Angel Moroni

According to early Latter Day Saint accounts, Moroni was originally a mortal figure named Moroni (the last engraver described in the Book of Mormon) who, after death, exists in a resurrected or angelic form. In Joseph Smith’s account the angel Moroni appeared beginning on September 21, 1823, as the guardian of golden plates buried in a stone box a few miles from Smith’s home in western New York and instructed Smith how to obtain and later translate those plates into the Book of Mormon. Some early documentary variants and later editorial history show the angel once identified as 'Nephi' in an 1838 history draft, a reading most Latter Day Saints regard as a transcriptional error; the canonical and customary name in LDS sources is Moroni.

Contemporary visionary descriptions by Joseph Smith describe Moroni as an "angel of light" clad in a loose robe of extraordinary whiteness, with exposed hands and wrists; Smith called his entire person "glorious beyond description." Katharine Smith likewise described white raiment with a girdle and pure white hands. In later institutional and popular LDS visual culture Moroni is commonly represented in temple statuary and public art—frequently a standing figure placed atop temples, often shown holding a trumpet and in some modern representations also shown with plates—details drawn from sculptural and commemorative conventions rather than the foundational visionary text.

Sources attribute to Moroni the role of guardian of the golden plates, the ability to reveal and give directions to hidden sacred records, repeated visitations and visionary appearances to Joseph Smith and other early adherents (including the Three Witnesses), and functioning as an intermediary who imparts knowledge and direction that leads to new scripture. After translation, Smith reported returning the plates to Moroni, who retained possession. The figure operates as a ministering, revelatory being rather than a spirit to be warded against in the supplied sources.