The Angel Moroni

The image of the Angel Moroni serves as a ubiquitous, if unofficial, emblem of the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). According to the Book of Mormon, Moroni was the son of Mormon, the last Nephite* military leader and prophet who completed and concealed the Book of Mormon. Upon his death, according to LDS theology, Moroni was resurrected and became an angelic messenger. 

It was Moroni who appeared to the LDS founder Joseph Smith, and revealed to him the location of the hidden scripture. 

Similar images adorn most Mormon Temples, and the covers of numerous editions of the Book of Mormon. The usual image depicts the angel triumphant, standing atop a globe (representing the admonition to preach the gospel to all corners of the earth) and often clutching the Golden plates of the Book of Mormon. The trumpet symbolizes Moroni’s appearance as a herald of the “restoration of the Gospel” brought about by Smith’s discovery. The image of Moroni on a temple almost invariably faces East, in accordance with the New Testament (Matt. 24:27) prophecy of the Second Coming:

“For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

The Angel Moroni bestows the Urim and Thummim on the Prophet

*According to the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were an ancient American civilization, followers of Nephi, a Hebrew prophet who traveled to the Americas and authored a portion of the BOM.