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The Spellbook · Healing

The Spellbook · Christianity

Prayer to the Archangel Raphael for Healing and Recovery

How Christians ask the Archangel Raphael, the angel who heals in the Book of Tobit, to pray for the sick, with a simple devotion and the history of his cult.

  • TraditionBook of Tobit (c. 3rd–2nd century BCE); Catholic and Orthodox devotion to St Raphael; Jewish angelology of the Talmud
  • ForHealing, Peace
  • DifficultySimple
  • Time15 minutes
  • WhenAt any time of illness; his feast is 29 September (with Michael and Gabriel) in the Roman calendar, 8 November with all the angels in the Orthodox calendar

The Archangel Raphael, whose Hebrew name means "God heals", is honoured by Christians as the angel of healing, of travellers and of those seeking a good marriage, chiefly because of his role in the Book of Tobit. There he guides the young Tobias on a journey, frees Sarah from a demon and restores the sight of the blind Tobit, before revealing himself as "one of the seven holy angels". This devotion asks Raphael's intercession for someone who is ill, in the spirit of the Church's prayer for the sick, and alongside medical care, never instead of it.

How to do it§

  1. Prepare. Choose a quiet time. If you light a candle, set it in a secure holder before an image of Raphael, often shown as a young traveller with a staff and a fish. A glass of water may stand beside it as a sign of healing.
  2. Begin with the sign of the cross. Collect yourself and bring the sick person to mind by name, with their needs, fears and those caring for them.
  3. Read from Tobit. Read Tobit 11:7–15, where Tobias, guided by Raphael, heals his father's eyes, or Tobit 12:6–15, where Raphael reveals who he is and tells the family to bless God. Read slowly and let the story speak.
  4. Ask Raphael's prayers. In your own words, ask the archangel to pray for the sick person. A simple form: "Holy Raphael, healer sent by God, who guided Tobias and opened Tobit's eyes, pray for N. in this illness. Ask God to give strength to the body, peace to the mind, and wisdom and skill to those who care for N. Amen." (This wording is modern.)
  5. Pray to God. Add the Lord's Prayer and, if you wish, Psalm 103, "Bless the Lord, O my soul… who healeth all thy diseases" (King James Version).
  6. Do something practical. Tobit is also a book about charity: Tobit buries the dead and gives alms. Many devotees join their prayer to a concrete act, such as visiting, cooking for or driving the sick person.
  7. Close. Give thanks, make the sign of the cross and put out the candle. The devotion can be repeated daily, for example as a novena of nine days.

Origins and history§

The Book of Tobit was probably written in the third or second century BCE, in Aramaic or Hebrew; fragments in both languages were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. It is part of the Bible in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, placed among the Apocrypha by Protestants and outside the Hebrew Bible in Judaism. Its angel, disguised as a kinsman named Azarias, teaches Tobias to use the heart, liver and gall of a fish to drive off the demon Asmodeus and cure Tobit's blindness, a narrative scholars read against the background of ancient Near Eastern medicine and exorcism. Raphael's self-description in Tobit 12:15 as one of seven angels who stand before the Lord connects him with the seven archangels of Jewish apocalyptic writing, such as 1 Enoch, where Raphael is set over the healing of the earth.

In rabbinic literature Raphael is one of the three angels who visit Abraham after his circumcision, sent to heal him (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzia 86b), and he appears among the four angels of the Jewish bedtime prayer. Christian tradition identified him with the angel who stirred the healing pool of Bethesda (John 5:4, a verse absent from the earliest manuscripts), and thus with healing in general.

In the West, a separate feast of St Raphael on 24 October was added to the universal Roman calendar in 1921; since the calendar reform of 1969 he is celebrated together with Michael and Gabriel on 29 September. The Orthodox honour him with all the bodiless powers on 8 November. Hospitals, pilgrims and travellers' guilds placed themselves under his patronage. Renaissance painters, from Botticini to Titian, made "Tobias and the Angel" a favourite subject, often commissioned by parents whose sons were travelling.

Variations§

Some pray a chaplet or novena to St Raphael. In the Jewish bedtime prayer Raphael stands behind the sleeper. In later ceremonial magic he is linked with Mercury and with the element of air, a quite different tradition from the biblical devotion described here.

Safety and good sense§

Never leave a candle burning unattended or near a sickbed's bedding, oxygen equipment or curtains. Prayer for healing is support and comfort, not treatment: anyone who is ill should receive proper medical care, and new or worsening symptoms need a doctor promptly.

Sources and further reading§