The name "angel" is taken from the Greek translation of a Hebrew word meaning "messenger." The angels are spiritual beings, created by God, and superior in nature to man. They are immortal beings whose role is to minister to God and to do the will of God in obedience. They are bodiless, spiritual intelligences who have their knowledge, not as man who acquires knowledge through his senses, but by intuition. Thus they do not arrive at conclusions following upon principles by a process of reason but immediately know the principles as truth. "Their intelligences are continually, eternally exercised, and while much is hidden from them, they understand and know much more than man. They have swiftness of movement, free will, and communication among themselves.

The number of angels is exceedingly great. Theologians and early writers, basing their reasoning upon an enumeration given in Scripture by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and St. Paul (Col. 1:16, Eph. 1:21), list three hierarchies, each containing three orders, making nine types of classifications. The first threesome are: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; the second, Dominations, Principalities, Powers; the third, Virtues, Archangels, Angels. The classes or choirs of angels differ in the degree of- perfection of their nature and of grace, and this in a descending order in the listing above. It should be pointed out that all are called "angels," yet it is also the name applied to the lo%ser choir from which the "guardian angels" are usually chosen. Veneration is given angels because of -t heir dignity, relation to God, and excellence of nature, and petition is made to them because they minister to God and may, if God so wills, minister to than. In the liturgy angels are memorialized on Oct. 2, the feast of the Guardian Angels. Only three angels are named: Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel.
The relationship of angels to God is multiple as