The Archangel Who Answers the Waiting Righteous

Jeremiel is named in the apocryphal apocalypse 2 Esdras (also called 4 Ezra), where he is the archangel who answers the souls of the righteous when they ask, from their chambers of rest, how long they must wait for the reward promised them; his reply concerns the fullness of the appointed number of the just. Tradition often identifies him with Remiel of the Book of Enoch, one of the holy watchers, described as the angel "whom God set over those who rise," a guardian of souls and a guide of the resurrected.

On the strength of these roles he is counted among the archangels in the Eastern Christian tradition, sometimes as the eighth beyond the standard seven of the Synaxis. His name is read as "mercy of God" or "God raises up." Because his sources lie outside the canon received by most churches, his standing is uncertain and his cult limited; where he is honoured, it is as the archangel of hope in the interval before the resurrection, the one who answers the dead who wait.