Editing Raphael of Brooklyn

{{Short description|American saint (1860–1915)}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2015}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2015}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[Saint]]
|name=Raphael of Brooklyn
|image=straph.jpg
|titles=[[Bishop]], [[Archimandrite]] and [[Vicar]] of [[Brooklyn]] and all [[America]]
|birth_date= Raphael Hawaweeny<br>{{birth date|1860|11|20}}
|birth_place=[[Beirut]], [[Ottoman Syria]]
|death_date={{nowrap| {{death date and age|1915|02|27|1860|11|20}} }}
|death_place=[[Brooklyn]], [[New York City]]
|canonized_date=March 2000
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=[[Orthodox Church in America]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2000-06-19 |title=Thousands Attend Glorification of Saint Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn, at Saint Tikhon's Monastery |url=https://www.oca.org/news/archived/thousands-attend-glorification-of-saint-raphael-bishop-of-brooklyn-at- |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=Orthodox Church in America |language=en-US}}</ref> October 2023 by [[Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch|Patriarchate of Antioch]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-20 |title=Antiochian Church Canonizes Two Saints, Adds St. Raphael and All Saints of Antioch to Calendar |url=https://orthochristian.com/156812.html |access-date=2024-02-02 |website=OrthoChristian |language=en-US}}</ref>
|major_shrine=[[St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral (Brooklyn)|Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral of Brooklyn]], [[Little Syria]], [[Manhattan]]|venerated_in= [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
|feast_day= 27 February ([[Orthodox Church in America|OCA]]), First Saturday in November ([[Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America|Antiochian]])
|patronage= [[America]]
|influences=[[Joseph of Damascus]], [[Innocent of Alaska]]|tradition=[[Missionary|Orthodox Christian Mission]]}}

'''Raphael of Brooklyn''' ({{langx|ar|القديس رفائيل من بروكلين|lit=āl-Qidīs Rafāʾīl min Brūklīn}}, born '''Raphael Hawaweeny''';<ref>{{Cite book|first=Issa J.|last=Boullata|title=The first one hundred years|year=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NNINAQAAMAAJ|page=85|publisher=Antakya Press |isbn=9780962419027 }}</ref> {{langx|ar|رفائيل الهواويني|translit=Rafāʾīl Hawāwīnī}}; November 20, 1860 – February 27, 1915), was [[bishop]] of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], [[auxiliary bishop]] of [[Brooklyn]], vicar of the Northern-American diocese, and head of the [[Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch|Antiochian Syrian]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Report |first=Morning Call {{!}} Staff |date=2006-03-11 |title=Raphael of Brooklyn |url=https://www.mcall.com/2006/03/11/raphael-of-brooklyn/ |access-date=2023-11-07 |website=The Morning Call |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch|Christian]] mission. He is best known for having been first Eastern Orthodox bishop of America, for his staunch critiques of [[ethnophyletism]], [[exclusivism]] and Greek [[nepotism]] in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hawaweeny |first=Raphael |title=Historical glance at the brotherhood of the church of the holy sepulchre |url=http://www.najim.net/brotherenglish.pdf}}</ref> as well as being precursor to the [[Arab Orthodox Movement]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hawaweeny |first=Raphael |title=Historical glance at the brotherhood of the church of the holy sepulchre |url=http://www.najim.net/brotherenglish.pdf}}</ref> and being among the first to integrate the Eastern Orthodox Church into [[multimedia]] with the first-ever published Eastern Orthodox [[magazine]].<ref name=straphaelofbrooklyn>{{cite web|url=http://www.antiochian.org/straphaelofbrooklyn|title=St. Raphael of Brooklyn + First Saturday in November - Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese|access-date=May 5, 2016}}</ref><ref name="youtube.com">{{Citation |title=Shepherd of America: St. Raphael of Brooklyn | date=November 3, 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhWQrlL4xCE |access-date=2023-11-07 |language=en}}</ref>

== Life ==
He was born in modern-day [[Lebanon]] to [[Damascus|Damascene]] [[Syrians|Syrian Arab]] ([[Antiochian Greek Christians|Antiochian Greek Christian]]) parents of the [[Eastern Orthodoxy in Syria|Orthodox]] faith who had come to Beirut<ref>{{Cite web|title=Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America|url=https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/574|access-date=2021-11-04|website=www.antiochian.org}}</ref> fleeing the [[1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus|1860 Syrian Civil War]] in [[Damascus]].<ref name=Newman>{{cite news|last1=Newman|first1=Andy|title=A Centennial Celebration for Brooklyn's Only Saint|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/nyregion/a-centennial-celebration-for-brooklyns-only-saint.html|access-date=6 November 2015|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=5 November 2015}}</ref> He was first educated at the Damascus [[Patriarchy|Patriarchal]] School that had become the leading [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] institution of higher learning in the Levant under the leadership of [[Joseph of Damascus]]. He furthered his study of Christian theology at the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople|Patriarchal]] [[Halki seminary]] in [[Constantinople]], and at the Theological Academy in [[Kyiv|Kiev]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Kyiv]], [[Ukraine]]).
[[File:Raphael of Brooklyn.jpg|thumb|left|Archimandrite Raphael upon his arrival in America]] 
After having been expelled from the [[Greek Orthodox Church]] when it was discovered that he had written [[polemic]]s under a [[pseudonym]] against the ethnic exclusivism of the Greek clergy in the church of his day,<ref name="youtube.com"/> he was welcomed by the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], where he served as a professor at the [[Kazan Theological Academy]],<ref name="ST. RAPHAEL OF BROOKLYN - LIFE OF THE SAINT">{{cite web|title=St. Tikhon's Monastery|url=https://sttikhonsmonastery.org/st_raphael_life}}</ref> and was commissioned to write [[Criticism of Islam|anti-Islamic]] [[apologetics]].<ref name="youtube.com"/>

Afterwards, Father Raphael was sent to [[New York City]] in 1895 by Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia]] to administer the local Orthodox Christian community which then included mainly [[Russians|Russian]], [[Greeks|Greek]], [[Romanians|Romanian]] and [[Arabs|Arab]] immigrants, responding specifically to a request by local Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians for a priest who could minister to them in their own language.

