second or third key he tried unlocked my truck.
He offered to call me a tow, but I declined since I already had one coming. I thanked him profusely but was too astonished and overwhelmed to ask for his name or any explanation. He wished me well, walked out of the headlight beam, and vanished into the night.
The tow operator arrived a few minutes later and only charged me for a service call, since he barely had to pull my truck back onto the road. I went home and kept the story to myself for years.
Amorth’s book is about exorcisms, and he mentions the existence of guardian angels only tangentially. When I read that line, years later and before I was received into the Church, I was filled with an immediate and overpowering sense of understanding. I set the book down, dumbfounded, and wept at the realization of just who had come to my aid that night.
Glory to God!
Amen and amen.