Angelic · Archangels / Chief Princes · c. 200 BCE
Uriel
Also called Auriel, Oriel, Uri'el · also recorded as St. Uriel, St. Uriel the Archangel, Archangel Uriel, Ouriel (per Wikidata)
'Fire of God' — the archangel of the fourth seat, never named in the canonical Bible, and formally struck from the approved list by a Roman synod in 745.
Well sourced
Uriel appears in 2 Esdras as the angel who answers Ezra's complaints with riddles, and in 1 Enoch he guides Enoch through the underworld and the luminaries. But because he is absent from canonical scripture, the Council of Rome under Pope Zachary (745) condemned veneration of angels beyond Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and Uriel was the principal casualty. He survived anyway in folk devotion, in occult tables of the four directions, and in nearly every later grimoire.
Identity
Where does the name come from?
Where it was actually worshipped
None, and for a while not even a name: the Council of Rome is said to have struck the angels beyond the first three from the calendar, which is the opposite of acquiring a shrine.
A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.
At a glance
Vitals
Vitals
Also known as
- First attested
- 1 Enoch (The Book of Enoch) · c. 300–100 BCE
- Rank
- Archangel
- Order
- Archangels / Chief Princes
- Base of operations
- None, and for a while not even a name: the Council of Rome is said to have struck the angels beyond the first three from the calendar, which is the opposite of acquiring a shrine.
- Era
- c. 200 BCE
- Traditions
- Christian, Jewish, Enochian
- Placed in
- The Great Archangels
Traits
- Direction
- North
- Domain
- Wisdom, repentance, the luminaries, the underworld
- Element
- Earth
- Traditional form
- Bearing a flame in an open palm, or a scroll
Stats
Known connections
Chain of command
4 attributed
What is it said to do?
Where these powers cluster
The 4 offices attributed to Uriel, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.
A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.
- knowledge1
- divination1
- martial1
- material1
knowledge
- Teaches Astronomy1 Enoch (The Book of Enoch)
Shows Enoch the courses of the luminaries.
divination
martial
material
2 texts
Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?
When these texts were written
Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names Uriel, placed at that text's approximate date.
A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.
2 texts spanning roughly 300 years
Where the texts differ
- Rank: given as One of the holy angels; Angel
Set over the world and over Tartarus; guide to the luminaries and the places of punishment.
“Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him:”
Sent to answer Ezra and to set him riddles he cannot solve — three of them, and Ezra fails all three, which is the book's way of closing the question he came with.
“The angel that was sent unto me, whose name was Uriel.”
Connections
What is it connected to?
Placement
Where does it sit in the hierarchies?
Answered from the sources
Common questions
Which texts mention Uriel?
What rank is Uriel?
How else is Uriel spelled?
What is Uriel said to do?
How old is Uriel?
Nearest in the corpus
If Uriel is what you came for, these are next
Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.
Gabriel
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
The messenger. The angel who explains Daniel's visions, announces two births in Luke, and in Islam delivers the entire Qur'an.
Michael
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
The warring archangel: prince of Israel in Daniel, captain of the host in Revelation, and the only angel the New Testament calls an archangel outright.
Raphael
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
The healer, whose name means 'God heals'. He spends the Book of Tobit disguised as a human travelling companion, which makes it the longest sustained portrait of an angel anywhere in the biblical corpus.
Raguel
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
The archangel who takes vengeance on the world of the lights — and one of those condemned by name at the Roman synod of 745.
Remiel
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
Set over those who rise — the archangel of the resurrection and of true visions.
Sariel
Archangel · Archangels / Chief Princes
One of the seven archangels of 1 Enoch, set over the spirits who sin against the spirit. Canonical scripture never names him.
The books behind Uriel
Every claim on this profile is attributed to one of these. They are public domain, listed oldest first, and each links to a full text where one is freely available.
1 Enoch (The Book of Enoch)
Anonymous; tr. R. H. Charles · c. 300–100 BCE · Ge'ez (from Aramaic)
Read 1 Enoch (The Book of Enoch) in full ↗Cover: Public domain · Wikimedia file page
2 Esdras (4 Ezra)
Anonymous; the Jewish apocalypse with later Christian additions · c. 100 CE, with 2nd-c. additions · Latin, from a lost Greek original
Read 2 Esdras (4 Ezra) in full ↗
Corpus last revised 29 August 2026. A reference site’s credibility rests on being maintained, so this is the date the sourced records last changed — not the date the page was rebuilt.