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ΨΥΧΟΠΟΜΠΌΣ – ANGELS AS GUIDES OF SOULS DURING THE JOURNEY TO THE AFTERLIFE
Adam R. Prokop
Abstract
Starting with ancient Egyptian beliefs, through the figure of Hermes in Greek mythology, to the Scandinavian Valkyries, many ancient traditions held that the human soul, after death, requires a guide on its journey to the realm of the dead. In Judaism and Christianity this role is fulfilled by angels. The association of these mysterious beings – described only sparingly in dogmatic formulations – with death is a recurring motive from the pages of the Bible. Nor is this phenomenon confined solely to the Old Testament, where the Destroyer brings death upon the firstborn of Egypt (Ex 11:23). In the New Covenant the connection is likewise present and not merely in an apocalyptic context. In the Gospel, Jesus announces that His angels will cast all evildoers into the fiery furnace (Mt 13:50), a teaching later reiterated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1034). Moreover, one of the apostolic epistles recounts the fierce struggle of the archangel with Satan over Moses (Jude 1:9). At the same time, in popular religious imagination the presence of angels at the moment of death is often interpreted quite differently: accompanying the dying person is seen as the final act of a devoted and compassionate guardian. This article seeks – within the relative dogmatic silence of angelology on this matter – to outline a Christian vision of heavenly guides leading the soul toward the afterlife, situated between the eschatological severity of the Angel of Death and the serene tenderness of the popular image of the Guardian Angel.
Keywords:
psychopomp, angels as guides, death, angels in artMost read articles by the same author(s)
- Adam R. Prokop, Sacrum space in culture and its reference to analogy, allegory and metaphor , Społeczeństwo: Vol. 164 No. 4 (2023): Religijne filarytożsamości społecznej
- Adam R. Prokop, ΨΥΧΟΠΟΜΠΌΣ – Angels as Guides of Souls During the Journey to the Afterlife , Społeczeństwo: Vol. 36 No. 1 (2026)
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