Purple Archangel

This is lamium purpureum, sometimes called purple archangel. Archangels are an order of angelic being, from the Greek ἀρχάγγελος, literally 'chief angel'. I guess one comparison in Anglicanism might be between a bishop and an archbishop, though archangels seem to prove rather more useful.

Traditionally, there are three (Raphael, Gabriel and Michael), but as only the latter two are named in scripture, and only Michael is given the title, we ought to be circumspect in our usage. Jewish and Islamic traditions have their own named figures, but these again we may discount. Whatever the archangels’ number, names, appearance and colours, it is the sound they make to which all Christ’s people ought to anticipate:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first". 1 Thessalonians 4:16