His name means God heals, and the older prayers call him, beautifully, the medicine of God. What follows are the three traditional prayers to him, none of them written for this page.
Historical Context
Before the 1969 calendar the three archangels had separate days; they now share 29 September, which was Michaelmas. Raphael’s own commemoration was 24 October, and some places still keep it.
Prayer to Saint Raphael
The traditional novena prayer, and the one that gives him the title medicine of God:
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court,
you are illustrious for your gifts of wisdom and grace.
You are a guide of those who journey by land or sea or air,
consoler of the afflicted, and refuge of sinners.
I beg you, assist me in all my needs and in all the sufferings of this life,
as once you helped the young Tobias on his travels.
Because you are the medicine of God,
I humbly pray you to heal the many infirmities of my soul
and the ills that afflict my body.
I especially ask of you the favour I now name,
and the great grace of purity
to prepare me to be the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The Short Invocation
Easier to carry, and the one to know by heart for a hospital corridor:
Saint Raphael, of the glorious seven
who stand before the throne of Him who lives and reigns,
Angel of health, the Lord has filled your hand
with balm from heaven to soothe or cure our pains.
Heal or cure the victim of disease,
and guide our steps when doubtful of our ways.
Amen.
“Of the glorious seven” is not invention. It is Raphael’s own line, in the moment he drops the disguise: “I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord.”
Angel of Happy Meetings
This one has an unusually traceable history for a devotional prayer. It is attributed to the French writer Ernest Hello, who died in 1885; it was carried in Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker; and Flannery O’Connor quoted it in a letter of 14 July 1964, a few weeks before her death, saying she said it every day.
O Raphael, lead us toward those we are waiting for,
those who are waiting for us:
Raphael, Angel of happy meeting,
lead us by the hand toward those we are looking for.
May all our movements be guided by your Light
and transfigured with your joy.
Angel, guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you
at the feet of Him on whose unveiled Face you are privileged to gaze.
Lonely and tired, crushed by the separations and sorrows of life,
we feel the need of calling you
and of pleading for the protection of your wings,
so that we may not be as strangers in the province of joy,
all ignorant of the concerns of our country.
Remember the weak, you who are strong,
you whose home lies beyond the region of thunder,
in a land that is always peaceful, always serene,
and bright with the resplendent glory of God.
Amen.
Why he is asked for these things
Every one of Raphael’s patronages comes straight out of the story rather than from later custom, which is unusual.
The blind and physicians. Tobit is blind for the whole book. Raphael prescribes the remedy and the sight is restored in the second-to-last chapter.
Travellers. The journey to Media and back is the spine of the narrative, and Raphael walks every mile of it as a hired companion.
Happy meetings and marriage. He brings Tobias to Sarah, who has buried seven husbands, and the marriage that everyone expects to end in another death does not. Hence the prayer above, and hence the number of couples who ask him.
Nurses. The later patronage, and the obvious extension of the rest of it.
Best Times for This Prayer
- On 29 September, his feast, and on 24 October in places that keep it.
- Before an operation, a diagnosis, or a course of treatment.
- For failing eyesight, and for those who have lost their sight.
- Before a journey, and for anyone travelling alone.
- When you are hoping to meet someone — a spouse, or someone lost touch with.
- By nurses and doctors, before a shift.
Scripture Connection
“I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord.” — Tobit 12:15
The line lands eleven chapters after we met him. For the whole journey he has been Azariah, a young man available for hire, and the family have been paying him a drachma a day. The point the book is making is not that angels appear — it is that the help had been walking beside them the entire time, under a name they made up themselves.
Related prayers
St Gabriel, the third of the named angels, shares the 29 September feast. Michael, the second, is asked for protection — his prayer is given in full in the Prayer for Protection.
Raphael is invoked by name in the Healing Prayer for My Brother, the Prayer for My Nephew — which is built on Tobit throughout — and the Prayer for My Aunt. For hospitals and the sick generally, St John of God is the patron.
