Tobit and Raphael: The Angel Who Traveled Incognito

Tobit is a devout Jew living in Nineveh during the Assyrian exile. He has spent his life doing deeds of charity — burying the dead, feeding the hungry — despite the risk. One night, sleeping in his courtyard after burying a dead man, sparrow droppings fall in his eyes and blind him. His wife must work for wages. His relatives mock him. He prays to die.

On the same day, in distant Media, a young woman named Sarah prays the same prayer. She has been married seven times, and on each wedding night the demon Asmodeus kills her husband before the marriage can be consummated. The servants mock her. God hears both prayers simultaneously, and sends the angel Raphael to heal them both.

Tobit remembers a debt owed to him in Media and sends his son Tobias to collect it. Tobias goes looking for a traveling companion who knows the road. He finds Raphael, who presents himself as a Jewish kinsman named Azariah. Tobit interviews him carefully — what family do you come from? — and is satisfied. He does not know he is speaking with an angel.

On the road, Tobias is attacked by a large fish in the Tigris River. Raphael tells him to grab it, cut out the heart and liver and gall, and keep them — they are medicines. The heart and liver burned near a demon will drive it away; the gall applied to a man's eyes will cure blindness.

In Media, Tobias learns of Sarah and wants to marry her. Raphael tells him how to use the fish's organs to drive away Asmodeus. That night, Tobias burns the heart and liver of the fish. The smell rises, the demon flees to Egypt, and Raphael binds him there. Sarah and Tobias are safe.

They return to Nineveh. Tobias applies the fish's gall to his father's eyes. The white films peel away. Tobit sees his son's face. When they prepare to pay Raphael, he reveals himself: I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the holy ones and enter into the presence of the glory of the Holy One. He departs.

Tobit composes a hymn of praise. He will live to see four generations of his grandchildren.