Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/716

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RANSOM


640


RAPHAEL

Delta" of 26 April, 1861. Reaching Baltimore, it was set to the music of "Lauriger Horatius" by Miss Jennie Cary, who added "My Maryland" to each stanza. A German musician of Southern sympathies eventually set the poem to "Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum", the original of "Lauriger Horatius". After the close of the war, Randall engaged in newspaper work, holding several important editorial positions, eventually becoming Washington correspondent for the Augusta "Chronicle". He was the author of numerous other poems, none of which, however, attained the popularity of "Maryland, my Maryland". His later work breathed a deeply religious tone.

Maryland, My Maryland, and other Poems (Baltimore, 1908); Poems of James Ryder Randall, ed. Andrews, with a biographical sketch of the poet (New York, 1910).

William J. Dwyer.

Ransom, Feast of Our Lady op, 24 Sept., a double major, commemorates the foundation of the Mercedarians (q. v.). On 10 Aug., 1223, the Merce- darian Order was legally constituted at Barcelona by King James of Aragon and was approved by Gregory IX on 17 Jan., 1235. The Mercedarians celebrated their institution on the Sunday nearest to 1 Aug. (on which date in the year 1233 the Blessed Virgin was believed to have shown St. Peter Nolasco the white habit of the order), and this custom was approved by the Congregation of Rites on 4 April, 1615 (Anal. Juris Pont., VII, 136). But the calendar of the Span- ish Mercedarians of 1644 has it on 1 Aug., double. Proper lessons were approved on 30 April, 1616. The feast was granted to Spain (Sunday nearest to 1 Aug.) on 15 Feb., 1680; to France, 4 Dec, 1690. On 22 Feb., 1696, it was extended to the entire Latin Church, and the date changed to 24 September. The Merceda- rians keep this feast as a double of the first class, with a vigil, privileged octave, and proper Office under the title: "Solemnitas Descensionis B. Mariae V. de Mercede". Our Lady of Ransom is the principal patron of Barcelona; the proper Office was extended to Barcelona (1868) and to all Spain (second class, 1883). Sicily, which had suffered so much from the Saracens, took up the old date of the feast (Sunday nearest to 1 Aug.) by permission of the Congregation of Rites, 31 Aug., 1805 (double of the second class). The Mercedarians have a special feast (double major). Apparition of Our Lady to St. Peter Nolasco in the choir of Barcelona, on the Sunday after 24 Sept. In England the devotion of Our Lady of Ransom was revived in modern times to obtain the rescue of Eng- land as Our Lady's Dowrv.

CoLVENERius. Kal. Marianum (SximTna Ax,rea, III). 17 Jan. and 10 Aug.; Holweck. Fasti Mariani (Freiburg. 1892).

F. G. HOLWECK.

Raphael (^XCT, "God has healed"). Saint. — The name of this archangel does not occur in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in the Septuagint ("Po^aTiX) only in the Book of Tobias. Here he first appears disguised in human form as the travelling companion of the younger Tobias, calling himself "Azarias the son of the great Ananias". The story of the adven- turous journey during which the protecting influence of the angel is shown in many ways including the binding "in the desert of upper Egypt" of the demon who had previously slain seven husbands of Sara, daughter of Raguel, is picturesquely related in Tob., v-xi, to which the reader is referred. After the return and the healing of the blindness of the elder Tobias, Azarias makes himself known as "tlie angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tob., xii, 15. Cf. Apoc, viii, 2). Of these seven "suchan- gels" which appear in the angelology of post-Exilic Judaism, only three, Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, are mentioned in the canonical Scriptures. The others, aicording to the Book of Enoch (cf. xxi) are Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jerahmeel, while from other aixicryphal sources we get the variant names Izidkiel,


Hanael, and Kepharel instead of the last three in the other list.

Regarding the functions attributed to Raphael we have little more than his declaration to Tobias (Tob., xii) that when the latter was occupied in his works of mercy and charity, he (Raphael) olTered his prayer to the Lord, that he was sent by the Lord to heal him of his blindness and to dehver Sara, his son's wife, from the devil. The Jewish category of the archan- gels is recognized in the New Testament (I Thess., iv, 15; Jude, 9), but only Gabriel and Michael are mentioned by name. Many commentators, however, identify Raphael with the "angel of the Lord" men- tioned in John, v. This conjecture is based both on the significance of the name and on the heaUng role attributed to Raphael in the Book of Tobias. The Church assigns the feast of St. Raphael to 24 Oct. The hymns of the Office recall the heaUng power of the archangel and his victory over the demon. The lessons of the first Nocturn and the Antiphons of the entire Office are taken from the Book of Tobias, and the lessons of the second and third Nocturns from the works of St. Augustine, viz. for the second Nocturn a sermon on Tobias (sermon I on the fifteenth Sun- day), and for the third, a homily on the opening verses of John, v. The Epistle of the Mass is taken from the twelfth chapter of Tobias, and the Gospel from John, v, 1-4, referring to the pool called Pro- batica, where the multitude of the infirm lay awaiting the moving of the water, for "an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole of whatsoever infirmity he lay under". Thus the conjecture of the commentators referred to above is confirmed by the official Liturgj' of the Chvtrch.

VlGOUROux, Diet, de la Bible, s. v. Raphael.

James F. Driscoll.

Raphael, the most famous name in the history of painting, b. at Urbino, 6 April (or 28 March), 1483; d. at Rome, 6 April, 1520. He belongs to the LTmbrian School. Raphael is only a Christian name, the full name being Raphael (Raffaele) Santi (Sanzio is an absolutely incorrect form). His father, Giovanni Santi, held an important but indefinite post at the Court of Urbino. He was the artistic factotum of Duke Frederick, one of the most intellectual princes and most enhghtened art-lovers of his age. The best painters, Piero della Francesca, Melozzo, and Justus of Ghent, were in his ser%'ice and had made L'rbino one of the most prominent art centres of the time. The ducal palace is still one of the wonders of Italy. Nor was the social and worldly life less advanced; at this Court was written the "Cortegiano" of Bal- dassare Castighone, the complete handbook of the man of the world, according to the ideal of the Renaissance. The relations which Raphael formed in these early surroundings (especially about 1506), the serene and pure moral atmosphere which he breathed and which is characteristic of his genius, followed him throughout his life.

Giovanni Santi died on 1 August, 1494. The orphan, placed under the guardianship of his maternal uncle, entered the studio of a charming painter, Timoteo \\t'\, a pupil of Francia, who had just returned to take up his residence in the country. Probably to the beginning of this apprenticeship, perhaps somewhat previous to it, belongs Raphael's famous sketch-book of the Academy of Venice. This book was discovered in 1803 by Bossi and purchased by Cicognara for the City of Venice. It is a small portfolio, now mutilated, consisting of a hundred pen-and-ink drawings; the author copied, in particular, the "Savants" and the "Philosophers" attributed to Justus of Ghent, which were then in the palace of Urbino (half of tliem are now at the Louvre and the other half at the Barbemi