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Raphael is not often the patron of Christian churches. One notable exception is St. Raphael's Cathedral in Dubuque, Iowa - the Cathedral parish for the Archdiocese of Dubuque. He has made only a light impression on Catholic geography: Saint Raphaël, France and Saint Raphaël, Quebec, Canada; San Rafaels in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and in Venezuela as San Rafael de Mohán and San Rafael de Orituco. In the United States, San Rafaels inherited from Mexico survive in California (where besides the city there are San Rafael Mountains), in New Mexico, and in Utah, where the San Rafael River flows seasonally in the San Rafael Desert.
The angels mentioned in the older books of the Hebrew Bible are without names. Indeed, rabbi Simeon ben Lakish of Tiberias (230-270 CE), asserted that all the specific names for the angels were brought back by the Jews from Babylon, and modern commentators would tend to agree.
Of seven archangels in the angelology of post-Exilic Judaism, only three, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, are mentioned by name in the scriptures that gradually became accepted as canonical. The four others, however, are named in the 2nd century BCE Book of Enoch (chapter xxi): Uriel, Raguel, SarielSariel is one of the archangels of the Judaic and Islamic traditions. Angels., and JarahmeelJerahmeel is one of the archangels of the Judaic and Islamic traditions..
The name of the archangel Raphael appears only in the Book of Tobit (Tobias). There he first appears disguised in human form as the travelling companion of the younger Tobias, calling himself "Azarias the son of the great Ananias". During the adventurous course of the journey the archangel's protective influence is shown in many ways including the binding of the demon in the desert of upper Egypt. After the return and the healing of the blindness of the elder Tobias, Azarias makes himself known as "the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tobit, xii, 15). Compare the unnamed angels in John's ApocalypseThis article is about apocalypse, the biblical event. There is another article about Apocalypse, the comic book supervillain. An apocalypse in the terminology of early Jewish and Christian literature, is a revelation of hidden things given by God to a cho viii, 2.
Regarding the healing powers attributed to Raphael, we have little more than his declaration to Tobias (Tobit, 12) that he was sent by the Lord to heal him of his blindness and to deliver Sarah, his daughter-in-law, from the devil that was the serial killer of her husbands.
In the New Testament, only the archangels Gabriel and Michael are mentioned by name ( 1 Thessalonians, iv, 15; Epistle of JudeThe brief Epistle of Jude is a book in the Christian New Testament canon. Author and date The epistle claims to have been written by Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James ( NIV), although that authorship is doubted by many scholars. As op, 9). The "angel of the Lord" that is mentioned in JohnThe Gospel of John is the fourth gospel in the usual sequence of the canon as printed in the New Testament, and most agree it was the fourth to be written. Like the other three gospels, it contains an account of the life of Jesus. The Gospel of John is th 5 is generally associated with Raphael, however, because of the "healing" in the archangel's name accords with the healing role assigned to Raphael in the Book of Tobias. John 5:1-4, refers to the pool at BethesdaBethesda was originally the name of a pool in Jerusalem. It was reported to possess healing qualities, and is mentioned in the Bible (John 5:2). Its name is said to derive from the Aramaic language beth hesda meaning house of grace. Alternative renderings, where the multitude of the infirm lay awaiting the moving of the water, for "an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was movedA geyser is a special type of hot spring that erupts periodically, ejecting a column of hot water and steam into the air. The name geyser comes from Geysir the name of the best-known geyser in Iceland; that name, in turn, comes from the word gjosa "to gus. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under".