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St. Gabriel the Archangel"Fortitudo Dei", one of the three archangels mentioned in the Bible. Only four appearances of Gabriel are recorded: In Daniel., viii, he explains the vision of the horned ram as portending the destruction of the Persian Empire by the Macedonian Alexander the Great, after whose death the kingdom will be divided up among his generals, from one of whom will spring Antiochus Epiphanes. In chapter ix, after Daniel had prayed for Israel, we read that "the man Gabriel . . . . flying swiftly touched me" and he communicated to him the mysterious prophecy of the "seventy weeks" of years which should elapse before the coming of Christ. In chapter x, it is not clear whether the angel is Gabriel or not, but at any rate we may apply to him the marvellous description in verses 5 and 6. In N.T. he foretells to Zachary the birth of the Precursor, and to Mary that of the Saviour. Thus he is throughout the angel of the Incarnation and of Consolation, and so in Christian tradition Gabriel is ever the angel of mercy while Michael is rather the angel of judgment. At the same time, even in the Bible, Gabriel is, in accordance with his name, the angel of the Power of God, and it is worth while noting the frequency with which such words as "great", "might", "power", and "strength" occur in the passages referred to above. The Jews indeed seem to have dwelt particularly upon this feature in Gabriel's character, and he is regarded by them as the angel of judgment, while Michael is called the angel of mercy. Thus they attribute to Gabriel the destruction of Sodom and of the host of Sennacherib, though they also regard him as the angel who buried Moses, and as the man deputed to mark the figure Tau on the foreheads of the elect (Ezech., 4). In later Jewish literature the names of angels were considered to have a peculiar efficacy, and the British Museum possesses some magic bowls inscribed with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac incantations in which the names of Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel occur. These bowls were found at Hillah, the site of Babylon, and constitute an interesting relic of the Jewish captivity. In apocryphal Christian literature the same names occur, cf. Enoch, ix, and the Apocalypse of the Blessed Virgin. As remarked above, Gabriel is mentioned only twice in the New Testament, but it is not unreasonable to suppose with Christian tradition that it is he who appeared to St. Joseph and to the shepherds, and also that it was he who "strengthened" Our Lord in the garden (cf. the Hymn for Lauds on 24 March). Gabriel is generally termed only an archangel, but the expression used by St. Raphael, "I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tob., xii, 15) and St. Gabriel's own words, "I am Gabriel, who stand before God" (Luke 1, 19), have led some to think that these angels must belong to the highest rank; but this is generally explained as referring to their rank as the highest of God's messengers, and not as placing them among the Seraphim and Cherubim (cf. St. Thomas, I, Q. cxii, a.3; III, Q. xxx, a.2, ad 4um). In addition to the literature under ANGEL and in the biblical dictionaries, see PUSEY, The Prophet Daniel (London, 1868); EDERSHEIM, Jesus the Messiah (London and New York, 1890), Append. XIII; H. CROSBY, Michael and Gabriel in Homiletic Review (1890), XIX, 160-162; BARDENHEWER, Mariä-Verkündigung in Bibl. Studien, X, 496 sqq. HUGH POPE Transcribed by Sean Hyland ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Gabriel ("God is my strength"): Often considered as a slightly more benevolent spirit than his ally Michael, the cherubim Gabriel is most often noted as the messenger of the Annunciation where he tells Mary of the impending birth of Christ. Another notable birth that Gabriel presided over was that of John the Baptist when Gabriel came to Zacharias and told him of his coming son. Within all of the legends of birthing, Gabriel as been accredited as the angel who selects souls from heaven to be birthed into the material world and spends the nine months as the child is being developed informing the new person of what he or she will need to know on Earth, only to silence the child before birth by pressing his finger onto the child's lips, thus producing the cleft below a person's nose. Besides births however, Gabriel is also the angel who came before Daniel and told him of the future as well as the angel responsible for strengthening Christ prior to the Crucifixion. Finally, not being all pregnancies and wisdom, he is told as the angel who struck down the cities of Sodom and Gommorah as well as other places of sin throughout the Old Testament although he is never named there as such. Gabriel is described as having 140 pairs of wings, and is the Governor of Eden and Ruler of the Cherubim. Gabriel sits at the left hand of God. He is usually shown as a majestic figure, richly attired, sometimes wearing a crown and bearing a scepter. His right hand is usually extended in salutation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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