Saint Raphael

The name of this archangel (Raphael = "God has healed") does not appear in the

Hebrew Scriptures, and in the Septuagint only in the Book of Tobias. Here he

first appears disguised in human form as the travelling companion of the younger

Tobias, calling himself "Azarias the son of the great Ananias". The story of the

adventurous journey during which the protective influence of the angel is shown in

many ways including the binding "in the desert of upper Egypt" of the demon who

had previously slain seven husbands of Sara, daughter of Raguel, is

picturesquely related in Tobit 5-11, to which the reader is referred. After the return

and the healing of the blindness of the elder Tobias, Azarias makes himself

known as "the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord"

(Tob., xii, 15. Cf. Apoc., viii, 2). Of these seven "archangels" which appear in the

angelology of post-Exilic Judaism, only three, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, are

mentioned in the canonical Scriptures. The others, according to the Book of

Enoch (cf. xxi) are Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jerahmeel, while from other

apocryphal sources we get the variant names Izidkiel, Hanael, and Kepharel

instead of the last three in the other list.

Regarding the functions attributed to Raphael we have little more than his

declaration to Tobias (Tobit 12) that when the latter was occupied in his works of

mercy and charity, he (Raphael) offered his prayer to the Lord, that he was sent

by the Lord to heal him of his blindness and to deliver Sara, his son's wife, from

the devil. The Jewish category of the archangels is recognized in the New

Testament (I Thess., iv, 15; Jude, 9), but only Gabriel and Michael are mentioned

by name. Many commentators, however, identify Raphael with the "angel of the

Lord" mentioned in John 5. This conjecture is base both on the significance of

the name and on the healing role attributed to Raphael in the Book of Tobias. The

Church assigns the feast of St. Raphael to 24 October. The hymns of the Office

recall the healing power of the archangel and his victory over the demon. The

lessons of the first Nocturn and the Antiphons of the entire Office are taken from

the Book of Tobias, and the lessons of the second and third Nocturns from the

works of St. Augustine, viz. for the second Nocturn a sermon on Tobias (sermon

I on the fifteenth Sunday), and for the third, a homily on the opening verse of

John, v. The Epistle of the Mass is taken from the twelfth chapter of Tobias, and

the Gospel from John 5:1-4, referring to the pool called Probatica, where the

multitude of the infirm lay awaiting the moving of the water, for "an angel of the

Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved.And he

that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole

of whatsoever infirmity he lay under". Thus the conjecture of the commentators

referred to above is confirmed by the official Liturgy of the Church.

Vigouroux, Dict. de la Bible, s. v. Raphael.

JAMES F. DRISCOLL

Transcribed by Sean Hyland

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII

Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org