Home
 Raphael the Archangel with Tobias the Younger and Tobias' Dog Scott C16-C17 (1948) On December 28, 1948 the Vatican Issued a set of airmail stamps commemorating the journey of Raphael the Archangel, Tobias the Younger, and Tobias’s dog. The three images appear on two postage stamps from a painting by Francesco Botticini. The Book of Tobit, believed to have been written early in the second century B.C., recounts the story of a man named Tobit and his family exiled to live in Nineveh shortly after the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. One day, the old and blind Tobit, a righteous man, sends his son, Tobias the Younger, to get the money that is due to him from a man named Gabelus. Raphael the Archangel shows up under the guise of "Azarias, the son of the great Ananias" to accompany him. On this journey, the young Tobias is almost killed by a very large fish while bathing in the river. Raphael tells him to catch the fish and save its heart, liver, and gall to use as medicines. Continuing on, they stop at the house of Raguel, who has a daughter named Sara. Raphael tells Tobias to take Sara for a wife, and he does. While Tobias and Sara pray, Raphael goes on to the house of Gabelus, collects the money, and invites Gabelus to the wedding feast. After the celebrations, and after enough time is spent such that Tobias is concerned that his parents would be very worried about his absence, he, his wife, and Raphael return home. Tobias cures his father's blindness using the gall from the fish Raphael told him to keep. During this journey, they were accompanied by a dog. Care is taken in Scripture to note that the dog was there from the beginning of the journey, remained to the end, and that, upon their return home, the dog was full of joy that he showed by fawning and wagging his tail. Reference: • Got Questions, "What is the Book of Tobit?" Article Links: • Morris Raskin,“The Story Behind the Stamp” : Vatican Notes, Vol. 34, No. 3 p. 10-11 (1985) |
