Summa summae S. Thomae sive compendium theologiae

St. Thomas, qq. 113 and 114.

You will ask 1° whether men are guarded by angels.

I answer affirmatively.¹ This is of faith, expressed in many places of Scripture. Psal. XC, 11: He hath given his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Genes., XXXII, 23 and XLVIII, 16; Matth., XVIII, 10; Luc., II, 9; Act., XII, 7, and elsewhere.

It is urged by reason². Man, established in the state of this life, is as it were on a certain road by which he must journey toward his homeland; on which road many dangers threaten man, both from within and from without. Therefore, just as guards are given to men walking along an unsafe road, so too to each man, as long as he is a wayfarer, a guardian angel is assigned. But when he has already reached the end of the road, then he will not have a guardian angel, but will have in the kingdom an angel reigning together with him, or in hell a demon punishing him.

You will ask 2° whether many men are guarded by one angel, or individual men by individual angels.

I answer that individual men are guarded by individual angels from birth.³

The first part is gathered from Act., XII, 15. When the maidservant reported that Peter was standing at the door, the faithful, not believing it to be Peter, said: It is his angel. Whence Jerome, on chapter XVIII of Matth., says: « Great is the dignity of souls, that each one should have, from the very rise of its birth, an angel assigned to its guardianship. »

It is urged by reason⁴. Divine providence, of which the guardianship of angels is a certain execution with regard to men, is concerned principally with those things which remain forever; but it is concerned with the things that pass away insofar as it itself orders them to

everlasting realities. But men are not incorruptible only as regards their common species, as other creatures are, but also as regards the proper forms of each individual, which are rational souls. Therefore the providence of God is related to individual men just as it is related to individual genera or species of corruptible things. — I subsume. But it is probable that different angels are set over different species of things. Therefore it is also reasonable that different angels should be assigned to different men for their guardianship.

The second part is against certain ancients, who said that a guardian angel is given only after Baptism.⁵ And 1° this is expressly asserted by Jerome, as cited. 2° It is proved by reason. The benefits which are provided by God to man insofar as he has a rational nature are shown to him from the very time that, by being born, he receives such a nature. But the guardianship of angels is such a benefit. Therefore.

Besides the Guardian Angels assigned from birth to individual private persons, the Fathers and theologians commonly acknowledge that special ones are moreover assigned to popes, kings, and other public persons and superiors, to direct them in those things which pertain to the government of the multitude committed to them.⁶ Likewise, a special one is also assigned to every nation, kingdom, province, city, diocese, religious order, community, college, confraternity, etc. It is also highly probable that an angel specially assigned is present to every priest celebrating, to assist him in the celebration of so great a mystery, and to offer his prayers and hosts to God.⁷ This is gathered from those words of the Canon of the Mass: « Command these things to be borne by the hands of thy holy angel to thy altar on high, etc. »

You will ask 3° what are the offices of the guardian angels toward us.

I answer 1° To illuminate the intellect, not by infusing species, but by adapting truths to our grasp, or by representing them under the likenesses of sensible things; and thus they instruct and teach, and suggest good thoughts; the will

too they arouse, by urging and exhorting to good, etc. They supply occasions of good, and remove occasions of evil. So it is found in Genes., XVI, 7 and XVIII, 2; Exod., XXIII, 20 seqq.; Iudith, XIII, 20; Tob., VI, 4, XI, 2 seqq., XII, 1 seqq.; Act., V, 19, and elsewhere.

2° — They offer our prayers and vows to God, Tob., III, 25 and XII, 12; Apocal., VIII, 3: not that God may thereby know them, but that they themselves may join their own prayers to our prayers.

3° — They avert external harm, help in dangers, in war, especially in death, put to flight diseases, pestilences, etc., Genes., XLVIII, 16; IV Reg., VI, 17 and XIX, 35; Tob., VI, 4 seqq., and elsewhere.

4° — They keep off and restrain demons, lest they do harm, or lest they do as much harm as they would wish, whether in temporal things or in spiritual things, Tob., VI, 16 seqq. and VIII, 3.

And although we continually receive so many and so great benefits from the guardian angels, we are so ungrateful that we scarcely recall the memory of such distinguished benefactors, whom it would be fitting to honor with special worship and reverence.

You will ask 4° whether guardian angels ever forsake their charges.

I answer that they never forsake them entirely,⁸ but sometimes in part and in a certain respect. The reason is that the guardianship of an angel, as we have said, is a certain execution of divine providence exercised generally with regard to men. But neither man, nor anything else, is entirely withdrawn from divine providence. Therefore. Sometimes, however, an angel does leave his charge in a certain respect, namely insofar as he does not prevent him either from being subjected to some tribulation, or from falling into sin, according to the order of the divine judgments. And in this sense Babylon and the house of Israel are said in the Scriptures to have been forsaken by the angels.

You will ask 5° whether angels grieve over our evils.

I answer negatively,⁹ because grief concerns those things which are against the will. But since angels have their will

conformed in all things to the divine will, nothing can happen against their will. Indeed, they do not will the sins and evils of men in themselves, but they do approve the will of God in permitting and avenging them.

[You will ask 6° from which order the guardian angels are. I answer¹⁰ that the guardian angels of private persons are from the lowest order, because to announce the least things pertains to the angels of the lowest order; and to attend to what concerns the salvation of one private person seems to be something minimal among the offices of angels. But the guardian angels of a multitude, or of those who preside over a multitude, are from other, higher orders, because the more universal an agent is, the higher it is. Thus, then, the guardianship of the human multitude pertains to the Principalities, or perhaps to the Archangels, who are called the princes of the angels. Further, according to St. Gregory, Hom. 34 in Evang., the Virtues have guardianship over all corporeal natures, the Powers have guardianship over the demons, and the Principalities or Dominations have guardianship over good spirits.]

You will ask 7° whether demons assail and tempt men.

I answer affirmatively,¹¹ both because of envy, by which they strive to impede the progress of men, and because of pride, by which they usurp a likeness of divine power, assigning to themselves determinate ministers for the assault and ruin of men, just as God assigns determinate angels for the salvation of men. And this is clear from Genes., III, 1 seqq.; ad Ephes., VI, 11 seqq.; i ad Tim., II, 14; I Petr., V, 8 and 9, and from daily and unhappy experience.

You will ask 8° whether each person has his own evil angel for trial, just as each has a good one for guardianship.

I answer that many think so, following Origen, Hom. 12 in Luc.; Gregory of Nyssa, Tract. de vita Moysis; Cassian, Collat. 8, cap. 17, and St. Thomas, in II Sentent., dist. 11, a. 5, o.

Others deny it: 1° because this opinion has no foundation, neither in Scripture nor in tradition, but rather seems to have arisen from the superstition of the pagans, who assigned two genii to each man; 2° because there are many men incapable of exercise toward virtue, such as children and the insane; 3° because it is not likely that God would permit demons continually to lie in wait for men, who are already, from other causes, quite weak.

To those who are reported to have held the contrary, they answer that Origen abounds in many other errors; that the other Fathers do not agree with Gregory of Nyssa; that the works of Cassian were declared apocryphal by Pope Gelasius; and that St. Thomas, indeed, reports this opinion, but does not approve it.