Troparion in Tone 3)
Rejoice, O Father Raphael, Adornment of the holy Church! Thou
art Champion of the True Faith, Seeker of the lost, Consolation of the
oppressed, Father to orphans, friend of the poor, Peacemaker and Good
Shepherd, Joy of all the Orthodox, Son of Antioch, Boast of America;
Intercede with Christ God for us and for all who honor thee.
Saint Raphael, Bishop
of Brooklyn was born Rafia Hawaweeny in November 1860 in Beirut, Lebanon
to pious Orthodox parents, Michael and Mariam Hawaweeny. Due to
the violent persecution of the Christians of Damascus in July 1860,
which saw the martyrdom of the Hawaweeny family's parish priest and
hundreds of their neighbors, Michael and his pregnant wife Mariam fled
from Damascus to Beirut. It was here that the future saint first saw the
light of day. Indeed as the child's life unfolded, it was evident that
he would have no continuing city in this world, but would seek the city,
which is to come (Hebrews 13:14)
He attended school in
Damascus, Syria, and studied at the famous Patriarchal School of
Theology on the island of Halki in Constantinople. He later studied at
the Kiev Theological Academy in Russia; served as Rector of the
Metochion of the Patriarchate of Antioch in Moscow; and taught Arabic at
the Theological Academy of Kazan. He was tonsured a monk in 1879,
ordained Deacon in 1885, Priest in June 1889, and Archimandrite one
month later.
During this time, the
Syro-Arab community in the United States was growing at an increasing
rate. A Syrian Orthodox Benevolent Society was organized in New York
City and the president, Dr. Ibrahim Arbeely, contacted Saint Raphael,
then a priest in Russia, about coming to the United States. In
1895, Fr. Raphael came to the United States at the request of the Syrian
Orthodox Benevolent Society in New York City. He worked quickly to
organize the scattered Syro-Arab Orthodox Community, and
set up St. Nicholas Church, later St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn.
Father Raphael traveled extensively across the United States and Canada,
for months at a time, performing marriages, hearing confessions, and
celebrating the Divine Services. He worked tirelessly for Christ's
church, and in a span of 15 years he established 29 parishes.
Among his many writings, he
published a large service book in Arabic in 1898 This work was
translated into English by Archimandrite Seraphim Nassar in 1938.
In 1898 St. Raphael was the
ranking representative of the American Mission to greet St. Tikhon (Bellavin),
the new diocesan bishop. At the Liturgy on December 15, 1898, he spoke
of St. Tikhon's mission in his sermon saying
"He has been sent
here to tend the flock of Christ - Russians, Slavs, Syro-Arabs, and
Greeks -- which is scattered across the entire North American
continent."
St. Tikhon recognized his
qualities of leadership tempered by piety and wanted St. Raphael to be
one of his vicar-bishops. The Holy Synod of Russian approved and he was
consecrated bishop at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn on March 13,
1904.
In 1904, St. Raphael became
the first Orthodox bishop consecrated on American soil, at the hands of
Archbishop (Saint) Tikhon (Belavin) and Bishop Innocent Pustynsky. His
vestments were a gift from Tsar Nicholas II. Bishop Raphael consecrated
the grounds for St. Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania in
1905. During the course
of his ministry as an auxiliary bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in
America, St. Raphael founded the present-day primatial cathedral of the
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (St. Nicholas
Cathedral), established thirty parishes, and assisted in the founding of
St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.
Author of many books, articles
and translations of Greek liturgical books in to Arabic, he also
founded the journal al-Kalimat in 1905 to spread the `wordŽ to
places he could not himself be.
al-kalimat now renamed
The Word is
the official publication of the Antiochian Archdiocese. He remained the
editor until his repose in 1915. For the next sixteen years St. Raphael
continued his work among the Syrian Orthodox and also helped St. Tikhon
and his successors to administer the North American Mission. He
consecrated the grounds of St. Tikhon's Monastery in South Canaan,
Pennsylvania, the first Orthodox monastery in the New World.
After
twenty years of service in North America, at the age of 55, St. Raphael
fell asleep in Christ on February 27, 1915. At the time of his repose,
he administered thirty Syrian Orthodox congregations with 25,000
faithful.
St. Raphael's sacred relics
were first interred in a crypt beneath the holy table at his St.
Nicholas Cathedral (March 7, 1915), later buried in the Syrian Section
of Brooklyn's Mt. Olivet Cemetery (April 2, 1922), and finally were
taken to the Holy Resurrection Cemetery at The Antiochian Village near
Ligonier, Pennsylvania (August 15, 1988).
Bishop Raphael was glorified (numbered among
the saints) by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America in its
March 2000 session, and the glorification services by that Holy Synod
took place in May of that year at St. Tikhon's Monastery with the
participation of bishops representing the Antiochian Orthodox Christian
Archdiocese of North America, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,
and the Church of Poland. He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church in
America on February 27, the anniversary of his death, and by the Church
of Antioch on the first Saturday of November, which is shortly before
Raphael's own patronal feast (the Feast of the Archangels, November 8).
His sanctity was officially
proclaimed on March 29, 2000, and his glorification celebrated on May
29, 2000, at St. Tikhon's Monastery.
O Holy Saint Raphael,
pray for us!
