Raphael (archangel)

• 1. Introduction

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  The archangel Raphael lent his name to a ship that sailed from Lisbon for India on the 8th of July 1497. Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four vessels that day. King Manuel I of Portugal insisted that the flagship be called São Rafael. The name Raphael means "God has healed." It is an odd choice for a vessel crossing unknown seas, and it hints at how far this figure travels. Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Gnostic traditions all know him, though not always by the same name or for the same task. Where does his name first appear? Why do rabbis, mystics, painters and sailors each claim a different Raphael? And how did a figure who is never named in the New Testament or the Quran end up honored on three continents?

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• 2. Exile and Names

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  The Hebrew word malak means a messenger or representative, and it could describe a human or a supernatural being. The earliest messengers had no individual character and no rank. That changed after the Babylonian exile, when angels were arranged in a hierarchy modeled on Babylon's. The Greek word archangelos, meaning archangel, first appears in the Greek text of 1 Enoch. Names arrived with the ranks. A Talmudic saying, credited to either Shimon ben Lakish or Rabbi Hanina, holds that "the names of the angels were brought by the Jews from Babylonia."

  Raphael enters the record in two works from this period. 1 Enoch is a collection of texts that began as separate pieces in the 3rd century BC. The Book of Tobit comes from the early 2nd century BC. In the oldest layer of 1 Enoch, at 1 Enoch 9:1, he is one of four named archangels. Tobit 12:11-15 raises the count to seven.

  His name rests on the Hebrew root r-p-ʾ, which means "to heal." In Tobit he walks the earth disguised as a man called Azariah, a name meaning "Yah has helped." There he works as a physician and drives out demons. He uses an extraordinary fish to bind the demon Asmodeus and to heal Tobit's eyes. 1 Enoch gives him a wider field, describing him as "set over all disease and every wound of the children of the people." The same book shows him binding the armies of Azazel and throwing them into the valley of fire. Later Jewish writers would give this healer new scenes, new quarrels in heaven and even an earlier name.

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• 3. Rabbinic Tales

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  At the oak grove of Mamre, in the region of Hebron, three angels appeared to Abraham according to the Babylonian Talmud. Michael, as the greatest, walked in the middle. Gabriel stood on his right and Raphael on his left. Each had a single errand. Gabriel was sent to destroy Sodom, and Michael to tell Sarah she would bear Isaac. Raphael was to heal Abraham after his circumcision and to rescue Lot. Rashi explained that Raphael's two tasks counted as one mission, writing, "Although Raphael's mission included two tasks, they were considered a single mission since they were both acts that saved people." The Life of Adam and Eve lists him beside Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Joel. The medieval philosopher Maimonides included his name in a Jewish angelic hierarchy.

  According to Midrash Konen, Raphael once bore the name Libbiel, meaning "God is my heart." Before creating Adam, God consulted the angels, and they disagreed. The Angels of Love and Justice favored the creation of man. The Angels of Truth and Peace opposed it, expecting lies and quarrels. God cast the Angel of Truth down to earth and said, "Truth will spring back out of the earth." God had told the angels only of the good in humankind, not the evil. Even so, the band under Michael scoffed, "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" God stretched out his little finger, and fire consumed all of them except Michael. The band under Gabriel met the same end, and only Gabriel survived. The third band answered to Libbiel. He warned his troop against repeating their predecessors' mistake and urged them to yield. They agreed to serve man as attendants and ministers. God renamed Libbiel Raphael, the Rescuer, because his advice had rescued his host. He became the Angelic Prince of Healing, keeper of the celestial remedies behind every medicine used on earth.

  The Midrash Tanhuma turns to a rabbi named Matthew bar Heresh. Satan grew envious on seeing him absorbed in Torah study, and he doubted any righteous man could avoid sin. God judged the rabbi completely righteous, so Satan won permission to test him. Satan appeared as a beautiful woman, and the rabbi blinded himself with hot pins rather than risk his evil inclination prevailing. Satan trembled and reported back. God sent Raphael, Prince of the Healing Arts, to restore the rabbi's eyes. The rabbi at first refused healing. God then told Raphael to assure him that his evil inclination would never prevail. When the rabbi heard this from the angel himself, he accepted the cure. Medieval and later mystics went further and gave Raphael a place among the divine attributes of kabbalah.

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• 4. Kabbalah and Bedtime

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  Rabbi Bahya ben Asher, who lived from 1255 to 1340, tied Raphael to the layout of Israel's desert camp in his commentary Rabbeinu Bahya. The Camp of Ephraim lay west of the Tabernacle in Numbers 2:18. Bahya matched it with a heavenly camp headed by Raphael and supported by the angels Zavdiel and Achziel. He added that this was the camp Moses had in mind when he prayed for Miriam to be healed of tzaraath, saying "please God heal her."

  Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kaidanover, who lived from 1648 to 1712, gives a gentler image in Kav HaYashar. Angels appointed to bring illness upon people take fright and flee when they see Raphael. Only then does he extend healing to the sufferer.

  Rabbi Aharon Meir Altshuler composed an introduction to kabbalistic thought called the Beginning of Wisdom in Warsaw between 1887 and 1893. He lived from 1835 to 1905. In it Raphael corresponds to Tiphereth, meaning Beauty. He stands between Chesed, or Kindness, linked to Michael, and Din, or Judgement, linked to Gabriel. Uriel, also called Nuriel, serves as a second go-between. Altshuler explains that when Raphael leans toward Chesed he is called Uriel, and when he leans toward Din he is called Nuriel. The Sefer HaBahir names Raphael the "Prince of Peace." It says his reconciling of Michael on God's right and Gabriel on God's left is the meaning of the verse "He imposes peace in His heights," from Job 25:2. As archangel of Air, he makes peace between Fire and Water.

  Kabbalistic astrology links Raphael with the Sun, shared with Michael, and with the planet Mercury. The Zohar connects him with the human face among the four living creatures in the prophet Ezekiel's vision. It also gives him the sign of Aquarius, the Sephirah of Malkhuth, meaning Kingdom, and the Earth. Elsewhere the Zohar ties him to the Sephirah of Hod, meaning Majesty, to the Euphrates, fourth river of Eden, and to the left leg. It says his camp drinks from that river, with the tribe of Ephraim and its two companions, Manasseh and Benjamin.

  A humbler custom follows the bedtime Shema. Jews invoke the four archangels, with Michael at the right, Gabriel at the left, Uriel in front and Raphael behind. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, who lived from 1772 to 1810, called this practice "binding the chariot" in his Likutei Etzot. Christian readers, meanwhile, found Raphael in a New Testament that never names him.

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• 5. Patron of Travelers

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  Only Michael and Gabriel are named as archangels in the New Testament, in passages including Luke 1, Jude 1:9 and Revelation 12:7. Christian tradition filled the gap for Raphael through his healing. It identified him with the unnamed angel of John 5:1-4, who stirred the pool of Bethesda. Whoever entered the water first after the stirring "was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under." On that basis the Catholic Church groups Raphael with Michael and Gabriel as saints whose intercession may be sought through prayer.

  The Book of Tobit and the Gospel of John together made him a protector and healer. He is the patron of travelers, the blind, happy meetings, nurses, physicians, medical workers, matchmakers, Christian marriage and Catholic studies. In Venice, a corner of the Doge's Palace carries a relief of Raphael holding a scroll. The scroll reads "Efficia fretum quietum," meaning "Keep the Gulf quiet."

  On the 22nd of October, Da Gama's fleet reached the Cape of Good Hope. The sailors went ashore and raised a column in the archangel's honor. A small statue of Raphael had traveled with Da Gama on the whole voyage. It is now in the Naval Museum in Lisbon.

  Painters favored one scene above all, Tobias and the Angel, in which Raphael walks beside Tobias and his dog through a landscape. The subject grew very popular in Italy from about 1450 and stayed so for a century. Devotion to Raphael was rising, partly through confraternities dedicated to him. One of them, the Arcangelo Raffaello youth confraternity, operated in Florence from its founding in 1411 until its suppression in 1785. In altarpieces, Tobias, his fish and his dog can stand in for Raphael as identifying attributes. As protector of pilgrims, he often carries a staff when painted alone. He may also hold or stand on a fish, recalling the gall that healed Tobit's eyes. Early mosaics dress him and the other archangels as Byzantine courtiers. Churches that honor him do not even agree on the date.

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• 6. Feast Days and Apparitions

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  The General Roman Calendar added Raphael's feast in 1921, set for the 24th of October. The 1969 revision moved it to the 29th of September, to be kept together with Michael and Gabriel. Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum allows limited public use of the 1960 calendar, which still has the 24th of October. Some Spanish dioceses keep the old date, and Cordoba holds a procession. In the Diocese of Warsaw-Praga the feast falls on the 3rd of October with Michael and Gabriel, moved from the 29th of September, which marks the Dedication of St. Florian's Cathedral. The Eastern Orthodox Church honors him on the 8th of November, within the Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the Other Bodiless Powers. Oriental Orthodox Churches mark the dedication of a church of Saint Raphael on the back of a whale on the 26th of August, which is the 3rd of Pagumen. The Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates on Kouji Nabot 3 and Koiak 13. The Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate keeps the 24th of October.

