St. Raphael the Archangel

Who they were

Raphael, like Michael, was never a human being, and his name is a statement rather than a title. In Hebrew it means God heals.

He appears in the book of Tobit, which Catholics and Orthodox receive as scripture and most Protestant traditions place among the apocrypha. The story is domestic and strange. A man named Tobit goes blind. His son Tobias is sent on a long journey to recover a debt, and a companion appears who offers to travel with him. The companion guides him, protects him, helps him win and safely marry Sarah, a woman whose previous seven husbands had died on the wedding night, and shows him how to restore his father's sight on the return. Only at the end does the companion reveal that he is Raphael, one of the seven who stand before God.

That single book carries all three of his patronages, which is why they sit together so oddly: healing, travel, and marriage. Each one is something he actually does in the narrative.

He is honoured on 29 September with Michael and Gabriel.

The book of Tobit is worth reading on its own terms, and it is short. It is one of the few places in scripture where the domestic details are the point: a marriage arranged, a dog that comes along on the journey and is mentioned twice for no obvious reason, an old man waiting at a window for his son to come home. The angel moves through all of it without being recognised.

Raphael's name appears in Jewish apocalyptic literature outside the canon as well, where he is listed among the archangels who stand before God. In Christian art he is almost always shown walking, usually with a staff and a fish, and usually beside a much smaller figure of Tobias. He is the only archangel commonly depicted mid-journey rather than standing still, which is a fair summary of what he does in the one story we have of him.

Why people turn to St. Raphael the Archangel

Every patronage traces to the book of Tobit. He healed the father's blindness, so he is invoked for healing, particularly of the eyes. He walked the whole journey and brought the young man home safely, so he is invoked for travel. He brought Tobias and Sarah together and freed her from what had destroyed her earlier marriages, so he is invoked by people hoping to find the right person, and by couples at the start. The story's quiet point is that the companion was never recognised until afterwards, which is most of what people are asking about when they ask him for guidance.

How to ask their intercession

Name the healing, the journey, or the person. He is one of the saints most commonly asked by people who are single and would rather not be, and there is nothing embarrassing about asking that plainly. Reading the book of Tobit alongside the asking is a long-standing practice and takes about half an hour.