You Will Save Her
This painting of St. Raphael is available to purchase as a print here!
This commission was equal parts daunting and exciting for me.
A local priest heard about me and loved the way I painted angels and reached out for my help in bringing a painting that would honor St. Raphael to life. He had a special devotion to St. Raphael and ministers to married couples daily. Because of St. Raphael’s connection with a Biblical marriage story in the book of Tobit, we decided to design a painting of the moment where his angelic help saves Tobiah and Sarah from disaster.
In the book of Tobit, Sarah has had seven husbands that are each killed by a demon on their wedding night. In her sorry plight, she prays that God ends her life as she and her marriage bed is full of shame. Across the country, an old man Tobit prays a similar prayer as he is destitute and blind.
God hears their prayers and sends Raphael the angel to guide Tobit’s son Tobiah on his journey to find money his father had buried.
Along the journey, Raphael encourages him to marry Sarah: “Do not be afraid, for she was set apart for you before the world was made. You will save her.”
On the night of their wedding, Tobiah lights incense with the heart and liver of a fish who attacked him earlier in the story and speaks a beautiful prayer:
“Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.”
Because of the incense and Tobiah’s prayer, the demon is warded off and Raphael binds him up and casts him out. The holy couple survives the night and all is redeemed!
I wanted this painting to show how though our prayers seem small (the incense and the couple are the smallest in the paintings), the reality of prayer is massive up above (shown in Raphael’s mighty stance carrying the demon). The marital bed frame is also a visual “protection” of their marriage with the nuptial prayer carved into the wood in Latin:
TU FECISTI ADAM DE LIMO TERRAE DEDISTIQUE EI ADIUTORIUM EVAM
You made Adam from the clay of the earth and gave him Eve to help him
Other symbols:
The fish and knife pattern in the curtains point to the fish attacks Tobiah in the story
The sleeping dog is a symbol of fidelity
Lilies pay an homage to St. Joseph the husband of Mary
A box and spoon on the nightstand is an old symbol of healing
There are images on the drawers below the bed depicting the story (Sarah and Tobit’s prayers for death, God sending Raphael from Heaven, and Raphael leading Tobiah on their journey).
