t is a common belief of Christians that God sent us angels to watch over us, particularly our very own guardian angels. Such too is the belief of Dr. P. Nepo, a fancier of vintage guardian angels and an artist himself.

Coming from Angeles City, Nepo has a special devotion to the town’s titular patron saint, the Holy Guardian Angel, known to them as San Angelo Custodio. San Angelo, unlike the other archangels, has no specific name. He is the embodiment of our personal guardian angel.

On the other hand, others believe that our guardian angel is one of the seven archangels depending on our day of birth: Gabriel for Mondays, Raphael for Tuesdays, Uriel for Wednesdays, Sealtiel for  Thursdays, Jhudiel for Fridays, Barachiel for Saturdays, and Michael for Sundays. I wonder if they will be too busy to care for my needs given the policy of multi-tasking. I guess we still prefer a more personalized one-on-one guardian angel mentoring system, an angel for every unique individual.

Dr. Nepo paints San Angelo in traditional style and iconography, clutching a child (representing the soul) by his side, leading him to safety, and with his other hand pointing to the sky as the home of our Heavenly Father. There are vast beliefs dating back to the Middle Ages tied up with this kind of representation. Up until the 19th century and before the advancement in the field of medicine, there was a very high mortality rate among infants due to illnesses. Many died in their sleep.

They attributed this to the demon that was out to grab the souls of children. Like a strange pedophile, the demon was said to prefer beautiful young boys to pretty little girls. To deceive the demon, they dressed their little boys as girls and the first cross-dressers were born. In museums in Spain like that in the Convento de Annunciation in Madrid, it is not uncommon to find portraits of kings dressed in drag during their infancy. Another remedy is to enshrine an icon of San Angelo by the kid’s bedside so he will protect the child while he sleeps. People believed that while we sleep and dream, our souls travel away from the body and wander off only to return when we awaken.

Hence, San Angelo has a duty to protect us so that the demon will not snatch our souls so we may return to our earthly bodies. He is therefore more popular to kids and those fearing death by “bangungot." This belief is quite similar to the concept of astral travel, where allegedly our souls leave our bodies bound only by a silver cord. It could prove fatal should this cord break.

Unlike those flimsy white nightgowns commonly seen on angels that make them look like the White Lady of Balete Drive, Nepo prefers them in Baroque period fashion. He has a fascination for the Hispanic era high-fashion.

According to Nepo, “these styles of vestment are part of the rich Catholic heritage we share with Spain and other former Hispanic colonies like Mexico and Peru.”

Unlike their archangel counterparts in the same period of dressing, the guardian angels wear very sexy mini-skirts that usually have slits to the ground to expose their long robust legs. This outfit makes them more mobile because they are working angels that have to run and fly around to protect their young ward. Titled archangels, with the exception of Michael who is a warrior angel, sport long flowing skirts, often with trains and petticoat to strike a pose atop altar-retablos, a true haven for liturgical haute couture. It seems like the skirt length determines the angels’ rank in the celestial hierarchy.

There is much to learn about our heritage of angels. Regardless of one’s belief, one must agree that an apparition of such art-angels is a sight to behold.