Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, thou art illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace. Thou art a guide of those who journey by land or sea or air, 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 help 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.
I especially ask of thee the favour of a pure heart, and the grace to accept whatsoever God shall send. Amen.
Raphael is one of only three angels named in the whole of Scripture — with Michael and Gabriel — and the only one whose name the Church has long read as a promise: Rapha-el, "God heals."
His story is told in the Book of Tobias. Sent in the likeness of a young man, he walks the road with Tobias into Media, guards him, arranges his marriage to Sara, and at the end reveals himself: "For I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tob. 12:15). Before departing he restores the sight of the elder Tobias with the gall of a fish — the single scriptural episode that fixed Raphael in Christian memory as the angel of healing.
The prayer below is one of the traditional invocations that grew from that story. It asks him for the two healings Tobias received in the book itself: the body's sight, and the soul's safe journey home. It is worth noting that the Church has never ranked bodily healing above the healing of the soul, and the prayer keeps that order — the infirmities of the soul are named first.
St. Raphael's feast was kept on 24 October in the traditional calendar. He is invoked by the sick, by travellers, by the blind, and by those seeking a worthy spouse — every one of those patronages drawn straight from the book of Tobias.
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, thou art illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace. Thou art a guide of those who journey by land or sea or air, 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 help 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.
I especially ask of thee the favour of a pure heart, and the grace to accept whatsoever God shall send. Amen.
Glorious Archangel Saint Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, thou art illustrious for thy gifts of wisdom and grace. Thou art a guide of those who journey by land or sea or air, 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 help 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.
I especially ask of thee the favour of a pure heart, and the grace to accept whatsoever God shall send. Amen.