Angel Monuments Throughout History

Early Christian art featured winged creatures associating the spreading of wings  with a life "beyond what we know and see" on earth. Mankind has since associated these angels with the travel of life into heaven. Guardian angels were thought to protect and guide a particular person through life and/or death. Guardian angel tales can be traced throughout history, and in both Eastern and Western civilizations, it was believed that guardian angels served to protect whichever person they were assigned to.

Guardian angels attending to each and every person has been documented for centuries and can even be seen in both the Old and New Testaments; "how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it". People believed that guardian angels stayed with you from birth, so with the untimely death of a child, the guardian angel for children morphed into a winged-child likeness. The winged-child became popular in both early English and American Colonial cemeteries and became know as a cherub. These representations have became heartfelt additions to children's markers in cemeteries throughout the years.

Many people believed by the 12th century that every soul was assigned a guardian angel the moment it was put into a body. Clement of Alexandria writes in the Eclogae Propheticae: "Scripture says that little children who are exposed are entrusted to a guardian angel, who brings them up and makes them grow; and they shall be, he says, like the faithful here who are a hundred years old."  The existence of angels has been debated throughout the centuries. The mysterious subject matter has even inspired many sculptors to create master works of art with angelic-type themes, such as Michelangelo's Statue of an Angel in the Basilica of San Domenico, Bologna.

By James Steakley (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 

(www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL 

(www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

   
Today, angels bring us comfort, with thoughts of them holding our loved ones and keeping them safe from harm. Adding an angel to your monument can be a very personal and comforting way to memorialize your loved one. There are pre-manufactured angel monuments, ready to personalize, as well as many stock molded angel statues. In-stock statuary usually requires less wait time to install within the cemetery. If you're willing to take some time and work with a sculptor, custom statuary can also be a consideration to create something truly unique. www.centuryharmony.com