Such a topic was not included in the seminary course, because all we can say about the number of Angels is that there are countless of them.

The Old Testament patriarch Jacob, seeing the hosts of angels, exclaimed: "This is the host (that is, the great army) of God,"29 and in the book of Daniel it is even more specifically said: "Thousands of thousands and thousands of them stand before God,"30 (that is, we are talking about millions of angels).

Explaining the biblical story about the innumerable angels, St. Cyril of Jerusalem said that our earth is only a dot, a speck of dust in the sky. And accordingly, just as the space of heaven is greater than the earth, so the number of heavenly inhabitants is immeasurably greater than the number of earthly inhabitants. There are also a great many demons, but fewer than angels. "Imagine," says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, "how numerous the Roman people are; imagine how numerous are the other coarse peoples that now exist, and how many of them have died in a hundred years; imagine how many have been buried in a thousand years; imagine men, from Adam to the present day: great is the multitude of them. But it is still small in comparison with the Angels, of whom there are more! There are ninety-nine sheep of them, and the human race is only one sheep. By the vastness of the place, one should judge the number of inhabitants. The earth which we inhabit is as it were a point in the centre of the heavens, so that the heaven which surrounds it has as many inhabitants as the greater space; the heavens of heaven contain an immense number of them. If it is written that "thousands of thousands served Him, and thousands of thousands stood before Him," it is only because the prophet could not express a greater number."

And one more thing: Despite the fact that both Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition say a lot about Angels, we know very, immeasurably little about them. "The names of certain powers (Heavenly) have not yet been announced to us and are not yet known," says St. John Chrysostom. Prep. Symeon the New Theologian also writes about the existence of "a creature as yet unknown to us...".

How do we depict Angels?

Angels do not have any specific appearance, at least not the appearance that would be perceived by a person. These are spirits that have an immaterial nature. However, Angels sent to a person to communicate some message or to help take on a form that can be perceived by us. In classical stories (for example, the lives of saints), this is the view of a handsome young man dressed in ancient elegant clothes or dressed in military armor. However, it is quite obvious that the Angels also appear to us in the form of people dressed in modern clothes and behaving like ordinary people. This happens when the angels do not want a person to know that he is being visited by heavenly messengers.

In St. Dionysius the Areopagite we find an interesting description of the symbolism of bodies and clothes, which are most often taken upon themselves by angels. We specifically cite fragments of this description, because when you get acquainted with the stories of the appearances of angels, when you look at icons or paintings in which angels are depicted, it will help you to relate to these stories or images more deeply, theologically meaningfully.

"I think," notes St. Dionysius, "that in each of the many members of our body one can find similar images that depict the property of the Heavenly Powers. Thus, it can be said that the ability to see means the clearest contemplation of the Divine Light by the Angels and, at the same time, a simple, calm, unhindered, quick, pure and dispassionate reception of the Divine illumination."

According to St. Dionysius, the discriminative powers of smell mean the ability to perceive, as far as possible, the fragrance of God's grace, which surpasses the mind, to correctly distinguish from the demonic stench and to completely avoid it.

The sense of hearing is the ability to participate in Divine inspiration and to receive it intelligently.

Taste is the saturation with spiritual food and the reception of the Divine and nourishing streams.

Touch is the ability to correctly distinguish between what is useful and what is harmful.

Eyelashes and eyebrows are the ability to guard the perceived Divine knowledge.