St. Raphael the Archangel

1. The Book of Tobit

Raphael appears in disguise in the Book of Tobit, one of the deuterocanonical books. He guides a young man named Tobias on a long journey into Media, teaches him to use parts of a fish to heal his father's blindness and to drive off a demon tormenting Sarah, the woman Tobias marries, and then names himself before returning to God.

The disguise is worth noticing. Raphael presents himself as "Azariah son of Hananiah," a relative of the family (Tobit 5:12 to 13). The two Hebrew names mean roughly "the Lord has helped" and "the Lord is gracious," so the false identity is a statement of what is actually happening. Tobit and his son believe they have hired a competent kinsman as a travelling companion and pay him wages. They are being escorted by an angel the whole way and do not know it.

2. "God Heals"

The name Raphael is built from the Hebrew verb for healing and the word for God, so it carries the meaning "God heals" or "God has healed." He is patron of travellers, the blind, the sick, nurses and physicians, happy meetings, and courtship and marriage, and every one of those patronages comes straight out of what he does in Tobit.

He identifies himself at the end of the story: "I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord" (Tobit 12:15). A few verses earlier he tells Tobit something more startling. When Tobit and Sarah prayed, on the same day and in different countries, Raphael was the one who brought the record of their prayer before the glory of the Lord (Tobit 12:12). The book is built so that the reader sees both prayers go up in chapter 3 and then learns in chapter 12 who carried them.

He also corrects a natural misunderstanding. He tells them that although they watched him eat and drink for weeks, he took nothing: what they saw was a vision (Tobit 12:19). Angels are pure spirits, and the human appearance was for the sake of the people he was sent to.

3. The Guide

Raphael shows that God's providence reaches the practical business of a life: finding a spouse, curing an illness, getting money owed to a family, travelling safely and coming home. Nothing in the book is abstract. The angel walks, camps, catches a fish, negotiates a marriage contract, collects a debt, and gives medical instructions.

His last words before leaving are instructions to praise God, to acknowledge publicly what has been done, and to write it down (Tobit 12:20). He refuses payment and directs all of it away from himself. That is the pattern for any true messenger of God, and it is a useful test to hold against anyone who claims to speak for heaven.

4. What the Book of Tobit Actually Says

The book is set among Israelites deported to Nineveh by the Assyrians in the eighth century BC. Two people are in unbearable trouble.

Tobit

Tobit is an Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali living in exile, who keeps the law at real cost, including burying the bodies of executed Israelites when it was dangerous to do so. After one such burial he sleeps outside in his courtyard and droppings from birds fall into his eyes, leaving him blind (Tobit 2). He loses his livelihood, quarrels with his wife Anna over a goat, and prays to die.

Sarah

Sarah, daughter of Raguel, lives far away in Ecbatana in Media. She has been married seven times, and each husband has been killed by the demon Asmodeus on the wedding night before the marriage could be consummated. A servant taunts her about it. She goes to an upper room intending to hang herself, thinks of the grief it would cause her father, and prays to die instead (Tobit 3).

The answer

Both prayers are heard at the same moment, and God sends Raphael to heal them both (Tobit 3:16 to 17). Tobit sends his son Tobias to Media to recover money left in trust years before, and Raphael, as Azariah, hires on as the guide. At the Tigris a large fish attacks Tobias and the angel tells him to catch it and keep the gall, heart and liver.

At Ecbatana, Raphael tells Tobias to marry Sarah, who is his kinswoman. Tobias knows what happened to the previous seven. He marries her, burns the fish's heart and liver as instructed, and the demon flees; Raphael pursues and binds him (Tobit 8:3). Before they sleep, the couple get up and pray together, asking God's mercy and saying that they marry in truth rather than in lust (Tobit 8:5 to 8). It is the only wedding-night prayer in Scripture, and the Church offers it as one of the Old Testament readings for a Catholic wedding.

They return to Nineveh, Tobias applies the gall to his father's eyes, and Tobit sees (Tobit 11). When father and son try to pay their guide half of everything they have, Raphael tells them who he is, and they fall on their faces (Tobit 12).

5. Is Tobit in Your Bible?

That depends on which Bible you own, and it is the most common practical question about Raphael.

Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles contain Tobit as part of the Old Testament. The Hebrew Bible does not contain it, and most Protestant Bibles either omit it or place it in a separate section labelled Apocrypha. So a reader with a standard Protestant Bible will not find Raphael by name anywhere in it, because Tobit is his only appearance in the canonical text.

