Seraphim Angels - Ayasofya Museum

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The Seraphim Angels Information About

Ayasofya Seraphim

One of the four seraphim on the pendentives below the massive dome. This one was recently restored to remove the halo boss which the Ottomans placed over the seraphims' faces. The other three still have the faces obscured.

The Ayasofya is of course a must visit for first timers to İstanbul. You will be amazed by the magnificent structure, but there is also another highlight not to miss.

Last year a mosaic of a six-winged biblical angel which had been buried in the wall of Ayasofya for 160 years was unveiled. There are actually a total of four winged angel figures constructed somewhere between 900-300 A.D. depicting the four biblical angels that are believed to guard heaven. As Muslims, Christians and Jews; We hold beliefs that more or less descend from the same origins. Angels are sacred no matter which religion we believe in and therefore to see this unveiled buried mosaic of Seraphim is mind blowing.

You actually cannot get close to it as its placed in the pendentive, an arched triangular section supporting the building’s huge dome. But since it measures 1.5 meters by 1 meter, you can see it from the floor. 

Seraphim in Ayasofya wall | Art & culture | Entrance TL 20

Alemdar Caddesi
Tue – Sun 09:00 – 17:00

The seraphim are the closest angels to God. They focus on praising and worshiping God for who he is and what he does, and they spend most of their time directly in God's presence in heaven.



Celebrating Holiness

Seraphim celebrate God's holiness and the joy of experiencing God's pure love by leading worship in heaven. They constantly speak and sing about their love for God. The Bible and Torah describe seraphim with wings flying around God's throne while calling out: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole Earth is full of His glory."

The angels who are part of the seraphim praise God's perfect mix of truth and love and reflect the divine energies of justice and compassion from the Creator to the creation.

Burning With Passionate Love

The word "seraphim" is derived from the Hebrew word saraph, which means "to burn." Seraphim angels burn with passion for God that ignites the fiery love that emanates from them. The Bible and Torah describe love as "a blazing fire, like a mighty flame" (Song of Solomon 8:6). As the seraphim absorb God's pure and radiant love while spending time in God's presence, completely enveloped by the powerful light of love.

One of the sacred texts in Kabbalah, the Sefer Yetzirah, says that seraphim angels live near God's throne in a place called Beriyah, which is full of fiery energy.

Famous Archangels Among the Seraphim

The archangels who help lead the seraphim are Seraphiel, Michael, and Metatron. Seraphiel focuses the most on directing the seraphim; Michael and Metatron help while also fulfilling their other duties (Michael as the leader of all the holy angels, and Metatron as God's chief record-keeper). Archangels Uriel and Chamuel are also part of the seraphim rank of angels.

Before Satan (leader of the fallen angels) rebelled against god and became evil as sin overtook him, Satan was a holy angel named Lucifer who was one of the seraphim. Rather than remaining focused on God, Lucifer started to focus on himself, and became prideful and jealous of God. Eventually Lucifer tried to be like God, leading to his rebellion and fall from heaven.

Fiery Light, Six Wings and Many Eyes

Seraphim angels are glorious, exotic creatures. Religious texts describe them as radiating brilliant light like flames of fire. Each seraph has six wings, in pairs that serve different purposes: they use two wings to cover their faces (shielding them from becoming overwhelmed by looking directly at God's glory), two wings to cover their feet (symbolizing their humble respect for and submission to God), and two wings to fly around God's throne in heaven (representing the freedom and joy the come from worshiping God). The seraphim's bodies are covered with eyes on all sides, so they can constantly watch God in action.

Constantly Serving

The seraphim are always serving God; they never stop. When the apostle John described seraphim in Revelation 4:8 of the Bible, he wrote: "Day and night they never stop saying: "'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."

While seraphim angels do most of their work in heaven, they sometimes do visit Earth on special, God-given missions. The seraph who does the most work on Earth is Michael, who is often engaged in spiritual battles that involve human beings. Few people have seen seraphs appear in their heavenly form on Earth, but seraphs have manifested in their heavenly glory occasionally during Earth's history. The most famous account of a seraph in heavenly form interacting with a person comes from the year 1224, when Saint Francis of Assisi encountered a seraph who gave him stigmata wounds as he was praying about what Jesus Christ experienced on the cross.