Their story
Raphael appears in the Book of Tobit, a short domestic drama of exile-era Israel. The elder Tobit, blind and impoverished after burying dead Israelites in the streets of Nineveh, sends his son Tobias to recover a family loan from Rages in Media. Raphael, in disguise as a fellow Israelite named Azariah (KJV spelling: Azarias), presents himself as a guide (Tobit 5:12). On the journey Tobias catches a fish whose gall and heart Raphael instructs him to keep for later use. At Ecbatana, Raphael arranges Tobias's marriage to Sarah, who has been widowed seven times by the demon Asmodeus; the demon flees when Tobias burns the fish heart on the wedding night. On the return journey Raphael tells Tobias to anoint his father's eyes with the fish gall; the whiteness falls away and Tobit sees again (Tobit 11:7-8). At the book's climax Raphael refuses payment and reveals himself: 'I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One' (Tobit 12:15). Catholic tradition venerates Raphael alongside Michael and Gabriel as the three named archangels, keeping his feast with theirs at Michaelmas. Eastern Orthodox tradition commemorates Raphael within the broader Synaxis of the Archangels.
Why they matter
Raphael matters in Catholic and Orthodox tradition as the third named archangel and the biblical embodiment of divine healing. The Hebrew etymology (Rafa-El, 'God heals') anchors his role in the book that names him. The Tobit narrative gives Raphael a domestic register that Michael and Gabriel do not carry: he acts inside a family's ordinary distress, guiding a journey, arranging a marriage, healing a father's blindness. Traditional patronage extends to travelers, physicians, blind and sick people, young people, and matchmakers. Raphael's canonical status varies by tradition: Tobit is deuterocanonical scripture in Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments and included in the KJV 1611 Apocrypha, but excluded from the Protestant Old Testament since the Reformation. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael sit together as the three named archangels in Catholic tradition; the biblical angel names column reads the three together in naming-decision context.
Key Bible passages
What people often get wrong
Raphael is not named in Protestant canonical scripture. The Book of Tobit is deuterocanonical in Catholic and Orthodox traditions and included in the KJV 1611 Apocrypha, but excluded from the Protestant Old Testament since the Reformation.
The traditional identification of Raphael with the angel who 'troubled the water' at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:4) is a patristic and medieval interpretive tradition, not direct biblical statement. John 5:4 itself is textually disputed, present in some Byzantine manuscripts and omitted in most modern critical editions of the New Testament.
Raphael in Tobit is not identical with the seraphim of Isaiah 6 or the cherubim of Ezekiel 1, though later Christian angelology sometimes conflates the categories. The Tobit text specifies Raphael as one of 'the seven holy angels' (Tobit 12:15), a distinct category attested also in 1 Enoch.
Common questions
Who was Raphael in the Bible?
Raphael is the healing archangel of the Book of Tobit, sent by God to guide Tobias on a journey, arrange his marriage to Sarah, and heal Tobit's blindness. Raphael reveals himself in Tobit 12:15 as one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints. Tobit is included in Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments; Protestant canons treat it as apocryphal.
What does the name Raphael mean?
Raphael is Hebrew Rafa-El, meaning 'God heals' or 'God has healed.' The etymology anchors the archangel's role in the Book of Tobit, where he heals Tobit's blindness and delivers Sarah from a demonic affliction.
Is the Book of Tobit in the Bible?
Tobit is included in Catholic and Orthodox Old Testaments as deuterocanonical scripture. The KJV 1611 included Tobit in its Apocrypha section between the Old and New Testaments. Protestant canons since the 1800s typically omit Tobit and the other Apocrypha; Anglican tradition varies on liturgical use.
Why does Raphael matter to Christians?
Raphael matters in Catholic and Orthodox tradition as the third named archangel alongside Michael and Gabriel. His role as the biblical embodiment of divine healing, and the domestic register of the Tobit narrative, has made him the traditional patron of travelers, physicians, the blind and sick, and matchmakers. In the Catholic calendar his feast is kept with Michael and Gabriel at Michaelmas.