The book was included in the lists of Scripture used by the Church in the West from the late fourth century, and the Council of Trent defined the canon including it in 1546, in response to its rejection by the Reformers. Fragments of Tobit in Aramaic and Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, which showed that the book circulated in Semitic languages well before the Christian era. Scholars generally date its composition to the third or second century BC, several centuries after the Assyrian exile in which it is set. Our page on the deuterocanonical books sets out the history of the dispute and the Catholic and Protestant arguments.

6. What the Church Teaches About Angels

The existence of angels is a truth of the faith, attested by Scripture and by Tradition (CCC 328). Angels are purely spiritual creatures with intelligence and will, personal and immortal (CCC 330), and they surround human life with watchful care and intercession (CCC 336). They are servants and messengers of God, and they are creatures, which means they are worshipped by nobody.

Three angels are named in the Scriptures the Catholic Church receives. Michael appears in Daniel, in the Letter of Jude and in Revelation. Gabriel appears in Daniel and announces the births of John the Baptist and of Jesus in Luke. Raphael appears in Tobit. Other names, including Uriel, come from books the Church does not receive as canonical, and Western Church authority restricted the liturgical use of angel names to the three found in Scripture; an eighth-century Roman synod is usually cited for that restriction. Catholic practice follows it, which is why parishes are named for Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and not for others.

One popular association should be flagged. Some devotional writing links Raphael with the angel who was said to stir the healing pool at Bethesda in John 5. That verse is missing from the earliest manuscripts of John and modern editions omit it or move it to a footnote, and no text names the angel in any case. Our page on angels in Catholic teaching covers the hierarchy, the guardian angels, and what Scripture does and does not say.

7. Feast Day, Patronage and Devotion

Until the reform of the calendar in 1969, Michael was honoured on 29 September, Gabriel on 24 March and Raphael on 24 October. The three were then joined on the single feast of 29 September, which is still widely called Michaelmas.

Every patronage attached to Raphael has a traceable origin in Tobit. Travel and safe return come from the journey to Media. Healing and the blind come from Tobit's eyes. Courtship and marriage come from Sarah. The fish he carries in art is the fish from the Tigris. Devotion to him for a good spouse, for a safe journey and for the sick has been steady in Catholic practice for centuries, and the Spanish city of Córdoba honours him as its custodian, with monuments in his name standing in its streets.

8. What a Reader Can Take From Raphael

Your prayer is carried, even when nothing visible happens

Tobit and Sarah both asked to die. The answer was already travelling toward them, and neither of them knew it for weeks. That is the ordinary experience of prayer, and Tobit 12:12 is the verse to hold onto in it.

God works through means

The healing in this book comes through a fish, a journey, a marriage contract and a competent guide. Grace runs through ordinary things: doctors, travel, relatives, money owed and repaid. Waiting for a bare miracle while ignoring the means in front of you gets the story backwards.

Ask for a spouse, and ask honestly

The prayer of Tobias and Sarah on their wedding night is the most useful thing in the book for anyone dating or engaged. They ask for mercy, they ask to grow old together, and they say why they are marrying. Our page on Catholic marriage covers what the Church holds the sacrament to be.

9. Frequently Asked Questions

Where is St. Raphael in the Bible?

Raphael appears only in the Book of Tobit, which is part of the Catholic and Orthodox Old Testament and is placed among the Apocrypha or omitted in most Protestant Bibles. He is sent in Tobit 3, travels with Tobias from Tobit 5 onward, and names himself at Tobit 12:15.

What is St. Raphael the patron saint of?

Travellers, the blind and those with eye trouble, the sick, nurses and physicians, pharmacists, happy meetings, and courtship and marriage. Each of these comes from an event in Tobit: the journey to Media, the healing of Tobit's eyes, the medicine from the fish, and the marriage of Tobias and Sarah.

When is the feast of St. Raphael?

29 September, the feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels. Before the calendar reform of 1969 his own day was 24 October, which some communities still keep.

How many archangels are named in the Bible?

Three are named in the Scriptures the Catholic Church receives: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Other names such as Uriel appear in books outside the canon. Scripture explicitly calls Michael an archangel; Raphael describes himself as one of seven angels who stand before the glory of the Lord.

Why is St. Raphael shown with a fish?

Because of Tobit 6, where a fish attacks Tobias at the Tigris and Raphael tells him to keep its gall, heart and liver. The gall cures his father's blindness and the burnt heart and liver drive off the demon. Artists give Raphael a fish, a staff and travelling clothes to identify him.

Can I pray to St. Raphael for healing or for a spouse?

Yes. Catholics ask angels and saints to intercede with God, in the same way that Christians ask each other for prayer. The request is for his intercession, and the healing comes from God. Praying for a good spouse under Raphael's patronage is an old and settled Catholic practice, and the couple's own prayer in Tobit 8 is a good text to use.