Today, we are thrilled to introduce someone whom we have been trying to speak to for quite some time, Archangel Colm Bohannon. It is an unprecedented occasion to meet an archangel here on Earth and one who fought in the American Revolution. To soothe his impatience, we have provided rum and agreed to refrain from asking him about his youngest archangel brother, Lucifer.
Me: Hello, Mr. Bohannon. Thank you for joining us today.
Colm: I don’t understand the human purpose of apologies or gratitude, so get on with it.
Me: Please, oh, I guess you don’t understand the purpose of polite requests either. What is that silver and green light surrounding you?
Colm: The green light is the color of my angelic spirit. All angels have a spiritual color through which we see one another. The silver light is our halo.
Me: Why are you possessing a human vessel?
Colm: I will tell you that story when it is time.
Me: Alright, then tell us about your celestial family.
Colm: (Drinks rum). Must I?
Me:
Colm: (Heaves a sigh). My father, God, and my archangel brothers see me as an abomination, but if you insist. I am the fifth archangel of seven. My celestial name is Sariel. My four older brothers are Michael, Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. My two younger brothers are Ezekiel and Lucifer. However, I am a brother to all angels who our father created.
Me: Why did God create the archangels?
Colm: We were created to be the most powerful beings in the universe besides our father. We each had certain divinities that changed over time as our heavenly orientations changed. When God created the children of man, we were tasked with being preceptors and beholders of those things which mankind does not understand.
(Drinks more rum) I was once the archangel of Divine Visions. That was at a time when the children of man were unaware of their creator. It was my task to make them aware. I had no idea how to conjure divine visions. It had never been done before. This was thousands and thousands of years before what the children of man consider The Calling of Abraham. I had no guidance and no example and in my attempt, my power killed many of them before I realized what was happening.
Me: But there is more isn’t there?
Colm: (Flutters his wings) Later, I was considered the angel of death, because at one time, I escorted human souls to Heaven after they died. That was before Lucifer fell, and the archangels became God’s warriors against Hell’s demons. After Lucifer fell and God created reapers, my divinity changed. I escorted souls to their egress when the body died, summoned reapers, and told them where God wanted them to take souls instead of doing it myself. God assigned a brotherhood of eight angels to me so I could teach them the same. Then, I was entrusted to shepherd the Grigori angels, the Watchers Angels, but they learned human lust, acted on that lust, and I did nothing to stop them because I didn’t know by what means, short of destroying them.
Me: Who are the angels who belong to your brotherhood?
Colm: Their human vessels’ names are Fergus Driscoll, Seamus Cullen, Brandon O’Flynn, Ian Keogh, Liam Kavanagh, Michael Bohannon, and Patrick Cullen.
Me: Why does your father and older brothers see you as an abomination?
Colm: It is a long story that began millenniums ago. Three of my brotherhood, Ian, Michael, and Seamus learned lust from the Grigori angels and created what was forbidden— the Nephilim, the children of human women and angels. The rest of us tried to stop them. We were all found guilty and banished from Heaven.
Me: You were all willing to accept punishment?
Colm: Aye. We’re a brotherhood who love each other.
Me: Where did you go after you were banished?
Colm: In his anger over what we had done, God created demons from his wrath to kill us. He also summoned the Flood of Noah to kill the Nephilim living with their mothers on Earth.
Me: Oh my. Is that when you came here?
Colm: (Flashes his eyes) No. We raced through the universe in a desperate attempt to elude our executioners. I tried to protect my brotherhood because I was the only one of us with the power to destroy not only a demon, but the demons’ leader.
Me: Did I just see silver light flash in your eyes?
Colm: Aye. It’s my way of tempering you.
Me: Was I out of line with my questioning?
Colm: Not yet. It was just a warning. All the archangels were created with the ability just as we were endowed with the ability to destroy using our golden radiance that is a part of our spirit.
Me: Thank you for…uh…I have been dually warned. May I ask about your journey to Earth?
Colm: A company of eight Irish men died fighting the Normans in Wexford, Ireland on the night of May 1, 1169. They were defending their cog, the LE ‘Eithne. They drown when it sank. We took their human vessels to confuse the demons and give us time to rest.
Me: Therefore, you don’t possess a living human.
Colm: Angels can’t possess the living. Our spiritual power and immortality is too great for them to contain.
Me: Did the ruse work?
Colm: By 1314, the demons’ leader realized what we had done. He and his army of demonic spirits went to Scotland to the scene of the Battle of Bannockburn where the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, clashed with the English king, Edward II. There were many human vessels to be had as the soldiers died on the battlefield. The demon leader possessed the body of an English knight, Sir Henry de Bohun, a man Robert the Bruce killed in the battle. Wearing their new vessels, Henry and his army continued their ruthless pursuit. By 1575, we were tiring again.
Me: I noticed that one of your angels has the same last name as you—Bohannon.
