Angel Moroni THE FACTS ABOUT THE ICONIC TEMPLE SYMBOL

Amyth persists that all angel Moroni statues on temples face east; many do, but some do not.

For example, the angel Moroni on the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple faces west.

According to an article on churchofjesuschrist.org, scripture indicates that in the Second Coming, Christ will return from the east, and church guidelines indicate that where possible, angel Moroni statues on temples should face east. Occasionally, however, the orientation of the temple may result in the statue facing in a different direction.

The main door of the Saratoga Springs temple is located on the building’s west side; thus, the angel Moroni on the temple faces toward the front of the temple.

The Layton Utah Temple also has a west-facing angel Moroni. The statue was placed on the west spire of the temple in March of 2022. This temple is under construction and scheduled for completion in late 2023.

The first temple to be topped with an angel was the original Nauvoo Temple. It was a weathervane depicting a horizontal flying angel that was not identified as Moroni. That temple was destroyed by fire in 1848. The new Nauvoo Illinois Temple, which was dedicated in 2002, has an angel Moroni statue on top of its single spire, and that statue also faces west.

The church’s renderings of many recently announced and under-construction temples show they will not feature an angel Moroni statue. Of the 10 temples currently under construction in Utah — Layton, Orem, Taylorsville, Red Cliffs (St. George), Deseret Peak (Tooele), Syracuse, Lindon, Smithfield, Ephraim and Heber Valley — only the Red Cliffs and Layton temple rendering shows an angel Moroni statue placed on its spire.

Three Utah temples never had an angel Moroni statue: Logan, Manti and St. George. The Ogden and Provo temples were built without Angel Moroni statues but had them added later. When first constructed, the Monticello temple has a white angel Moroni statue, but it proved hard to see against a cloudy sky. It was replaced with a gold-leafed version.

WHO WAS MORONI?

Moroni was the last Nephite prophet in the Book of Mormon. His father, Mormon, gave him a set of plates containing a historical record. Moroni added to the record, then sealed up the plates and hid them in the Hill Cumorah.

In 1823, three years after Joseph Smith’s vision of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, Moroni appeared to him and told him where the plates were buried. Moroni continued giving instruction to Smith until 1827, when he delivered the plates to Smith.

Smith translated the plates, which became the text of the Book of Mormon.

Origin Of The Statue

The Salt Lake Temple was the first temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to feature an angel Moroni statue atop one of its spires. The statue was crafted by Springville sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin, whose artwork impressed Church President Wilford Woodruff.

When first asked by President Woodruff if he would accept a commission to create a representation of the angel Moroni for the temple, Dallin declined, citing as his reasons that he was not a member of the church and “didn’t believe in angels.”

Woodruff persisted, asking Dallin to continue considering the idea and consult with his mother Jane Dallin about it. During a visit to Springville, Dallin asked his mother, a religious woman, for her opinion, and she encouraged him to accept the offer.

When he argued that he did not believe in angels, she said, “Why do you say that? Every time you return home and take me in your arms you call me your angel mother.”

Jane persuaded her son to study the scriptures and Mormon theology in order to interpret the character of the angel Moroni. He found his inspiration in Revelation 14:6: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”

Dallin’s plaster model of the sculpture was completed by October of 1891. The 12-and-a-half-foot-tall statue was then fabricated out of copper and covered with 22-carat gold leaf.

On April 6, 1892, 40,000 people gathered at Temple Square to see the placement of the topstone and angel Moroni statue on the temple.

Years later, Dallin said, “I considered that my ‘angel Moroni’ brought me nearer to God than anything I ever did. It seemed to me that I came to know what it means to commune with angels from heaven.”

Other artists have gone on to design angel Moroni statues for various temples. In 1978, Karl Quilter and LaVar Wallgren developed a process of casting fiberglass, making it possible to create lightweight statues less expensively.

When Church President Gordon B. Hinckley brought forth the concept of smaller temples, Quilter was asked to design a version of Moroni that could be adapted for temples of different sizes.

Attracting Lightning

Today’s angel Moroni statues have a copper rod running through them vertically that extends for several inches above the top of the sculpture and attaches to a grounding cable at the bottom. This serves as a lightning rod and assists in attaching the sculpture to the building.

The angel Moroni statue on top of the Bountiful Utah Temple was hit by lightning in 2016, putting holes in the head and back of the statue. The statue was replaced less than two weeks later.

Lightning hit the angel Moroni atop the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple in 2009 during the temple’s open house. The statue was blackened in several places. It was later replaced.

Sources: churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/2009/11/looking-up-to-moroni?lang=eng churchofjesuschristtemples.org facebook.com/LaytonLDSTemple newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/angel-moroni-statues-on-temples https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/gs/moroni-son-of-mormon?lang=eng “Cyrus E. Dallin: Let Justice Be Done” by Rell