Though there are seven archangels altogether, St. Raphael, also known as Azarias, is one of the three Archangels named in Sacred Scripture; the other two are St. Michael (the warrior angel) and St. Gabriel (the messenger angel). St. Raphael is the healer angel; his very name in Hebrew means "God has healed."We meet him first in the Book of Tobias -- a small book, consisting only of fourteen chapters.
The Book of Tobias is deemed apocryphal by Protestant traditions, but it is accepted in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Regardless of your opinion of its legitimacy, I do think it contains a valuable ethical principle that is sometimes called the Silver Rule, a kind of restrictive version of the prescriptive Golden Rule. This works out to "Do not do to others that which you hate," which Tobias presents as advice to his son on how to live a good life. As the occasion for our observation of this feast this year is the salvation of my son from a motorcycle wreck, that seems relevant.
Please do feast if you feel called to do so; I will be arranging one myself.
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Angels may be delegated much more of our care than we credit. It is not that God is "too busy," but that he likes involving others in the work. We might hypothesise that "Hey, they could be wrong," but I think we should remember that we are fallen and they are Unfallen. It might matter.
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