Article 4 — Whether good angels and men can work miracles by some gift of grace

The fourth point of inquiry is whether good angels and men can work miracles by some gift of grace. (Parallel texts: ST I.110.4, resp., ad 1; III.13.2, ad 3; III.78.4, ad 2; SCG III.103; ST I.117, a. 3, ad 1; II-II.178.1, ad 1; III.84.3, ad 4. See below: q. 6, a. 9.)

Obj. 1: And it would seem that they can. For the angelic orders were established for no other purpose than what they do. Now, an order of angels was appointed for the working of miracles; for Gregory says in a homily that signs and miracles are usually wrought by the Virtues. (Gregory the Great, On the Gospels, bk. 2, Homily 34.10 (PL 76:1251).) Therefore, angels can work miracles by a gift of grace.

Obj. 2: It is written: Stephen, full of grace and fortitude, did great signs and wonders among the people (Acts 6:8). Now, grace would not be mentioned first unless the subsequent acts were a consequence thereof. Therefore, even men can work miracles by the power of grace.

Obj. 3: A gift of grace is not given except for the sake of what the recipient may do thereby. Now, some received the gratuitous gift to work miracles; thus, it is said: to another is given the grace of healing in one Spirit; to another the working of miracles (1 Cor 12:9). Therefore, by a gift of grace the saints can work miracles.

Obj. 4: To this it may be replied that saints are said to work a miracle not by doing it themselves, but by beseeching God for the miracle to be done.

On the contrary, the petition of prayer arises through those things that make the prayer acceptable to God. But this latter occurs through one’s faith, charity, and other virtues, which pertain to sanctifying grace. Therefore, saints need no gratuitous gift in order to perform signs.

Obj. 5: Gregory says in Dialogues 2 that those who are devoutly united to God, if the necessity should arise, not unfrequently perform signs in both these ways, working wonders sometimes by their prayers, sometimes by their power. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2.30 (PL 66:188).) Now, when any one does a thing by his power, he does it by his own act and not merely by petition. Therefore, angels and holy men work miracles by their own action.

Obj. 6: According to Anselm, there is a threefold course in things: the natural, the voluntary, and the wonderful. (Anselm of Canterbury, On the Virginal Conception and Original Sin 11 (PL 158:445–46).) Now, in the natural course of things, angels act as standing between God and natural bodies; thus, Augustine says: all bodies are governed by God through the rational spirit of life; (Augustine, On the Trinity 3.4 (PL 42:873).) and Gregory says: in this visible world all dispositions are executed through invisible creatures. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 4.5 (PL 77:328).) The same applies to the voluntary course of things, for the angels stand between us and God and are the bearers of the light that they receive from him. Therefore also, in the course of wonderful things, the angels are intermediaries, inasmuch as miracles are worked through their agency.

Obj. 7: To this it will be replied that angels are intermediaries as acting not by their own power, but by the power of God.

On the contrary, whoever acts by the power of another is in some way the cause of the effect produced by that power. If, then, the angels act by the divine power in working miracles, they also are in some way the cause thereof.

Obj. 8: The Old Law was given by God miraculously; wherefore it is related that thunders began to be heard and lightning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mount (Exod 19:16). Now, the Law was given by the angels (Gal 3:19). Therefore, miracles are wrought by the angels.

Obj. 9: Augustine says: whosoever possesses a thing and gives it not, although he would suffer no loss by giving it . . . does not possess it as it ought to be possessed. (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine 1.1 (PL 34:19).) Now, God has the power to work miracles, and he would lose nothing by imparting it to others. Therefore, if he has not bestowed it on others, it would seem that he has not that power as it ought to be possessed. Hence, one would infer that God has given to angels and men the power to work miracles.

On the contrary (1), it is written: who alone works great wonders (Ps 71:18).

Furthermore (2), according to Bernard, none save the maker of a law can change that law or dispense therefrom; (Bernard of Clairvaux, On Dispensation and Precept (PL 182:859–94).) thus, in human affairs, the emperor alone can change the law, since it was he who made it. Now, God alone framed the law of nature’s course. Therefore, he alone can work miracles by acting independently of the natural course.

