A Novena to Saint Raphael
God heals
The Name
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
Raphael's name means God heals. He is one of only three angels named in the canonical scriptures, with Michael and Gabriel, and the whole of what is known about him comes from a single book, Tobit, where he appears in disguise and does not give his name until the end.
Tobit's Blindness
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
The book opens with Tobit, a devout exile in Nineveh who buried the dead at his own risk, going blind after droppings from a bird fell into his eyes while he slept in his courtyard. Reduced to dependence and quarrelling with his wife, he prays to die.
Two Prayers at Once
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
Far away in Media, on the same day, a young woman named Sarah also prays to die: seven husbands have been killed by a demon on each of her wedding nights, and her own maid has taunted her with it. The book says both prayers were heard at the same moment, and Raphael was sent for both.
Azarias
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
Tobit sends his son Tobias to Media to recover money left in trust, and Tobias engages a travelling companion who gives his name as Azarias and claims kinship with the family. It is Raphael, and the disguise holds for the entire journey out and back.
The Fish
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
Washing in the Tigris, Tobias is attacked by a large fish, and on Raphael's instruction he keeps its heart, liver and gall. The book treats these as ordinary remedies to be carried in a bag, which is how the healing arrives later: prepared well in advance and looking like nothing.
Sarah
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
Raphael arranges the marriage of Tobias to Sarah, and the demon Asmodeus is driven off. Their wedding night begins not with the customary feast but with the two of them praying together, in a passage still read at Catholic weddings.
The Gall
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
Returning home, Tobias uses the fish gall on his father's eyes and Tobit's sight is restored. The remedy had been in the bag since the second day of the journey, carried the whole way by a young man who did not know what it was for.
I Am Raphael
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
When the family tries to pay their guide half of everything they have, he refuses and tells them who he is: one of the seven angels who stand before the glory of the Lord. He adds that he had neither eaten nor drunk in their company, only appeared to, and then vanishes.
A Book Nearly Lost
The Novena Prayer
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of those who journey by land or sea, consoler of the afflicted and refuge of sinners: I beg thee, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life, as once thou didst assist the young Tobias on his travels.
And because thou art the medicine of God, I humbly pray thee to heal the many infirmities of my soul and the ills that afflict my body, if it be for my greater good.
Tobit survives complete only in Greek and was long known in the West through Jerome's Latin. Fragments in Aramaic and Hebrew were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran in the twentieth century, establishing that a Semitic original had existed, which had been argued over for centuries.
The prayer that opens each day is the traditional novena prayer to Saint Raphael, of unknown authorship and long in circulation, given here as it is commonly printed. What follows each day is drawn from the Book of Tobit, which is in the Catholic and Orthodox canon of Scripture but not the Jewish or Protestant one, and from the later history of the devotion. Michael keeps the same feast — see St. Michael.
