Patron Saint of Healing
St. Raphael the Archangel, feast day September 29
The patron saint of healing is St. Raphael the Archangel, whose feast is September 29 and whose name means “God heals”; in the Book of Tobit he is sent to heal a blind man and a young woman in despair. Other saints are asked for particular illnesses. AngelGuard puts medical care first and prayer beside it.
Quick facts
Why St. Raphael the Archangel?
Raphael’s name is the patronage. It means God heals, and the Book of Tobit exists largely to demonstrate it.
The story is one of the most human in Scripture. A young man sets out on a journey and is accompanied by a stranger who is helpful, practical, and entirely ordinary in manner. Over the course of the road the companion arranges a marriage, drives off a demon that had killed seven previous husbands, and provides the means by which the young man’s father is cured of blindness. Only at the end does he say what he is: one of the seven who stand before God.
What makes it useful rather than merely dramatic is the disguise. Anyone who has ever suspected in hindsight that help was present without being recognised at the time is reading their own experience in that book, and the Church has never treated that reading as sentimental.
For specific conditions other saints are invoked. St. Peregrine for cancer, St. Luke as patron of physicians, St. Dymphna for illness of the mind, St. Agatha for breast cancer. Raphael covers healing as such, and is also invoked for travellers and for those seeking a spouse, both from the same book.
Who was St. Raphael the Archangel?
Raphael is one of three angels named in Scripture, and the only one whose story is told at length. The book of Tobit has him travel in disguise with a young man named Tobias, on a journey neither the boy nor his blind father understands the purpose of.
Along the way he arranges a marriage, drives off a demon that had killed seven previous husbands, and finally shows Tobias how to cure his father of blindness. Only at the end does he say who he is: “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints and go in before the glory of the Holy One” (Tobit 12:15). The name means God heals.
He is one of only three angels the Church names, and the Catechism is careful about what may be said of any of them: they are pure spirits, servants and messengers, and their whole existence is turned toward God and toward the people God sends them to. Raphael is the one who demonstrates that in a story long enough to watch it happen.
What the story keeps insisting on is that nobody recognises him. Tobias hires a travelling companion. The father sends his son off with a stranger. The healing that follows is arranged by someone they have been talking to for weeks without knowing. Anyone who has been ill has usually had some version of that afterwards: the help that turned out to matter came from a direction nobody was watching.
Prayer to St. Raphael the Archangel
O Raphael, lead us toward those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us. Raphael, angel of happy meetings, lead us by the hand toward those we are looking for. May all our movements be guided by your light and transfigured by your joy. Amen.
The feast: September 29
September 29, kept with Michael and Gabriel as the feast of the Archangels. He is invoked for healing of body and mind, for travellers, and traditionally for those looking for a spouse, all three of which come straight out of the book of Tobit. Hospitals and pharmacies across Europe carry his name.
How to ask their intercession
Ask for the healing plainly, then ask for the eyes to recognise the help when it comes, since the whole point of his story is that it arrived unrecognised. And as with every healing devotion: this accompanies medical care rather than replacing it.
St. Raphael in the Book of Tobit: who sent whom
The Book of Tobit begins with two people at the end of their strength: Tobit, a devout exile gone blind, and Sarah, a young woman far away who has suffered one loss after another. Both pray on the same day, and Scripture says: “Raphael also was sent to heal them both” (Tobit 3:17). Tobit had already tried medicine: “I went to the physicians, and they didn’t help me” (Tobit 2:10). The book does not despise doctors; it shows a man at the end of what they could do.
At the end, the angel is careful about the order: “God sent me to heal you” (Tobit 12:14). The healing is God’s; the angel is sent. That is the right shape for every prayer to a patron of healing.
Patron saints for particular illnesses
Raphael is asked for healing as such. For particular needs, Catholics have long turned to particular saints:
- Cancer: St. Peregrine, whose leg was healed the night before an amputation, and St. Agatha for breast cancer.
- Anxiety, depression and mental illness: St. Dymphna, and the town of Geel that grew up around her shrine.
- Doctors: St. Luke, whom Paul calls “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14); see the patron saint of doctors.
- Nurses and hospitals: St. Camillus de Lellis and St. John of God.
Medical care, and the sacrament of the sick
Asking for healing never replaces seeing a doctor. Scripture says so in as many words: “Honor a physician according to your need with the honors due to him, for truly the Lord has created him. For healing comes from the Most High” (Sirach 38:1–2), and even the physicians “shall ask the Lord to prosper them in diagnosis and in healing” (Sirach 38:14).
The Church also gives the sick a sacrament. The Anointing of the Sick “is not a sacrament for those only who are at the point of death” (CCC 1514); anyone facing serious illness, surgery, or the frailty of old age may ask a priest for it. It goes back to the apostles: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14).
When the healing does not come
The Catechism is honest: “even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses” (CCC 1508). That is not a verdict on anyone’s faith. What the Church promises the sick is not that every illness will lift, but that no one is left alone in it. “He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). For more from Scripture, see Bible verses for healing.
A prayer to St. Raphael for healing
For yourself or someone you love, before an appointment, in a hospital bed, or at home through a long illness.
Lord God, you are the one who heals. You sent your angel Raphael to Tobit in his blindness and to Sarah in her despair. Look on (name) in this illness. Give wisdom to the doctors and skill to every hand that cares for them. If it is your will, restore their health; whatever comes, give them peace and your company. St. Raphael, pray for us. Amen.
For more prayers in illness, see a prayer for physical restoration and how to pray for healing.
Raphael’s name means “God heals.” For the body itself: a prayer for physical restoration — for strength returning after illness.
Frequently Asked Questions
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