Commentary Par IV 48

Raphael is generally accounted one of the seven angels 'who stand before the Lord' (Apoc. 8:2).  The apocryphal Book of Enoch (ch. 21) furnishes the names of the four others, of whom only Uriel is much known today (and then mainly through his presence in Milton's Paradise Lost).  The story of how this archangel allowed Tobias to cure the blindness of his father, Tobit, is told in the now apocryphal Book of Tobias (11:2-15).  That Dante elected to use this particular circumlocutory detail to identify Raphael may seem puzzling.  However, it was one of the few concrete details associated with this archangel known to him.  And consult [Par XXVI 12] for another brief reference to a miraculous cure for blindness, that conferred by the laying on of hands by Ananias.  For a substantial recounting, one nearly as controlled and entertaining as a novella by Boccaccio, of the startling biblical narrative concerning Tobias and Raphael, see the commentary of Jacopo della Lana (DDP Lana.Par.IV.40-48).