What do Angels look like?

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fakename

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Normally they don’t look like anything because they are spiritual, but once they take a seeable form, what do they look like?

Is there anything we have to believe as Catholics about this?

I ask because the Biblical descriptions of angels are different from our modern descriptions.
 
fakename said:
once they take a seeable form, what do they look like?
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Angels don’t have a ‘seeable’ form. St Thomas Aquinas calls them “subsisting natures not residing in matter at all.”

However, angels can take on or assume the appearance of a physical body. St Thomas continues:

“Angels need an assumed body, not for themselves, but on our account; that by conversing familiarly with men they may give evidence of that intellectual companionship which men expect to have with them in the life to come. Moreover that angels assumed bodies under the Old Law was a figurative indication that the Word of God would take a human body; because all the apparitions in the Old Testament were ordained to that one whereby the Son of God appeared in the flesh.”

In which case, Angels could take on any kind of assumed body. Generally speaking, the asumed body will be very impressive since the matter will be formed by the nature of the angel. Thus, scriptural accounts of angelic apparitions tend to speak of ‘awesome’ and even ‘terrifying’ apparitions of incredible beauty and authoritative figures!

It is important to add that the assumed body is not simply an artificial object either; St Thomas says that “the angel perceives by the assumed body…” In other words, the angelic assumed body is animated by the angel in a meaningful way.
 
fakename said:
Normally they don’t look like anything because they are spiritual, but once they take a seeable form, what do they look like?

Is there anything we have to believe as Catholics about this?

I ask because the Biblical descriptions of angels are different from our modern descriptions.
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There is nothing to believe regarding their seeable form.
It seems they appeared like humans, but with extraordinary powers.
 
Very impressive and not a little awe-inspiring, possibly even intimidating - consider that the first words they generally say to mortals are a variation on “Don’t be afraid!”
 
If you encounter one, the angel will speak in Latin and you will understand every word 🙂
 
Arizona_Mike said:
Very impressive and not a little awe-inspiring, possibly even intimidating - consider that the first words they generally say to mortals are a variation on “Don’t be afraid!”
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Indeed - both prophet and evangelist fell to the ground at the mere sight of them. These aren’t the chubby, cute putti of Renaissance art: if you ask me to describe men in bright white robes with faces shining like the sun, four-winged and four-faced human-animal hybrids, wheels-within-wheels full of eyes, or six-winged beings burning like fire, I would say ‘terrifying’, even ‘shocking’.
 
I am not sure whether (click to see) this image despicts what was described by Lucia, on of the seers of Fatima. I know that one of the images of Fatima, not the most popular, was created taking into account Lucia’s description of Our Lady.

I am not so sure about the angel of Portugal.
 
I don’t think they have a seeable form unless they need one to communicate with us. It’s easier for them to communicate with them if they look somewhat like us. I think it might confuse people if an amorphus spirit appeared and started talking, they might be confused for God or the Holy Spirit. So, I think that most descriptions among humans make Angels out to be humanoid, which may just be so that we can relate to them better or perhaps to hide their purpose.
 
patrick457 said:
Indeed - both prophet and evangelist fell to the ground at the mere sight of them. These aren’t the chubby, cute putti of Renaissance art: if you ask me to describe men in bright white robes with faces shining like the sun, four-winged and four-faced human-animal hybrids, wheels-within-wheels full of eyes, or six-winged beings burning like fire, I would say ‘terrifying’, even ‘shocking’.
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and energetic. They’re always saying things like ‘Get up and go…’
 
mcrow said:
I don’t think they have a seeable form unless they need one to communicate with us. It’s easier for them to communicate with them if they look somewhat like us. I think it might confuse people if an amorphus spirit appeared and started talking, they might be confused for God or the Holy Spirit. So, I think that most descriptions among humans make Angels out to be humanoid, which may just be so that we can relate to them better or perhaps to hide their purpose.
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(emphasis mine)

I think you’ve touched on a problem here that is important to address. Angels are unlike people. When we say that a person is a bipedal animal, largely hairless, etc, we can define what is not human as well: ie, when I look at a lion I can say that it’s not a human.

However, Angels DO NOT have a specific physical form. When we see “angels” we must be cautious, because without particular grace we cannot tell if what we are seeing is an angel, Jesus (or another apparition of a Saint, such as Mary), or a demon. Thus it is important not to rely TOO much on what an angel might look like and more to cleave to what the church teaches us and the authority of the church in declaring these appearances valid or not.
 
Angels don’t have a ‘seeable’ form. St Thomas Aquinas calls them “subsisting natures not residing in matter at all.”

That sounds like the exact description of a neutrino, for the science-mined.😃
 
promethius said:
Thus it is important not to rely TOO much on what an angel might look like and more to cleave to what the church teaches us and the authority of the church in declaring these appearances valid or not.
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Hah! It almost seemed like you were going to be skeptical there for a moment, then you brought it right back around.
 
I can’t say what all Angels look like, only what the one Angel I encountered looked like. 😃
 
One “artist” thinks angels look like a bloody splat on a marble floor, because that’s what she is making the angel look like in our parish’s new “Angel Patio”.
 
Faithdancer said:
I can’t say what all Angels look like, only what the one Angel I encountered looked like. 😃
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No, listen to promethius! You will believe what the Church tells you like an obedient slave, don’t you know your place? It isn’t for you to interpret what is or isn’t an angel. If you have learned anything from the Bible it should be that obedience is more important than initiative.
 
Phage0070 said:
No, listen to promethius! You will believe what the Church tells you like an obedient slave, don’t you know your place? It isn’t for you to interpret what is or isn’t an angel. If you have learned anything from the Bible it should be that obedience is more important than initiative.
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That seems like an inappropriate remark for an otherwise light-hearted discussion. Issues to be solved with authority?
 
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