7 Healing Saints for Common Ailments (and 3 More Patron Saints of Healing)

When someone we love falls ill, Catholics do two things at once: we call the doctor, and we pray. The Church also turns to saints who knew suffering from the inside. Here are the 7 healing saints for common ailments, three more patron saints of healing, and a prayer for each.

Who is the patron saint of healing?

The patron saint of healing is St. Raphael the Archangel. His name means "God heals," and in the Book of Tobit God sends him to cure the blindness of the faithful Tobit. For the sick and for hospitals, the Church also names two official patrons: St. Camillus de Lellis and St. John of God.

The saints do not heal by their own power. They are friends of God who pray with us and for us, and every grace comes from God through Jesus Christ, the Divine Physician.

7 Healing Saints for Common Ailments

Saints play various important roles in the life of a Catholic: not only are they models who the church encourage us to emulate, they are critical in the realization of our daily prayers. By interceding for us, our patron saints join us in the hearing of our intentions and spiritual desires.

When it comes to our physical, mental, emotional, and even our spiritual healing, the Church name these seven important individuals as the patron saints for us to look upon and pray through.

• St. Raphael the Archangel: healing in general, the sick, doctors and nurses
• St. Philomena: sick children, infants and the unborn
• St. Anne: fertility and difficult pregnancies
• St. Peregrine: cancer
• St. Dymphna: mental illness
• St. Maximilian Kolbe: addiction
• St. Padre Pio: illness that is hard to diagnose or explain

1. St. Raphael the Archangel, patron saint of healing

Let us begin with the most notable patron saint who has always been associated with general healing: Raphael the Archangel. Although Saint Raphael the Archangel was never a mortal being who lived on Earth, his work in aiding those who have prayed for good health has led to his recognition as the patron saint of healing. You might see his imagery in hospitals, hospices, clinics, and other institutions that deal with the sick or with doctors, nurses, and pharmacies. Through his role, medical institutions tend to associate him with being the spiritual guide of surgeons, counselors, and other medical professionals. Biblically, St. Raphael is mentioned as the companion of Tobias, the son of Tobit, on his search for some kind of fish liver, which many believed to contain healing properties. Of all archangels, why did the Church favor Raphael to be the patron saint of healing? Well, Raphael's name itself holds the largest clue: in Hebrew, Raphael means "divine healer."

Feast: September 29, with St. Michael and St. Gabriel. In the Book of Tobit he travels, disguised as a young man called Azariah, beside Tobias, protects him on the road and shows him how to heal his father's eyes. Only at the end does he reveal who he is: one of the seven angels who stand before the Lord (Tobit 12:15). As the Catholic Encyclopedia explains, his name means "God has healed." Read his full story in The Power of Faith: The Story of Saint Raphael the Archangel.

Invocation: St. Raphael the Archangel, medicine of God, pray for us and for all the sick.

2. St. Philomena, for sick children and infants

For illnesses and ailments that befall children, infants, and the unborn child, we look to St. Philomena for her mercy and generous intercession. Not much is known about St. Philomena apart from the horrors she experienced before her death. It is believed that Philomena, a pledged virgin, had been the object of desire of Emperor Diocletian. When she refused to marry him, or at least serve his bedside as his concubine, she was tortured by Roman soldiers. And yet, throughout every brutal attack, St. Philomena was healed by her guardian angels. The Emperor, tired of her strength and fervent faith, ordered her decapitation. She died on August 10th, at only 13 years old. The young saint has since been associated with the healing of infants, children, and teenagers. Other young saints, namely St. John Vianney and St. Peter Louis Marie Chanel, have been known to intercede their prayers through her.

Feast: August 11, where it is kept. Her remains were found in 1802 in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome, and very little is known for certain about her life: the account above comes from later devotion. St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, attributed many graces to her prayers, and Venerable Pauline Jaricot, gravely ill, recovered after praying at her shrine in Mugnano in 1835.

Invocation: St. Philomena, pray for our children.

3. St. Anne, for fertility and difficult pregnancies

For women who have had issues with having children, St. Anne, mother of Mary (yes, the Mother of Jesus), is recognized to be the patron saint of women with fertility problems and difficult pregnancies. St. Anne herself was the recipient of a fertility miracle. According to biblical apocrypha, St. Anne had troubles conceiving a child until God sent her and Joachim the good news through an angel: that she would bear a daughter, and this daughter would be spoken about around the world. She received God's blessing and simultaneously surrendered to his will by uttering these iconic words, "I, the childless, shall conceive."

