This morning, while getting ready for mass, I clicked on “Sunday Morning” and caught the tail end of a report they did on some of this season’s most ubiquitous figures: angels.

It turns out, a sizable majority of Americans believe in them. And they aren’t unique to Western culture.

Take a look:

There’s no denying we have a long history with these winged creatures – real or imagined.

For Ines Powell at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, angels exist in many cultures.

She showed us one angel that came from a palace in what is now Iraq, built around 850 B.C.

The very word “angel” comes from the Greek word for messenger.

“Eros is also a little person who moves from heaven to earth, who kind of brings down to earth his mother’s wishes,” Powell said. “So this little figure is sometimes very good, brings love between people.”

There are angels in Judaism and Islam, and winged figures in Buddhism and Hinduism.

“The idea is that they are the messenger of the gods,” Powell said.

In pop culture, angels tend to be the “guardian” variety. The most famous movie angel is probably Clarence from “It’s a Wonderful Life,” who earned his wings helping out George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart.

On TV the hit show “Touched By an Angel” ran from 1994-2003. Martha Williamson was the executive producer.

“I know what people like to hear about angels, because 24 million people watched ‘Touched By an Angel’ for nine years,” she says. “And what they responded to was the fact that an angel was a messenger from God who brought healing, who brought encouragement, who who sometimes brought some correction. Always brought comfort and truth.”

There’s much more at the CBS News link — including some stories of angelic intervention.