I answer that angels, inasmuch as they are ministers of the divine power, can by a gift of grace do things that surpass their natural power of action; in fact, it may be said that angels take an active part in working miracles in three ways.

First, by prayers of petition; and this way may be common to both men and angels.

Second, inasmuch as by their natural power they dispose matter for the working of a miracle; thus, it is said that they will collect the dust of the dead who by God’s power will return to life. This way, however, is peculiar to the angels, since human spirits, through being united to bodies, cannot act on external objects save by means of the body to which they are in a sense naturally bound.

Third, by cooperation. This way, however, Augustine leaves without coming to a decision. Thus, he says: whether God himself does all these things by himself in his unsearchable way, or by his ministers, or by the souls of the martyrs, or by men as yet in the body, or by the angels to whom he issues his invisible commands (the martyr’s part consisting in prayer and petition but not operation), or by some other way incomprehensible to mortals, in any case these miracles are witnesses of that which proclaims that flesh will rise again to eternity. (Augustine, City of God 22.9 (PL 41:771–72).)

Gregory, however, appears to give a decisive answer to the question. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2.30–31 (PL 66:188–92).) He says that holy men, even in this life, work miracles not merely by prayer and petition, but also by having the power; and therefore, by cooperation in the miracles they do, and he proves this both by reason and by examples.

His reason is that if men were given the power to become the sons of God, it is not strange that by that power they can work miracles.

The examples he offers are that of Peter, who without any previous prayer pronounced sentence of death on the lying Ananias and Saphira by mere denunciation (Acts 5:4, 9), and of the blessed Benedict, (Benedict of Norcia (ca. 480–547 AD), father of Western monasticism.) who looked on the bonds of a poor countryman and thus loosened them more speedily than it were possible to human hands. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2.31 (PL 66:189–92).) Therefore, he concludes that the saints work miracles sometimes by prayer, sometimes by power.

We must now discuss how this may be possible. It is evident that God alone works miracles by his sole command. Now, we find that the divine commands reach the lower rational spirits, namely, the souls of men, by means of the higher spirits, namely, the angels, as is apparent in the promulgation of the Old Law. In the same way, the divine command can, through the angelic and human spirits, reach corporeal creatures through whom, in a way, the divine decrees are made present to nature. Accordingly, human and angelic spirits act in a way as instruments of the divine power for the accomplishment of a miracle. This does not mean that they are possessed of a permanent habitual power, since then they would be able to work miracles whenever they chose to do so. In fact, Gregory declares this to be impossible. (Gregory the Great, Dialogues 2.33–34 (PL 66:194–96).) He proves his assertion by quoting the example of Paul, who prayed that the sting might depart from him, yet his prayer was not granted (2 Cor 12:9); and of Benedict, who against his will was detained by the storm that was granted through his sister’s prayer. The saints’ power to cooperate with God in the working of miracles may be taken to be something after the manner of imperfect forms, which are called “intentions”; these are not permanent and are only evoked at the presence of the principal agent, even as light in the air, and movement in an instrument.

Accordingly, the gratuitous gift that is the grace of miracles or of healing can denote a power of this kind, so that this grace which is given that a man may work supernaturally is like the grace of prophecy, which is given that a man may know supernaturally, and by virtue of which the prophet cannot prophesy whenever he wishes, but only when the spirit of prophecy moves him, as Gregory proves. (Gregory the Great, Homilies on Ezechiel 1 (PL 76:786–95).) Nor is it strange if in this way God uses the spiritual creature as an instrument in order to produce wondrous effects in corporeal nature, seeing that he also uses corporeal creatures instrumentally in the sanctification of spiritual creatures, for instance, in the sacraments.

Reply to Objs.: This suffices for the replies to the objections, since it is true that God alone works miracles by authority, and it is also true that he communicates to creatures the power to work miracles according to the creature’s capacity and the order of divine wisdom, to the effect that a creature may as a minister work a miracle by grace.