RAFFAELE, SANTO - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. X, p. 281

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

RAFAEL, Saint

### I. SACRED SCRIPTURE

An angel who appears under this symbolic name (Heb. Repha'el, "God has healed" or "heals") and describes himself as "one of the seven angels who stand before God and have access to the majesty of the Lord" in Tob. 12:15 (cf. Apoc. 8:2). Only in non-biblical texts is R. called "archangel," a title reserved in the Bible for St. Michael.

R. plays a most important role in the life of Tobias. Under the guise of Azariah (v.), son of Anania, he offers to accompany the Rages (v.) in Media (Tob. 5:5-21). During the first evening’s stop along the Tigris, he commands Tobias, who is frightened by a large fish that tries to attack him, to seize the animal and extract its bile, heart, and liver (ibid. 6:3-9). The last two of these anatomical parts will later be used as fumigations to drive the demon Asmodeus (v.) away from Sara in Ecbatana (ibid. 6:10-22). In Raguel’s house (v.), R. guides Tobias to ask for Sara’s hand in marriage, to which he is entitled as a close relative, assuring him that a union contracted first for God’s intended purpose and the burning of the heart and liver of the fish would prevent the recurrence of the mysterious deaths that had already befallen seven of Sara’s suitors on their first wedding night. While the wedding celebrations lasted fourteen days (ibid. 8:23), R. goes to Rages to collect the sum deposited with Gabelus. Upon returning to Nineveh, he explains to Tobias how to cure his father’s blindness by means of the fish’s bile (ibid. 11:4-17). To old Tobias, who did not know how to repay the presumed Azariah, son of Anania, R. reveals himself and then disappears, after having shown the duty of praising and blessing God and the moral value of fasting and almsgiving (ibid. 12:6-14).

In apocryphal writings, R. is often mentioned in the Book of Enoch (9:1; 10:4; 20:3; 22:3; 6; 32:6; 40:9; 54:6; 68:2 seq.; 71:8 seq.), which attributes to him a notable role in the struggle against the demon Azazel and in the final judgment. He is said to "preside over the spirits of men" (20:3) and "over all the diseases and wounds of the sons of men" (40:9). In the Church, which celebrates his feast on October 24, R. is invoked as an intercessor for the health of soul and body and as a protector in travels.

BIBL.:** M. Schwab, *Vocabulaire de l'angélologie*, Paris 1897, p. 249; L. Fillion, *Raphaël*, in DB, V, col. 975; L. Blau, *Raphaël*, in JE, XI, cols. 317 ff. Angelo Penna

### II. LITURGY

The feast of St. R. the Archangel is celebrated on October 24 with a major double rite.

Liturgical celebrations in his honor appear late and rarely. They are completely absent from Sacramentaries and Martyrologies until the 10th–11th centuries; afterward, he is found sporadically and on the most varied dates: in Venice on April 22, in Spain on May 7, in medieval French breviaries on July 9 or 15 or on the Monday of the third week of September. The Mercedarians have his feast on September 18. Peter de Natalibus presents him together with St. Michael on May 8; finally, the popular Martyrologies of Molanus, Canisius, and Ferraris include his name on October 20. In a Sacramentary from Ivrea, written between 1075 and 1090, the feast of St. R. is found on January 3, as also in a missal from the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice (Cod. lat. III, XLVIII) of 1392, though as a later addition; in a Sacramentary of the Biblioteca Capitolare in Verona (IX, fol. 103) of the 12th century, the feast of St. R. follows that of St. Michael on September 29. Well known is the church of the Angel Raphael in Venice, from the 7th century but rebuilt in 1618. After the 15th century, the feast of St. R. enters many diocesan Propers and even the *appendix de aliquibus locis* of the Roman Missal. However, it was only Benedict XV who prescribed it for the whole Church together with that of St. Gabriel on October 26, 1921 (AAS, 13 [1921], 543–44), fixing it on the date that had become established, namely October 24.

It should be noted, however, that apart from the proper feast, the name of St. R. already appears in ancient times in the Litany of the Saints and in the prayers of the *Itinerarium clericorum*.

BIBL.:** Benedetto XIV, *De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonizatione*, lib. IV, pars 2, cap. 30; I. Catalani, *Rituale Rom.*, perpetuis commentariis exornatum, Padua 1760, pp. 36–43; M. Schwab, *Vocabulaire de l'angélologie*, Paris 1897; K. A. H. Kellner, *L’anno liturgico*, trans. it., 2nd ed., Rome 1914, p. 283; L. Eisenhofer, *Handbuch der katholischen Liturgik*, I, Freiburg 1932, p. 602. Giuseppe Löw

### III. ART

St. R. is the least represented of the three most well-known archangels: Michael (v.), Gabriel (v.), and R. Rare are the examples of his depictions in early Christian art, where he always has his name written nearby; this served to distinguish him from the other archangels, who

Article illustration — (leaf from a gradual)
Saint Raphael – The Archangel Raphael. Enamel from the Pala d’Oro (11th century) – Venice, Basilica of St. Mark.

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