St. Raphael

Our Father among the Saints, RAPHAEL (Hawaweeny), Bishop of Brooklyn, was the first Orthodox Christian bishop consecrated on American soil. Traveling throughout the continent in the first years of the 20th century, he founded thirty parishes in North America, including St. George in Charleston, West Virginia. His feast day is celebrated in the Antiochian Archdiocese on the first Saturday of November. St. Raphael, a man of angelic name and apostolic fervor, was influenced by many cultures. He was born and raised in the Middle East, educated by Greeks at Halki, and by Russians at Kiev, and he spent the last nineteen years of his life as a missionary in North America. He said of himself: “I am an Arab by birth, a Greek by primary education, an American by residence, a Russian at heart, and a Slav in soul.” The holy bishop was probably born on or about November 8, 1860. Fleeing Damascus due to religious persecutions, Michael and Mariam Hawaweeny went to Beirut where the saint was born and baptized with the name Rafla. They returned to Damascus in 1861, and sent their son to elementary school. Although the boy was a good student, his father could not afford for him to continue his studies. Providentially, Deacon Athanasios Atallah (later Metropolitan of Homs) arranged for Rafla’s acceptance as a student of the Patriarchate of Antioch in order to prepare for the holy priesthood. In 1879, Rafla was tonsured a monk by Patriarch HIEROTHEOS and became his personal attendant. Later, he was sent to the Theological School at Halki, where he was ordained to the diaconate in 1885. Upon graduation, Deacon Raphael returned to his homeland and accompanied the Patriarch of Antioch on his pastoral visitations to various parishes.