This artwork by Tissot shows the Archangel Gabriel touching the lips of Zacharias and temporarily confiscating his ability to talk. Zacharias was a Jewish priest and the father of St. John the Baptist. The reason Gabriel struck him dumb was because he did not believe that his wife would conceive in her old age. "And the angel answering, said to him: 'I am Gabriel, who stand before God: and am sent to speak to thee, and to bring thee these good tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall come to pass, because thou hast not believed my words, which shall be fulfilled in their time.' " — Luke 1:19-20
