St. Gabriel is one of the three archangels named in Sacred Scripture. God entrusted him with messages at decisive moments in salvation history, above all the announcement to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would become the Mother of the Son of God. As Catholics, we pray the novena to St. Gabriel for help in hearing God’s word, responding with faith, and communicating the truth with clarity and charity.
Begin PrayingMore about St. Gabriel the Archangel
The Church teaches that angels are personal, immortal, spiritual creatures who serve God and His saving plan. St. Gabriel appears by name in the Book of Daniel, where he explains visions concerning events still to come. In the Gospel of Luke, he stands before God and is sent first to the priest Zechariah to announce the birth of St. John the Baptist. Six months later, God sends him to Nazareth. There St. Gabriel greets Mary as full of grace and announces that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she will conceive Jesus, the Son of the Most High. His message places him at the threshold of the Incarnation, and Mary’s faithful fiat receives the word he brings from God.
St. Gabriel’s name is commonly understood to mean "God is my strength" or "strength of God." Christian art often depicts him carrying a lily, a sign of Mary’s purity, or a scroll bearing the words of the Annunciation. Because his service is closely associated with the communication of God’s message, Pope Pius XII named him patron of telecommunications in 1951, and he is also invoked by messengers, broadcasters, postal workers, diplomats, and others whose work carries words across distances. The Church celebrates St. Gabriel with St. Michael and St. Raphael on September 29. The novena is prayed from September 20 through September 28 in preparation for that feast. Devotion to St. Gabriel should always lead the faithful toward the mystery he announced: the eternal Son of God became man for our salvation.
