Since a few decades ago, specifically since the implementation of the novus ordo, in 1969, the celebration of the feast of the three archangels St. Michael, St. Raphael and St. Gabriel is joint, on September 29. However, until the aforementioned reform, each one had his own commemoration. St. Raphael was celebrated, in the vetus ordo, on October 24 and St. Gabriel on March 18.

In contrast to the popularity of St. Michael, with countless representations in Navarrese art and so many invocations in parishes (46) and hermitages (120), the particular images of the other two are scarce.

In most cases, St. Michael appears as a warrior and triumphant over Lucifer. Sometimes we find him as a psychopomp, leading the souls and also weighing them in judgment(psychostasis), especially in medieval art. A summary of all this we did in this same medium four years ago, so on this occasion we will refer to the other two and to the archangelic sets.

In the case of Saint Gabriel, his appearance is constant in all the scenes of the Annunciation, for obvious reasons. However, in solitary form, it is not usual to find him, although we know of some canvases and sculptures. The topic of the Incarnation, we leave it for another occasion, for its iconographic richness, stylistic diversity and chronological amplitude.

Along with the three archangels, the presence of four others of legendary and even apocryphal character was widely spread since the sixteenth century, based on the finding of a pictorial ensemble in Sicily, in which the seven were depicted, after which a temple was built in Palermo in honor of all of them. A priest of those lands, Angelo del Duca, spread the new devotion in Rome and became a true apostle of it. His perseverance led Pius IV to consecrate the great conference room of the Baths of Diocletian, in 1561, to the archangels, taking as iconographic model what was represented in Palermo. Since then, numerous engravings have spread that particular iconography, especially one by Hieronymus Wierix.

San Rafael in the teaching of Tudela and in the parish of Sesma.

The cult to St. Raphael had its origin reference letter, in Navarre, in the high school of the Company of Mary of Tudela. Mother Puig y Arbeloa, in her monograph on this institution, known as the teaching, refers to the secular devotion to the archangel, when dealing with the trip of the foundresses, from Barcelona, in 1687. The nuns who came to the capital of La Ribera and their prioress and foundress, Mother Eulalia Argila, wished to have a patron saint, for which they wrote "the names of some holy angels, and then casting lots on them, three times in succession, the name of St. Raphael the Archangel came out, although she would have wanted St. Michael, because of the great devotion she had to him".

The archangel's protection was uninterrupted and the conventual chronicles recount numerous favors, including one in the Francesada by which the high school and convent were spared from certain depredation. For these reasons, his feast was the greatest of the Company of Mary of Tudela.

The manuscript sources always point out the solemnity and pomp of the celebration, which did not lack all the elements of the rhetoric, metamorphosis, and wonder of the Baroque: music, smells, bells, attendance of authorities and religious orders, sermon to position of an outstanding orator, gunpowder, lights and various decorations in the church ...etc., all in order to captivate and enervate the senses. To pay for such festivities, funds were provided by a foundation of Don Francisco Garcés del Garro, who helped decisively in the establishment of the nuns in the city.

Together with the painting of the founding period by Vicente Berdusán of the collateral altarpiece of the church that represents the archangel with Tobias, the nuns ordered outside the city, possibly to Zaragoza or Madrid, the eighteenth-century carving of St. Raphael, which was kept throughout the year in the very chapel of the patron saint of the temple, as the most special and sacred place for such a precious treasure.

However, the most outstanding sculpture of San Rafael in Navarra is the one venerated in the parish of Sesma, a work from the middle of the 18th century, attributed by professor García Gaínza to Luis Salvador Carmona. It must have been commissioned by Don Juan Antonio Pérez de Arellano, one of the four sons of the locality who attained the episcopal mitre. An echo of the beautiful sculpture of Sesma is found in a rococo relief on the door of the choir loft of the Clarisas de Estella, the work of Lucas de Mena y Martínez. Other images of the archangel are preserved in different localities, such as Santa María de Tafalla, the ashlar of Lerín and Iturmendi. In a painting of Olite and in a relief of the altarpiece of San Miguel de Lumbier we find San Rafael with the young Tobías, whom he accompanied to look for a pious wife and cured the blindness of his father with the viscera of a fish, which will become the iconographic attribute of the archangel.

