Fr. Raphael Iannone, a fixture of the Hudson Valley who served in the formation of young friars and in pastoral ministries, died on July 26, in Beacon, N.Y. He was 87.
John Iannone was born in Montclair, N.J., on Aug. 4, 1937, to Michael Paul Iannone and Jane T. Notte. He entered the novitiate on Aug. 31, 1955, and was given the religious name Raphael. He professed his perpetual vows on Sept. 1, 1959, and was ordained to the priesthood on Jan. 11, 1964.
A few months after ordination, Father Raphael began a decade of service to the Province in our formation and vocation ministries. He taught math and physics for nine years at Glenclyffe High School in Garrison, N.Y., our minor seminary where he himself had graduated; and he was vocation director for one year in Brooklyn. He followed this with three years as a chaplain: two at Long Lane School, Middletown, Conn.; and one at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Providence, R.I.
Returning to the Hudson Valley in 1977, Father Raphael joined the staff of New Hope Manor, Barryville, N.Y., a residential substance abuse recovery program for women. He spent seven years as a counselor and teacher. During his final two years he was also executive director.
In 1984, he was transferred from Mary Immaculate Friary in Garrison to St. Joseph Friary in New Paltz, N.Y., where he served six years as pastor of St. Joseph Parish. In 1990, Father Raphael returned to formation ministry. For the next 18 years he served as associate director of post-novitiate formation in South Orange, N.J., then as co-director of the postulancy program at St. Michael Friary, Brooklyn. 
Fr. Charles Sammons, who was a postulant under Father Raphael, recalled how, with a hearty laugh at his young charge, his formation director made him feel accepted early on. “Father Raphael just had that classic Franciscan earthy goodness about him,” he said in his homily at Father Raphael’s funeral on July 30. He remembered being moved by how it hurt Father Raphael to have to dismiss a postulant, and by how he lowered his guard to share his suffering with a young friar. “It was an encounter between two disciples of Jesus Christ, one who was bearing the cross of that day … willing and vulnerable like the Lord himself to be seen in that intersection of agony and love.”
In 2008, Father Raphael returned to St. Joseph Friary, New Paltz. A skilled handyman, his can-do spirit served him well as the supervisor of provincial properties. His love for aviation was well-known, having obtained a private pilot’s license. He enjoyed flying recreational aircraft until late in life.
He remained in active ministry into his eighties, serving seven years at St. Francis de Sales Church in Phoenicia, N.Y., until August 2020, retiring to St. Lawrence Friary in Beacon. Father Raphael was renowned as much for his empathy for people as for his versatility in ministry. “He presided with such tender compassion, intelligence, and deep spirituality that people were moved, and knew they were in the presence of a holy man,” said Patricia Ruane, a parishioner at St. Francis de Sales. “They recognized and greeted him in the streets of the village, stopped him during the holiday season to give him cash, saying, ‘You’ll know who needs some help’ (he did), or asking him, ‘Father, do you have a minute?’ An hour later, that person would be sitting on the rectory’s front porch with Father Raphael, deep in conversation.”
He is survived by a niece, Annette Weisbeck; two nephews, Michael Iannone IV and Ralph Iannone Sr; and other loved ones.