Margarita Luti
According to Vasari, Raphael was a "very amorous man and affectionate towards the ladies". He is said to have painted portraits of his mistress and to have assigned the engraver il Baviera to serve as her page. When commissioned by Agostino Chigi to decorate the Villa Farnesina, he was unable to dedicate himself properly to his work due to his infatuation - until she was allowed to come to live at his side. Again according to Vasari, it was Raphael's immoderate indulgence in "amorous pleasures", one day taken to excess, that brought on the fever which led to the young artist's death in 1520. Although in the Pantheon he lies beside his fiancée Maria, daughter of his patron Bernardo Dovizi, Raphael had long delayed his marriage; on his deathbed he sent his mistress away "with the means to live an honest life".
Feast of Saint Raphael, Ollur
Raphael is the name of an archangel of Christianity who is one of three angels listed by name in the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church assigns the feast of Saint Raphael to 24 October. He stands in the choir of archangels and is one of the seven angels who stand before the Throne of God. His name is known in the Bible where he, in the book of Tobit, is the traveling companion of the Tobias, a young man. The Church calls on him as the angel of love, patron of medical doctors and of travelers.