To each nation its guardian, and to each city its watchful prince.
The Choir
With the Principalities the celestial hierarchy turns at last toward the affairs of humankind. They open the Third Sphere, the order of angels closest to the world of mortals, and their charge is the great collective life of the human race — the nations, the cities, the institutions, and the peoples through whom history is made. Their name renders the Greek archai, the “rulers” or “beginnings,” and the Latin principatus, princedom; Paul names them among the archai kai exousiai, the principalities and authorities, both as ranks created in Christ and as the unseen powers with which the faithful contend. Also called Princedoms, they are depicted wearing crowns and carrying scepters, princes not of themselves but of the communities entrusted to their care.
The scriptural root of their office lies in the older idea of the angels of the nations. Deuteronomy speaks of the Most High dividing the peoples and setting their bounds according to the number of the heavenly host, and the tenth chapter of Daniel dramatizes it: the angel who comes to the prophet has been withstood twenty-one days by “the prince of the kingdom of Persia,” until Michael, “one of the chief princes,” comes to his aid, and he foresees that “the prince of Greece” shall come next. Here the tradition finds its picture of the Principalities — presiding spirits contending over the destinies of empires. Each nation, it teaches, has its angel among this choir, a guardian who watches over its destiny, inspires its leaders toward justice, and contends unseen against the spirits that would lead a whole people into ruin.
The office of the Principalities is thus one of stewardship over the structures that outlast any single human life. They oversee the rise and fall of kingdoms, the ordering of religion and law, the great movements of culture and faith, seeking always to bend the collective toward the good and to preserve what is sacred within the institutions of the world. Standing between the martial Powers above them and the more intimate ministries below, they translate the vast strategies of heaven into the concrete history of earth. Where the individual soul has its own guardian among the lowest angels, the shared soul of a community — its covenants, its memory, its calling — is held in the keeping of a Principality.
Attributes
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Sphere | Third (closest to humanity) |
| Rank in hierarchy | 7 |
| Role | Guardians of nations and institutions |
| Governs | Peoples, cities, religion, law, the course of history |
In the Tradition
Pseudo-Dionysius describes the Principalities as bearing the stamp of the divine princedom, ordering themselves and turning toward the supreme Prince and leading the ranks below them to him in a princely way — the beginning, within the third and last triad, of a rule directed outward to the world. Gregory the Great and Aquinas made this the choir that presides over the multitudes and the peoples, distinct from the Archangels and Angels who deal with persons: the Principalities set in order the general government of nations and the offices by which communities are led. Aquinas linked their very name to leadership and to the governance of those who exercise leadership, so that this order stands behind every legitimate authority among men. In art they wear the crowns and carry the scepters of earthly princes, but their eyes are turned upward — reminders that the true sovereignty of any people is held, unseen, in heaven.
Related
Choirs — Seraphim · Cherubim · Thrones · Dominions · Virtues · Powers · Archangels · Angels Archangels — Michael · Gabriel · Raphael · Uriel · Haniel · Sandalphon · Metatron