St. Raphael the Archangel

Saint Raphael

Archangel

Raphael’s name in Hebrew means “God has healed”, and he is hailed as a patron of medicine and healing. Traditional consensus identifies him with the angel who healed the sick at the pool of Bethsaida in the Gospel of John. Raphael is particularly associated with healing blindness, because his medicinal advice to Tobias, in the Old Testament book of the same name, restored the sight of Tobias’s father. Because the angel was the guardian and fellow traveler of the young Tobias, Raphael is considered a patron of travelers and young people; and due to his advice for the newly wedded Tobias and Sarah, Raphael is often petitioned for intercession in matters of courtship and marriage. In that book Raphael also proclaims that he is one of the seven angels who “stand before the Lord”, and demonstrates his angelic power by vanquishing a demon. October 24th was the most common date for Raphael’s feast in the West, long before it was extended to the whole church by Pope Benedict XV. Raphael is also honored along with all the angelic hosts on the ancient feast of Michaelmas, September 29th, though his name and that of Gabriel are absent from the liturgical texts for that day.

Traditional Roman Martyrology for October 24th

AT Venosa, in Basilicata, the birthday [into heaven] of the holy martyrs Felix, African bishop, Audactus and Januarius, priests, Fortunatus and Septimus, lectors. In the time of Diocletian, after having been a long time loaded with fetters, and imprisoned in Africa and Sicily by the governor Magdellian, as Felix refused absolutely to deliver the sacred books, according to the emperor’s edict, they finally closed their lives by being beheaded.

At Nagran, in Arabia Felix, the passion of the Saint Aretas and his companions, to the number of three hundred and forty, in the time of the emperor Justin, under the Jewish tyrant Dunaan. After them was burned alive a Christian woman, whose son, five years old, confessed Christ lisping, and as he could neither by caresses nor threats be stopped, he rushed into the fire in which his mother was burning.

At Cologne, St. Evergistus, bishop and martyr.

At Constantinople, St. Proclus, bishop.

In Bretagne, the departure from this life of St. Maglorious, bishop, whose body rests at Paris.

In Campania, St. Mark, solitary, whose renowned actions have been recorded by St. Gregory.

℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

℟. Thanks be to God.