It is very common, when it comes to angels, for people to immediately imagine a figure with a human appearance and wings. But do real angels have wings?
Before we understand what angels truly are like, we need to understand their nature in the Christian tradition.
The word Angel comes from Latin “Angelus” that means “Messenger of God”. In other words, according to the catechism of the Catholic Church, the word Angel is related to the office exercised by creatures that are Spirits by nature.
This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
“Saint Augustine says about them: «Angelus officii nomen est, non naturae. Quaeris nomen naturae, spiritus est; quaeris officium, angelus est: ex eo quod est, spiritus est: ex eo quod agit, ângelus – Angel is a name of office, not of nature. Do you want to know the name of nature? Spirit. Do you want to know the job? Angel.
Because of what he is, he is a spirit: because of what he does, he is an angel (angel = messenger) ». With their entire being, angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they “continuously behold the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 18:10), they are “mighty executors of his commands, always attentive to his word” (Ps 103:20).
While purely spiritual creatures are endowed with intelligence and will: they are personal and immortal creatures. They exceed all visible creatures in perfection. The splendor of his glory attests to this” (CIC 329 and 330).
Being pure spirits, angels, unlike us human beings, do not have a physical body, although they can take on human appearance.
The visible form that is often reported in the Scriptures is a form used so that we can see them with our eyes. But we are talking about naturally invisible creatures.
Where did the idea that angels have wings come from?
During the early centuries of the Church, angels were not portrayed very differently from human beings in religious art.
However, from the 4th century onwards, artists began to differentiate between these spiritual creatures. The first known description of an angel with wings is in the Prince’s Sarcophagus, found in Sarigüzel, near Istanbul, which would have been produced between the years 379 and 395.
Since then, artists began using wings to distinguish angels from humans. The wings were the artistic resource found to refer to the messenger character of these creatures.
One of the reasons is linked to the spiritual symbolism of birds, which in the ancient world were seen (and used) as messengers.
The tradition is as old as Noah and continued through Greek mythology. The god Hermes, for example, is known as the messenger of the gods and was often portrayed with wings attached to his helmet or hat.
It would be natural for Greco-Roman artists to take advantage of this tradition to visually represent angels, the true messengers of God.