Barachiel

Holy Archangel Barachiel (Varahiil in the Slavic form; Hebrew Barakhiel, God has blessed, also written Barakiel or Baraqiel) is one of the seven archangels in the Eastern Orthodox tradition and is regarded as the archangel of the blessings of God, through whom blessing and grace are sent upon every work and every good occupation of life. He is honoured in the Synaxis of the Seven Archangels, commemorated on 8 November.

The name of the archangel is known from the apocryphal Third Book of Enoch (3 Enoch 14 and 17), which is not part of Holy Scripture. In it he is described as one of the angelic princes, served by a multitude of about four hundred and ninety-⁠six thousand angels. Other writings, Jewish and later, attribute various qualities to him: some call him one of the four leading seraphim and prince of the second heaven, or angel of lightning. It has also been said that he may be the same as Baraqiel, sometimes mentioned as a fallen angel. These are opinions from apocryphal sources and non-⁠Orthodox tradition and are not part of the teaching of the Church.

Icons and mentions of him appear relatively rarely. In the iconography of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Barachiel is shown with a flower in his hand or bearing white roses on his garment at the breast, as if rewarding, by God's command, the prayers, labours and good conduct of men and announcing the happiness and endless peace of the Kingdom of Heaven. A bronze figure with rose blossoms in the left hand, made by the sculptor Yuri Grigoryevich Orekhov, representing the archangel Barachiel, stands on the south-⁠west side of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.