To submit news, send e-mail to the contact team. To submit your own photos, photopost newliturgicalmovement. October 24 is the feast of Saint Raphael the Archangel in the traditional calendar. Along with Saints Michael and Gabriel, Raphael is one of only three Angels mentioned by name in the canonical Scriptures.
Unlike Michael, he is not called an Archangel in the Bible but is nonetheless recognized as such by the Church. The names of these Angels, however, are taken from Jewish and Christian apocrypha and not from the Bible. All our information about Raphael comes from the Book of Tobias Tobit , one of the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament.
Tobias is a pious Jew living in Nineveh under Assyrian persecution who continues to perform mitzvahs in secret like burying the dead, despite threats to his life. As he sleeps, dung from the nest falls into his eyes and blinds him. Tobias prays to God for mercy at the same time that a young maiden far away offers a similar prayer. Sarah is a distant relative of his who has been married seven times, but whenever a husband tries to consummate the marriage, a demon named Asmodeus kills him.
God, hearing both prayers at the same time, commissions Raphael to heal them both. Thinking that he is about to die, Tobias tells his only son, also named Tobias, to retrieve money owed to him by a friend.
The problem is that the friend lives a great distance away, and the young man does not know the route. The elder Tobias and his wife are thrilled, and the young man and Angel depart. During the journey, Tobias is attacked by a giant fish as he is washing his feet in the Tigris River. Christian art typically portrays Raphael as spearing the scaly monster, but the narrator explains that he simply told Tobias what to do, namely, to pull it ashore by the gills.
