Friday, October 22, 2021

Feast Day Of Saint Raphael The Archangel - 24 October

Quoted in part from Wikipedia [1]:

Raphael first appears in ... 1 Enoch, a collection of originally independent texts from the 3rd century BCE [2], and the Book of Tobit, from the early 2nd century BCE....His name derives from a Hebrew root meaning "to heal", and can be translated as "God healed"....

The New Testament names only two archangels or angels, Michael and Gabriel (Luke 1:9–26; Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7), but Raphael, because of his association with healing, became identified with the unnamed angel of John 5:1–4 who periodically stirred the pool of Bethesda "[a]nd he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under". The Catholic church accordingly links Raphael with Michael and Gabriel as saints whose intercession can be sought through prayer.

The feast day of Raphael was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar in 1921, for celebration on October 24. With the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast was transferred to September 29 for celebration together with archangels Saints Michael and Gabriel. Due to Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum, the Catholic Church permits, within certain limits for public use, the General Roman Calendar of 1960, which has October 24 as Raphael's feast day.

Quoted in part from Profiles In Catholicism [3]:

...Raphael became known as the patron of the sick because of a medieval legend in which Raphael appeared to a holy hermit when a plague was sweeping central Europe. 

Raphael told the hermit that a new herb, recently introduced by the Vikings to that area, would cure the plague. The roots of herb were boiled to make a tea which eventually cured thousands. The herb became known as angelica and its official botanical classification  became angelica archangelica. The legends of angelica's miraculous powers persist. In 1974 French newspapers reported the death of Annibal CaIroux of Marseilles, who chewed angelica root daily and died at age 121. 

While angelica roots are still used as a medicine, one variety, garden angelica, is primarily cultivated for its stalk which is used as an ingredient of the principal flavorings in Chartreuse and Benedictine. 

[Bénédictine ...is a herbal liqueur produced in France....The recipe of Bénédictine is a commercial secret, but it is known to contain 27 herbs and spices, of which the following 21 are publicly known: angelica, hyssop, juniper, myrrh, saffron, mace, fir cones, aloe, arnica, lemon balm, tea, thyme, coriander, clove, lemon, vanilla, orange peel, honey, red berries, cinnamon, and nutmeg. [4]].

[Chartreuse is a French liqueur available in green and yellow versions that differ in taste and alcohol content. The liqueur has been made by the Carthusian Monks since 1737 according to the instructions set out in a manuscript given to them by François Annibal d'Estrées in 1605. It was named after the monks' Grande Chartreuse monastery, located in the Chartreuse Mountains in the general region of Grenoble in France. The liqueur is produced in their distillery in nearby Aiguenoire. It is composed of distilled alcohol aged with 130 herbs, plants and flowers....

[The book The Practical Hotel Steward (1900) states that Green Chartreuse contains "cinnamon, mace, lemon balm, dried hyssop flower tops, peppermint, thyme, costmary, arnica flowers, genepi, and angelica roots", and that yellow chartreuse is, "Similar to above, adding cardamom seeds and socctrine aloes." The monks intended their liqueur to be used as medicine. The exact recipes for all forms of Chartreuse remain trade secrets and are known at any given time only to the two monks who prepare the herbal mixture....[5]]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_(archangel), quoted without hyperlinks and references.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9n%C3%A9dictine, quoted without hyperlinks and references.
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartreuse_(liqueur), quoted without hyperlinks and references.

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