Altarpieces and sets with archangels

In some altarpieces the three canonical archangels appear, but only on one occasion do all seven appear. This last case is the altarpiece of the Virgen de las Maravillas de Recoletas de Pamplona, paid for in 1674 by the canon of Murcia Don Juan Antonio Berasategui, and which underwent modifications to place the archangelic iconography. In the lateral streets and in the center of the bank are located Michael, Raphael and Gabriel, in sculptures of medium size imported from outside Navarre, while the other four are figured in two small lumps that finish off the ends of the attic and in paintings inserted in the lateral squares of the predella. Michael -victoriosus-, Raphael -medicus- and Gabriel -nuncius- carry their ordinary attributes, sword, fish and lily, respectively. The legendary ones of the canvases are Baraquiel -adjutor or blessing of God-, who appears with some white roses and Jehudiel -remunerator- who is accompanied by a whip and a crown, recalling the award and the punishment. The small sculptures of the attic represent Uriel, the powerful, fire of God, or fortis socius, with a drawn sword and Sealtiel, the praying -orator-, holding a censer, attribute of prayer. In the cloister of the same convent there are two canvases of the aforementioned Jehudiel and Baraquiel.

Of the pieces of the Quinientos, we have to mention the panels of the cathedral of Pamplona, the two sculptures of San Miguel and San Gabriel in the main altarpiece of the Dominicans of Pamplona, work paid for by don Francés de Beaumont and doña Beatriz de Icart, and finished in 1574 by Pierres Picart and fray Juan de Beaubes. Two of the archangels, Saint Michael and Saint Raphael appear in the main altarpiece of Garde, work of the Aragonese Juan Baines in 1700. On the other hand, Raphael and Gabriel appear on both sides of the Assumption in one of the feigned altarpieces of the convent of San Francisco de Viana, work of the Aragonese Francisco del Plano, from the first third of the 18th century.

On the pendentives of the Sartolo chapel of the Jesuits of Tudela -today the parish of San Jorge- we find Michael (with armor, helmet and lightning), Raphael (with the fish) and Gabriel (with the staff of lilies), together with the guardian angel (protecting a child). They are works of Aragonese filiation or perhaps by José Eleizegui, from the first decades of the 18th century, made for the aforementioned chapel of the Inmaculada on the initiative of that family to which notable Jesuits belonged, among them the writer, orator and theologian Bernardo Sartolo (1653-1700) and the brothers Gaspar (1687-1757) and José (1680-1734) Sartolo de la Cruz, both nephews of Father Bernardo.

In 1742, the Riojan sculptor Diego de Camporredondo made position of the extension with some lateral wings of the main altarpiece of Los Arcos, where we find the three archangels associated with a devotion with hardly any echoes in Navarre, specifically the Guardian Angel of the town, in this case of Los Arcos. Finally, we also find them in the main altarpiece of Aoiz, work of the Aragonese master Juan Tornes, who carried it out between 1745 and 1748.

In spite of these associations, the most usual thing is to find the three, in different iconographic programs. In the main altarpiece of the Virgin of Mendigaña de Azcona they are escorting the niche of the patron saint and in the attic. The piece was made, starting in 1713, by the Estella workshop masters Juan Angel Nagusia, José González de Araya, Manuel Adán and Mateo Ruiz de Galarreta.

The three also appear in the altarpiece of San Miguel de Úcar, designed in 1733 by José Pérez de Eulate, although the main altarpiece is a Renaissance work. They are also in the attic of the main altarpiece of Araceli de Corella, a Carmelite work of partnership by the tracistas Fray Marcos de Santa Teresa and Fray José de los Santos, in the second quarter of the 18th century.

Likewise, quotation can be found in the main altarpiece of the parish of San Miguel de Estella, although the main altarpiece is a late Gothic work by Maese Terin. Rafael and Gabriel are contemporary works of the altarpiece, made by Juan José Velaz, following the traces designed by the Estella master Juan Ángel Nagusia, in 1734.

Michael and Gabriel in some nativity scenes in harmony with Mother Agreda's texts.

The presence of Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel in the birth of Christ is something that Sister María Jesús de Ágreda spread. In the Recoletas Nativity Scene in Pamplona, as in the Salzillo Nativity Scene and some sculptures by La Roldana, both of them appear. In the convent of Capuchinas of Tudela, the night of Christmas, at about eleven o'clock a singular procession was organized with the images of both, way of the low choir and to the sound of Christmas carols. The Abbess would take the Virgin seated on the little donkey, the Vicar would do the same with St. Joseph and the older ones with the archangels. There the procession was deposited on a table prepared for that purpose. After the recitation of Matins and the singing of the kalenda, in the middle of Midnight Mass, before the preface, the Abbess would take the Virgin down from the donkey and put her on her knees, placing the Child Jesus in her arms. All this ritual has to be put in relation with the ninth chapter of the second part of her Mystical City of God, work of Mother Ágreda.