Angels at the Resurrection

Also known as: The Angel at the Empty Tomb, Angels at Christ's Tomb, The Resurrection Proclamation, The Angels and the Myrrh-bearing Women, The Angel Who Rolled Away the Stone, He Is Risen

The heavenly messengers at the empty tomb on the morning of Christ’s Resurrection, recorded in all four Gospels (Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20). Matthew tells of “an angel of the Lord” who descends, rolls back the stone, and sits upon it, his face like lightning and his garment white as snow; Mark of a “young man in a white robe”; Luke and John of “two men in dazzling garments” and “two angels in white” — accounts the Fathers harmonize as several angels present, each Evangelist telling what served his purpose. The angels do not raise Christ, who rises by His own divine power; nor is the stone rolled away to let Him out — the glorified Christ needed no opened tomb — but so that the women and the Apostles might see it empty. Their office is to proclaim: “He is not here; for He is risen, as He said,” and to send the Myrrh-bearing Women as the first heralds of the Resurrection. Scripture names none of them, and the Church keeps that silence, fixing the eye on the risen Lord.