From 1903 onwards, after having been elected the "''Syria-Arabian [[Vicar]]iot of America''", he began his notoriously ambitious [[Missionary work|missionary journey]], wherein he adopted a [[semi-nomadic]] lifestyle, in which he was known to have [[Pedestrian|travelled by foot]], by [[horse]], by [[donkey]] and by [[train]] among [[freighthopping]] [[tramp]]s and [[hobo]]s, even having gone so far as to extend his mission to [[Cuba]] and the [[Caribbean]] towards the end; during his travels, he organized his journey around letters he received from scattered Orthodox Christians in America, and would use them as a guideline for his travels, coming in-and-out of cities to perform spontaneous [[baptism]]s, [[marriage]]s and [[blessing]]s.<ref name="youtube.com"/>

In 1904, he became the first [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[bishop]] to be consecrated in [[North America]]; the consecration was performed in [[New York City]] by Archbishop [[Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow|Tikhon (Bellavin)]] and Bishop Innocent (Pustynsky). He served as Bishop of [[Brooklyn]] until his death. During the course of his ministry as an auxiliary bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in America, Raphael founded the present-day [[St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral (Brooklyn)]], established thirty parishes, built over 30 Churches and assisted in the founding of St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery.

Bishop Raphael founded the official magazine of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, ''The Word'', in 1905 in Arabic (الكلمة), and wrote many works of his own, most of which remain both untranslated and unpublished.<ref name="The Word magazine">{{cite web|title=The Word Magazine|url=http://www.antiochian.org/theword|website=antiochian.org|access-date=9 November 2015}}</ref>

== Glorification and honors ==
Bishop Raphael was originally buried in [[New York City|New York]] until August 1988, when his relics were translated to the [[Antiochian Village]] Camp in [[Ligonier, Pennsylvania]], on property of the Antiochian Archdiocese, along with several other bishops and clergy.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.antiochian.org/lifeofstraphael|title=Details of the Life of St. Raphael Hawaweeny|access-date=May 5, 2016}}</ref>

Raphael was [[Glorification#Eastern Orthodox Church|glorified]] by the Holy Synod of the [[Orthodox Church in America]] (OCA) in its March 2000 session. He is commemorated by the OCA on February 27, the anniversary of his death and by the [[Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch|Antiochian Orthodox Church]] on the first Saturday of November near the Synaxis of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and all the bodiless powers of heaven. His feast days are both a vigil-rank commemeration.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Vigil Service Our Father among the Saints RAPHAEL |url=https://antiochianprodsa.blob.core.windows.net/servicetexts/Raphael%20VIGIL.pdf |access-date=19 February 2025}}</ref>

In 2015, the Antiochian Archdiocese, OCA and [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia|ROCOR]] celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the dormition of St. Raphael.<ref name=straphaelofbrooklyn/>

He is commemorated on 14 February<ref name="mitropolia.kiev.ua">{{Cite web |date=2021-07-18 |title=Православний календар - Київська Митрополія Української Православної Церкви |url=https://mitropolia.kiev.ua/kalendar/ |access-date=2022-08-09 |language=uk}}</ref> and on 27 October - Synaxis of All Saints of Kiev Theological Academy and Kiev Theological Seminary in [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)|Ukrainian Orthodox Church]].<ref name="mitropolia.kiev.ua"/>

== Writings ==

* ''"The Antiochian Patriarchal Metochion in Moscow and the Ascension and St. Hypatios Church" (1891)''
* ''"Historical Glance at the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre" (1893)''
* ''"A Historical view of the errors of the Papal Church" (1895)''
* ''"A Brief history of the Christian Church" (1895)''
* ''"A Refutation of the Proclamation of Pope Leo XIII" (1895)''
* ''"The book of true consolation and the divine prayers"'' ''(1898)''
* ''"The Resumé of the Church and the Cemetery projects" (1903)''
* ''"The Great Euchologion" (1913)''
* ''"Truths of the holy Tradition and their great axioms", Al-Kalimat (1905-1915)''
* ''"Rules for the second year", Al-Kalimat (1905-1915)''
* ''Various others, Al-Kalimat (1905-1915)''

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity}}
* [[St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral (Brooklyn)]]
* [[Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Cathedral, New York]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/09/15/102518492.pdf "Christian Church to be Filled by a Damascus Preacher"] (''The New York Times'', Sept 15, 1895)

==External links==
*[https://richardmammana.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/bishop-raphaels-new-attitude-1912/ Bishop Raphael’s New Attitude (1912)]

{{authority control}}

[[Category:1860 births]]
[[Category:1915 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:20th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops]]
[[Category:American saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church]]
[[Category:American people of Syrian descent]]
[[Category:Arab Christian saints]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States]]
[[Category:Members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch]]
[[Category:Greek Orthodox Christians from Lebanon]]
[[Category:Religious leaders from Beirut]]
[[Category:Russian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church]]
[[Category:Syrian Christian saints]]
[[Category:Theological School of Halki alumni]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Syrian expatriates in Lebanon]]