Saint Raphael the Archangel

St. Raphael is a major figure in the Book of Tobit (cached), where he instructs his young traveling companion Tobiah to use the liver of a fish to cure his father Tobit's blindness.  The fish is St. Raphael's primary attribute, and because he traveled with Tobiah he may also have a pilgrim's staff, as at left.  Because of the connection with healing, he is sometimes identified as the angel whose finger stirs the pool of Bethesda in John 5:4 (cached).

Feast day: October 24

At left, "St. Raphael" - Burgos Cathedral

Other images:
Narrative image: Tobit commisions Raphael
Fresco in a church in Rome
Chapel window with no fish
18th-cent. painting with SS. Anthony of Padua and Louis Bertrand
In a Veronese Sacra Conversazione, 1540-43
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