Feast: July 26, with her husband St. Joachim. The story of her late motherhood comes from an early Christian writing, the Protoevangelium of James, not from the Bible itself, but devotion to her is ancient, and she is also the patron of mothers and grandmothers.

Invocation: St. Anne, mother of the Mother of God, pray for us and for all who long for a child.

4. St. Peregrine Laziosi, patron saint of cancer patients

Like St. Anne, St. Peregrine was known to have received a healing miracle, which later led to his recognition as the patron saint of cancer and malignant growths. According to church history, St. Peregrine served St. Philip as a Servite priest. St. Peregrine worked alongside St. Philip in his preaching work, while nursing an ailment which he had been suffering with for years. Unknown to many, St. Peregrine had been suffering from a horrid pain affecting his right leg. Roman physicians concluded that the ailment was cancer, and that his leg had to be amputated immediately. A day before the surgery, however, Peregrine Laziosi pleaded to the crucifix in the Servite monastery for a miracle until he passed out. While unconscious, St. Peregrine dreamed of Jesus Christ descending from the cross and curing his cancer. He awoke to a healed leg, as if it had not been affected with cancer the night before. Not all ailments are visible, as the next saint teaches us.

Feast: May 1 (May 4 in the Servite Order). Peregrine was born around 1260 in Forlì, Italy, and was converted by the forgiveness of St. Philip Benizi, whom he had struck. He was canonized in 1726.

A prayer written for this article: St. Peregrine, you knew the fear of a diagnosis and the night before surgery. Pray for me (or name the person) in this illness. Ask the Lord to guide the hands of the doctors, to give me courage, and, if it is His will, to restore my health. Amen.

5. St. Dymphna, patron of mental health

Dymphna, like most young, devout Catholic women of her time, pledged a life of chastity. Unfortunately for the young princess, she became the object of her father's incestuous desires shortly after the death of his wife. Driven by madness, her father ordered her to marry him and to take the place of her mother, the former queen. The young Dymphna fled her kingdom but was later captured in Geel, Belgium. In yet another episode of anger and insanity, her father decapitated her along with her confessor, Father Gerebernus. She was only 15 when she was martyred. Today, St. Dymphna's image is commonly found in mental hospitals and in institutions for psychologists and psychiatrists. The Church recognizes her as the patron saint of the mentally ill, and in some instances, the patron saint of victims of incest.

Feast: May 15. In Geel, families have welcomed people with mental illness into their homes for centuries. Read more in how a prayer to Saint Dymphna can help you defeat anxiety. Prayer goes hand in hand with professional help: please talk to a doctor or counselor too.

Invocation: St. Dymphna, pray for us and for all who suffer in mind and heart.

6. St. Maximilian Kolbe, for those fighting addiction

Like St. Dymphna, St. Maximilian Kolbe's influence is known through his work with those dealing with unseen demons, in this case, drug addicts. St. Maximilian Kolbe is a more contemporary saint, having been canonized in 1982. His act of martyrdom is not only shared widely in church, but you might even find it in history books: he was captured by Nazis during World War II and was imprisoned in Auschwitz, Poland. Auschwitz, being a death camp, and Nazis, being Nazis, were on their usual routine of executing random Polish or Jewish prisoners when Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to take a Polish victim's place. His random act of bravery and kindness may have brought him death, but it also granted him the greatest honor in our century. Shortly after his canonization, Pope John Paul II named him "the Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century." Aside from being the patron saint of drug addicts, he is also the patron saint of journalists, prisoners, and the pro-life movement.

Feast: August 14. A Polish Franciscan friar, he gave his life in Auschwitz in 1941 for Franciszek Gajowniczek, a husband and father, who survived the war. He was canonized by St. John Paul II in 1982.

Invocation: St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us and for all who struggle with addiction.

7. St. Padre Pio, for illness that is hard to diagnose

The world of medical science is pretty much still a mystery, even to the most intelligent of scientists and doctors. As a Catholic, who do you turn to when your illness is difficult to diagnose, or even explain?

One of the most interesting individuals who lived in our time was the famous recipient of mysterious afflictions himself, up until the day he died. The famed stigmatist, St. Padre Pio, first began experiencing the painful manifestations of the Stigmata while hearing confession on September 20, 1918. These stigmatic manifestations included all bodily wounds that Christ received while on his way to calvary. How the wounds appeared on St. Padre Pio's body and why it continued to affect him until his death continuous to be an unsolved mystery. While alive, physicians, both religious and non-religious, are reported to have investigated his wounds, but found no probable causes. For your prayers of daily healing, infections, other unidentified diseases and sicknesses, direct them to St. Padre Pio. If your suffering is unidentified, difficult to explain, or difficult to cure, St. Padre Pio hears and understands your struggles, for he has lived through them too.

