St Raphael's Church () is a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in San Rafael,

Antioquia Antioquia is the Spanish form of Antioch. Antioquia may also refer to: * Antioquia Department Antioquia () is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the central northwestern part of Colombia with a narrow section that borders th ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The church is part of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Sonsón–Rionegro The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sonsón–Rionegro () is a diocese located in the cities of Sonsón and Rionegro in the ecclesiastical province of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Medellín, Medellín in Colombia. History * 18 March 1957: Established ...

, dedicated to the

Archangel Raphael Raphael ( , ; "God has healed") is an archangel first mentioned in the Book of Tobit and in 1 Enoch, both estimated to date from between the 3rd and 2nd century BCE. In later Jewish tradition, he became identified as one of the three heavenly ...

History

The first church was built on the site between 1864 and 1866 by Juan Mazo and the brothers Juan and Agustín Mira, and was a small

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

made of

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry wikt:stalk, stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the crop yield, yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, ry ...

and

bahareque , also spelled (also referred to in spanish as ''bajareque'' or ''fajina''), is a traditional building technique used in the construction of housing by indigenous peoples. The constructions are developed using a system of interwoven sticks or re ...

known as El Sueldo. Due to the distance from other churches, the Bishop of

Medellín Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...

, Herrera Restrepo, created a new parish, with José de Jesús Correa as the priest. He believed that the chapel and the village were based in a very remote and narrow location. The inhabitants of El Sueldo moved to live near the river, and Correa began building a new church in August 1904, with plans by the architect Emigdio Rincón. The construction of the building was completed by Correa's successors. The church has three

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

s and one tower. Inside there are three altars: one is the high altar, another has the image of the Archangel Rafael, and the other has the image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The facade of the church faces onto the main square of the town, with a bust of Correa.

References

Raphael's Roman Catholic churches in Colombia Buildings and structures in Antioquia Department {{Colombia-church-stub