archangels

The Catholic Church recognizes the existence of only three Archangels, the three mentioned in the Scriptures: Michael (“who is like God?”), Gabriel (“strength of God”), and Raphael (“medicine of God”).

This clarification is necessary, because it could be argued that other archangels are mentioned in past texts, up to number seven in the Book of Enoch: Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel, Phanuel and Gabriel. The system of seven archangels is, in fact, an ancient tradition of the Judaic matrix.

The Catholic Church, however, considered it necessary to curb arbitrary and overly imaginative interpretations of texts that did not belong to the canonical Holy Scriptures. Let us remember that all individual traditions must be examined and verified according to what is reported in the canonical Holy Scripture, the only true Revelation.

So, regarding the Archangels, it was established in the Middle Ages that the worship and worship of the only three Archangels mentioned in the Bible were legal. Miguel, Gabriel and Rafael, precisely. Even in the past, in the early Church, there was a great commitment to prevent the worship of angels, influenced by heterodox practices and pagan traditions of divine messengers, from becoming a form of idolatry.