Colm: The company of dead Irish men were led by the man Colm Bohannon. Michael was Colm’s little brother. The same for Seamus Cullen. He also had a little brother among the dead, Patrick Cullen. The human link between us and them still remains. It is our palimpsests, shadows of memories that belonged to the souls of our human vessels showing through to the present. They can be frightening and impossible to control. Fergus and Ian, however, don’t possess a palimpsest.
Me: Where did you go to rest in 1575?
Colm: We took a ship from England to Virginia in America. We found sanctuary in a place over the Appalachian Mountains that was later called Burkes Garden. We were there for two hundred years before we began to suspect that the demons were in Boston, Massachusetts.
Me: May I see your wings?
Colm: (Rises slowly and unfurls his imperial silver wings that touch the floor, the ceiling, and sweep over my face and body. Silver crystals rain down from them like glittering hail and gather on the floor and against the walls.)
Me: (I feel my breath leave my body and restrain my urge to fall to my knees in reverence.)
Colm: (Furls his wings into a volute and they disappear.)
Me: (I’ve forgotten my next question.) Oh yes. How did you begin fighting for the Patriots in the American Revolution?
Colm: We suspected that the demon leader had possessed a general in the British army. We went to Boston to warn the Sons of Liberty—John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Dr. Joseph Warren of the possibility. We felt it our duty to protect them if that was the case especially if war broke out between the colonies and Great Britain. Our suspicions were correct. The demon was possessing General Henry Hereford who arrived in Boston from London soon after we did in January 1775. War broke out four months later in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.
Me: Tell me about some of your human friends.
Colm: We call them the children of man, by the way as we are called the sons of God. Jeremiah Killam is our closest friend who we met in Burkes Garden when he was only five years old. Dr. Joseph Warren, a leading Son of Liberty, taught me what it meant to love a child of man unconditionally. What happened to him and my failure to protect him and stop it is my greatest shame. Of course, there is also Abe Rowlinson who was among the patriots firing on the British when they were retreating from Concord to Boston.
Me: I have been told you had General George Washington’s ear. Is this true?
Colm: I don’t know if I had his ear. He and I became very close and constantly conferred during the war.
Me: Did you or some of your angels hold rank in the Continental Army?
Colm: I refused rank, but Fergus Driscoll achieved the rank of major general. Brandon O’Flynn rose to a colonel in the artillery corps under General Henry Knox, and Ian Keogh was commissioned a lieutenant, also under Knox.
Me: Were the children of man afraid of you at first?
Colm: Yes and no. They had never seen angels on Earth. Many of them mistook me for God. Later, as the war wore on and they became used to our presence, we were considered the gift of Providence to the American cause for independence.
Me: Tell us more about the angels in your brotherhood and their role in their Heavenly duties and the war itself.
Colm: They are soothers and beholders. They fulfilled that divinity throughout the war. The rest of our time with the children of man, and the hardships we endured as angels unaccustomed to the noise of human society and emotions, is written. You will have to read the narrative in the series of books called Angels and Patriots. There you will find the words that describe our time among you and the lessons we learned from you.
Me: One last question. How did you elude the demons?
Colm: You will have to read the books, but I will tell you that demons were not the only hounds God unleashed upon us.
Me: Thank you for your time today. Perhaps one day you will learn the purpose of gratitude.
Colm: I don’t think so. However, there is one last thing to consider. Human emotions can change everything. Angelic emotions can destroy the world.
Rebels, Heroes, Patriots, and Legends. The multiple award winning Angels and Patriots saga is the mutual pursuit of liberty, the meaning of loyalty, and the virtue of the ultimate sacrifice during the American Revolution.
Angels and Patriots Book One: Sons of Liberty, Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill
Angels and Patriots Book Two: The Cause of 1776
Angels and Patriots Book Three: The Year of the Hangman
Angels and Patriots Book Four: The Hand of Providence and The Brotherhood’s Sword (coming late 2021 or early 2022)
ANGELS & PATRIOTS BOOK ONE 2018 AWARDS
Independent Press Award, Historical Fiction, Winner
Independent Press Award, Military Fiction, Distinguished Favorite
Shelf UnBound Best Indie Book, Notable
National Indie Excellence® Awards, Military Fiction, Finalist
American Fiction Awards, Fantasy and Military Fiction, Finalist
New York City Big Book Awards, Military Fiction, Winner
New York City Big Book Awards, Historical Fiction, Distinguished Favorite
ANGELS AND PATRIOTS BOOK TWO AWARDS
2019 New York City Big Book Awards, Military Fiction, Winner
2019 Shelf Unbound, Top 100 Notable Indie Book
2020 Independent Press Award, Military Fiction, Winner
ANGELS AND PATRIOTS BOOK THREE AWARDS
2020 Shelf Unbound Top 100 Notable Indie
2021 Independent Press Award, Military Fiction, Distinguished Favorite