**RAHAB** (Hebrew: *Rāhābh*).
Ragusa (Dubrovnik), diocese of — Mons. Stepinac carries the relic of St. Blaise during the annual procession in honor of the patron saint (1941).
A harlot of Jericho who received and hid two spies sent by Joshua (cf. *v.*), who had camped beyond the Jordan.
Impressed by the accounts of the Hebrews who had left Egypt and convinced that God had decreed their dominion over Palestine, she protected the two spies, thwarting the searches of her fellow citizens. In return, she obtained the promise that she and her family would be spared on the day of the city’s capture; she fulfilled the agreed condition (a scarlet cord in the window), and the promise was kept (Josh. 2:2–21; 6:17–25). Converted to the Israelite religion, she married Salmon of the tribe of Judah and became the mother of Boaz, the future husband of Ruth (Ruth 4:21; Matt. 1:5). Her faith was praised in New Testament writings (Heb. 11:31; Jas. 2:25).
In Ps. 86:4 and Isa. 30:7, *R.* is the symbolic name of Egypt. Elsewhere (Ps. 88:10–11; Job 9:13; 26:12–13; Isa. 51:9), it denotes a monster that personifies pride and rebellion against God; today, such texts are often understood as literary references to the myth.
(photo courtesy of Msgr. Giorgio Khayatt)
**RAHMANI, IGNATIUS EFREM II**
Ordained a priest in Rome, consecrated bishop of Edessa on 2 Nov. 1887, and elevated to the patriarchate at the Synod of Mardin on 13 Sept. 1898.
A pastor of extraordinary activity, he founded churches, schools, seminaries, religious houses, orphanages, and printing presses. He defended and consoled his flock especially during the war of 1914–17 and worked successfully for the return of dissidents (1 patriarch, 5 bishops, 30 priests or religious, thousands of faithful). As bishop, he was the guiding spirit of the national Synod of Sciarfa (1888).
Through the publication and translation of numerous unpublished Syriac writings, and especially of the apocryphal *Testamentum Domini* (Mainz 1899), *R.* earned the esteem of European scholars. Among the liturgical books he revised according to the text of ancient manuscripts that he had examined and copied in European libraries and acquired in the East, mention should be made of the *Rituale* (1914–22) and the *Missal* (1922). From 1926 he founded a monthly Arabic review (*Documenti d’Oriente*), and crowned his scholarly labors with the richly documented work, though not free from inaccuracies, *Les liturgies orientales et occidentales étudiées séparément et comparées entre elles* (Beirut 1929). Other important works include: *Acta ss. confessorum Guriae et Shamonae exarata Syriaca lingua a Theophilo Edeseno a. Chr. 297* (Rome 1899); *S. Ephraemi Hymni de Virginitate* (Sciarfa 1906); *Studia Syriaca seu Collectio documentorum hactenus ineditum* (5 fasc., ibid. 1904–5).