When are we given our Guardian Angel?

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St. Thomas posited that a baby in the womb shares its mother’s angel, and gets their own guardian angel once they have been born, a la, the fruit is part of a tree, but once the fruit is separated from the tree, it becomes an independent creation entitled to its own guardian.

St. Anselm is widely quoted as positing, "“every soul, at the moment when it is infused into the body, is entrusted to the keeping of an angel.” But I have trouble finding the original source for the quote.

Other early church fathers suggested that only the baptized had guardian angels at all.

Me? I would probably lean towards Team Anselm. Aquinas was also a proponent of delayed ensoulment. If I disagree with Aquinas on delayed ensoulment, it’s reasonable to disagree with him on delayed guardianangelship. 😉 I also liked the personal anecdote of how the author came to write “Angel in the Waters.” But I don’t think when, exactly, someone’s guardian angel clocks in for duty has been doctrinally defined. 😃
 
Question:

What are the duties of a Guardian Angel? Do they take care of us physically or only spiritually? Do we talk to our Angel?

You mentioned the Guardian Angels at conception - Are they with a baby that’s aborted and/or miscarried? Just some questions mulling in my brain.

Thanks and God bless!!

Rita
 
I don’t think anyone knows for sure!

Unbaptized babies go through their whole life without any Guardian Angel ? :confused:
 
The Orthodox position is that a guardian Angel is received at baptism as the person is changed from a child of darkness to a child of light (hence the small exorcism at all baptisms), at least to my knowledge. I believe this position since I’m Orthodox and lex orandi led credendi. 🙂
 
I don’t think anyone can positively answer your question. What we do know is that we have one.
 
Kmon23 said:
The Orthodox position is that a guardian Angel is received at baptism as the person is changed from a child of darkness to a child of light (hence the small exorcism at all baptisms), at least to my knowledge. I believe this position since I’m Orthodox and lex orandi led credendi. 🙂
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Part of me wants to agree with this position, as Lutheranism also practices the ‘small exorcism’ at baptism (traditionally, the pastor yells for the evil spirit to leave right in the infant’s ear, causing them to scream out the demon. Conversely, the water had a soothing effect. :D). But then why would David state his dead child was with the Lord, if the child had not yet been circumcised/baptized? Scripture surely must trump the tradition?
 
Orthodox don’t really have the same view of unbaptized babies as Catholics (with the ‘thrust into hell if you have original sin or mortal sin’ type of language, especially from medieval times). Since with the view of ancestral sin we are only guilty of our personal sins (I know Catholics also agree with this since they say original sin does not equate to a personal guilt of Adam’s sin), Orthodox have no problems believing in unbaptized children being with the Lord (although we don’t presume to know with completely certainty as it is ultimately up to God).

So no, we also believe what is presented in scripture. 🙂
 
Kmon23 said:
The Orthodox position is that a guardian Angel is received at baptism as the person is changed from a child of darkness to a child of light (hence the small exorcism at all baptisms), at least to my knowledge. I believe this position since I’m Orthodox and lex orandi led credendi. 🙂
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“See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” - Matthew 18:10
biblehub.com/drb/matthew/18.htm

Unless all the little ones of which Jesus spoke in this passage were baptized, this would indicate that unbaptized children have angels too.
 
genevieve2K said:
Do you have a source? 🙂
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Its a Church teaching.

CCC 336 From its beginning until death, human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession. “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.” Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.

CCC 2319 Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God.
 
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