Who is the Archangel Raphael?
Raphael's name means God heals, and his whole story is about healing.
He appears in the Book of Tobit. That book is in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles; most Protestant Bibles leave it out or print it among the Apocrypha. In the story, Raphael travels in disguise beside a young man named Tobias, guides him on a long journey, and helps bring healing to two families: Tobias's father Tobit, who had gone blind, and a young woman named Sarah, who had suffered greatly.
Only at the end does Raphael reveal who he is: one of the seven angels who stand before the glory of the Lord (Tobit 12:15). He tells them to give thanks to God, not to him.
So Raphael is remembered as a companion on the road, a guide for travellers, and a patron of healing, of doctors and nurses, and of anyone waiting to be made well. The Catholic Church keeps his feast with Michael and Gabriel on September 29, and the Orthodox Church honours him at the Synaxis of the Archangels on November 8.
There is something very human about Raphael's story. He does not appear in glory with a sword. He walks beside a young man for many miles, gives practical advice, helps him find a wife, and only at the end shows who he really was all along. Many people have found that God works the same way: quietly, through the companion on the road, the doctor at the bedside, the friend who shows up. That is why so many hospitals, and so many travellers, have asked for Raphael's prayers. His icon is a good thing to carry on a long journey of any kind.
About the icon
Raphael is often painted as a traveller: a staff in his hand, sometimes a small vessel of medicine, sometimes with the young Tobias and a fish from the story at his side.
