The Bible reveals only three archangels by name- Saint Michael the warrior who drove Lucifer and the rebel angels out of heaven and down into hell; St. Raphael, the guide and guardian of Tobias; and St. Gabriel, God’s favorite messenger.
The angel mentioned in the New Testament is Saint Gabriel. According to St. Luke, Gabriel appeared unexpectedly to Zachary, Elizabeth’s elderly husband, with the news that he and his wife were to have a child. But we are most aware of St. Gabriel as the angel of the Annunciation. This is the angel who told the Blessed Virgin Mary that God had chosen her to be the Mother of Christ. His greeting to Mary has become the opening line of the most popular and best-known prayer in the Catholic world, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”
Gabriel had come from God with a sublime message: The promises of the Lord were about to be fulfilled, the long centuries of waiting for the Messiah were to end, and God was sending His Son into the world as the Child of Mary. It is said that after Gabriel delivered his message, all of heaven and earth held back the breath to listen to Mary’s response. She said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38)
St. Matthews’s Gospel does not say that Gabriel asked St. Joseph to marry Mary. But tradition says that Saint Gabriel has done so, and also announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds of Bethlehem, warned the Magi not to return to King Herod but to go home by a different route, commanded Joseph to take Mary and Christ Child to safety in Egypt, and returned a couple of years later with the news that Herod was dead and it was safe for the Holy Family to come home to Nazareth.
Twice Gabriel the Archangel came down from heaven with joyful news that a baby is to be born. At the very beginning of St. Luke’s gospel Gabriel appears to the priest Zachary to tell him that he and his elderly wife Elizabeth, who desperately craved for a child, will have a son, the future St. John the Baptist (Lk 1:8-17).
Students of Biblical studies over centuries have identified the other messenger from heaven as Angel Gabriel. On the night before His crucifixion, when Jesus was in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the angel sent from heaven to comfort him (Lk 22:43), has been believed to be Gabriel. The angel who sat beside Christ’s empty tomb on that first Easter Sunday and told the holy women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen” (Lk 24:1-5) also has been believed to be Gabriel.
Finally, at the end time, it is going to be Gabriel who will deliver his final message, summoning all the living and all the dead to appear before God for judgment (1 Thes 4:15).
As Saint Gabriel is the messenger of God, the Catholic Church has assigned him to be the patron of the broadcasters, postal workers, messengers, and everyone in the communications industry.