A romantic, Victorian greeting card illustration of a woman in a lacy dress, swinging on a swing, surrounded by a floral frame, circa 1880
Guardian Angel Protecting a Child - Circa 1890 Victorian Illustration
Guardian Angel Protecting a Child - Circa 1890 Victorian Illustration
Guardian Angel Protecting a Child - Circa 1890 Victorian Illustration
Guardian Angel Protecting Children - Circa 1890 Victorian Illustration
Guardian Angel Protecting Children - Circa 1890 Victorian Illustration
Guardian Angel Protecting Children - Circa 1890 Victorian Illustration
Guardian Angel Protecting Children - a circa 1890 Victorian Illustration by an unknown artist.  Your purchased prints & downloads will NOT have "Victorian Traditions" watermark.

This innocent view of how children were protected was a very popular belief throughout the Victorian era.  Because of the higher mortality rate in those days, children were greatly cherished.  It was a popular belief that children had several guardian angels.  Even today, children are considered more vulnerable and in need of more protection when they are young.  A popular thought then and today is that as they grow, they need less angelic protection as they become aware of the dangers around them.  Some, not all, of the angels leave a child as he matures.

Throughout the Bible we find it repeatedly implied that each individual soul has a guardian angel.  Thus Abraham, when sending his steward to seek a wife for Isaac, says: "he shall send his angel before thee". Although no Biblical passage of itself demonstrates the doctrine that every individual has his appointed guardian angel, there is reinforcement of the notion from the words of Jesus: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 18:10) 

From Psalm 91:10-12: "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."

The Koran states, "He [God] sends forth guardians who watch over you and carry away your souls without fail when death overtakes you."

Do angels have wings?  John said, "And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth..." (Rev. 8:13)  Illustrations throughout the past millennia have usually depicted angels as having wings.  The association of wings with these messengers was probably due to the description of angels in ancient Israel, i.e. the two cherubs which were described in the ornamentation of Solomon's temple (which were similar to those on the Ark of the Covenant): "And he set the cherubims within the inner house: and they stretched forth the wings of the cherubims, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house."  (I Kings 6:27)  But do angels need wings to fly, or do we only need to see wings on angels to help us recognize them as such?  What really matters is that angels truly do exist and continue to help us as directed by God!
A romantic, Victorian greeting card illustration of a woman in a lacy dress, swinging on a swing, surrounded by a floral frame, circa 1880
A romantic, Victorian greeting card illustration of a woman in a lacy dress, swinging on a swing, surrounded by a floral frame, circa 1880
A romantic, Victorian greeting card illustration of a woman in a lacy dress, swinging on a swing, surrounded by a floral frame, circa 1880
See photo in original gallery.