  Cordoba's procession traces back to apparitions said to have occurred there in the 16th century. After the city appealed, Pope Innocent X allowed a local feast on the 7th of May, the date of the principal apparition. Saint John of God, founder of the Hospital order that bears his name, is also said to have been encouraged and instructed by Raphael. Many facilities of the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God are still called "Raphael Centers." Saint Maria Francesca of the Five Wounds, a Neapolitan nun of the 18th century, is likewise said to have seen him.

  The Latter-day Saint tradition adds a further appearance. Doctrine and Covenants 128:21 comes from a letter dated the 7th of September 1842. It lists Raphael among several angels who appeared to Joseph Smith, together or one at a time. Each, the letter says, declared his dispensation, rights, keys, honors, majesty and glory, and the power of his priesthood. Further details of the visit are not known. In Islamic tradition the same archangel carries a different name, Israfil, and a very different duty.

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• 7. Israfil's Trumpet

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  Israfil, also spelled Israafyl or Esrafyl, is a venerated archangel in Islamic tradition. Islamic eschatology says he will blow a trumpet from a holy rock in Jerusalem to announce the Day of Judgment, called Yawm al-Qiyamah. The trumpet stays poised at his lips until God gives the order. His name does not appear in the Quran. Tradition assumes he is the unnamed trumpet-angel of the text, in which the trumpet sounds and everyone in the heavens and on earth swoons, except those God wills. A second blast follows, and they stand awaiting.

  Certain Islamic sources say Israfil was created at the beginning of time and has four wings. He is tall enough to reach from the earth to the pillars of heaven. He is a master of music who sings God's praises in a thousand languages. His breath breathes life into hosts of angels, who join the singing. He is probably the highest angel, since he mediates between God and the other archangels. He reads from the Preserved Tablet, al-lawh al-mahfooz, to pass on God's commands. Some reports, though disputed, claim he visited Muhammad before Gabriel did.

  Sufi traditions reported by Imam Rafa'il rank saints by the heart they carry. The Ghawth or Qutb, called the perfect human being, has a heart like Israfil's, which signals the angel's loftiness. Below come the saints called Umdah or Awtad. The highest of them have hearts like Mikhail, meaning Michael. The rest have the heart of Jibrail, meaning Gabriel, or of the prophets before Muhammad. The earth is believed always to have one Qutb.

  Another account names him Rafa'il and was narrated by Ath-Tha'labi from Ali. In it the angel meets Dhu al-Qarnayn, the Two Horned One, who appears at the end of Surah 18, al-Kahf, "The Cave." Some believe he was Alexander the Great. The angel tells him of the Water of Life, Ayn al-Hayat. Dhu al-Qarnayn longs to drink it, but only his cousin Khidr ever succeeded. Khidr became a mystical guide, quoted especially in Sufi tradition, who lives long and appears to chosen saints through the ages.

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• 8. Places and Pop Culture

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  Saint-Raphaël in France and Saint Raphaël in Quebec carry the archangel's name. So do towns called San Rafael in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Peru and the Philippines. Venezuela has San Rafael de El Moján and San Rafael de Orituco. In the United States, names inherited from Spanish tradition survive in California, New Mexico and Utah. California has the city of San Rafael, the San Rafael Mountains and Mission San Rafael Arcángel. In Utah, the San Rafael River flows seasonally through the San Rafael Desert.

  Newer tributes include St. Raphael's Cathedral in Madison, Wisconsin, and another seat of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. St. Raphael Hospital stands in New Haven, Connecticut. In England, St. Raphael's Estate is a housing estate in the London Borough of Brent. A church in Chicago, St. John of God Catholic Church, was disassembled, moved and reassembled in Mill Creek, Illinois as St. Raphael the Archangel Church.

  In John Milton's Paradise Lost, God sends Raphael to warn Adam again against eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He also tells Adam of the War in Heaven, where Lucifer and the demons fell, and of the creation of the Earth. In Joseph Haydn's Creation, Raphael is a bass and one of three angelic narrators, beside Gabriel, a soprano, and Uriel, a tenor. The TV series Supernatural counts him among four archangels. In season 2 of Criminal Minds, he is mentioned as one of Tobias Hankel's personalities. The Yogscast series Shadow of Israphel takes its title villain's name from Raphael. In the Japanese light novel series Date A Live, Raphael is a spiritual weapon that belongs to Kaguya Yamai and Yuzuru Yamai. It takes the form of a lance and a pendulum, which combine into a bow and arrow that can manipulate wind. Long before any of these, the Gnostic Ophite Diagram already included Raphael among its figures.

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