Feast: September 23. Francesco Forgione was born in Pietrelcina in 1887 and became a Capuchin friar. In 1956 he opened a hospital in San Giovanni Rotondo, the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, the "Home for the Relief of Suffering," which still serves patients today. He died in 1968 and was canonized by St. John Paul II in 2002. His advice to anxious people was simple: "Pray, hope, and don't worry." Discover more in St. Padre Pio: little known facts about his life.

Invocation: St. Pio of Pietrelcina, you who suffered with Christ, pray for us and for all who are in pain.

The medal below holds a second-class relic of Padre Pio: a tiny piece of cloth from his habit (ex indumentis). It is not a charm, but a reminder to pray.

St. Padre Pio Medal with Second-Class Relic, Blessed by Pope Leo XIV

Browse Padre Pio relics

Although we have these 7 saints to intercede our prayers to, let us not forget the greatest healer of all wounds, seen and unseen: Jesus Christ. Whatever infliction you may be suffering with, surrender your woes to the Savior, intercede a prayer regularly through our patron saints of healing, and believe in the healing power of Jesus.

3 More Patron Saints of Healing

The seven saints above are the classic list. Three more are invoked by the sick and by those who care for them all over the world.

Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick

Patron of: the sick and the suffering. Feast: February 11, which is also the World Day of the Sick.

In 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared eighteen times to Bernadette Soubirous, a poor fourteen-year-old girl, at the grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes, in southern France. She asked for prayer and penance and told Bernadette to dig in the ground. A spring appeared, and it still flows. The Church has recognized only a small number of cures there as miraculous, and only after years of strict medical and theological review (see the Catholic Encyclopedia on Lourdes). In the Litany of Loreto Mary is called Salus infirmorum, Health of the Sick.

Invocation: Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick, pray for us. St. Bernadette, pray for us.

Our Lady of Lourdes Medal, touched to the Lourdes spring water

Browse the Lourdes collection

St. Camillus de Lellis, patron of the sick and of hospitals

Patron of: the sick, hospitals, nurses. Feast: July 14 (July 18 in the United States).

Camillus, born in 1550, was a soldier and a gambler with a leg wound that never healed. After his conversion he went to work at the Hospital of San Giacomo in Rome, where he was shocked by how carelessly the sick were treated. He founded the Ministers of the Infirm, the Camillians, who wear a red cross on their habit and promise to serve the sick even at the risk of their own lives. Pope Leo XIII named him, together with St. John of God, patron of the sick and of hospitals. He died in Rome in 1614.

Invocation: St. Camillus and St. John of God, pray for the sick and for all who care for them.

St. Rita of Cascia, saint of impossible cases

Patron of: impossible and desperate cases, wounds, the sick, difficult marriages. Feast: May 22.

Rita was born in 1381 near Cascia, in Umbria. Widowed after a hard marriage and the loss of her two sons, she entered the Augustinian convent in Cascia. There, while praying before the crucifix, she received a wound on her forehead as if from a thorn of Christ's crown, and she bore it for about fifteen years. On her deathbed, in winter, she asked for a rose from her old garden, and a rose was found blooming in the snow. She was canonized in 1900.

Invocation: St. Rita, advocate of the impossible, pray for us.

St. Rita of Cascia Medal, Blessed by Pope Leo XIV

Browse St. Rita of Cascia

Other patron saints for health

• St. Luke the Evangelist (feast October 18): patron of physicians and surgeons. St. Paul calls him "the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14). Pray to him for your doctors, nurses and caregivers.
• St. Blaise (feast February 3): bishop of Sebaste and martyr, invoked for illness of the throat. Tradition says he saved a boy who was choking on a fish bone, and on his feast many parishes give the Blessing of Throats with two crossed candles.
• St. Agatha (feast February 5): virgin martyr of Catania, in Sicily, whose breasts were cut off during her torture. Women facing breast cancer ask for her prayers.

Others to know: St. Gerard Majella (pregnancy), St. Lucy (the eyes), St. Joseph (a holy death).

What does the Church teach about praying for healing?

The Church asks us to pray for the sick and also to take care of our health with the help of medicine: the two go together. Its own great prayer for the sick is a sacrament, the Anointing of the Sick, explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1499 to 1532.

St. James writes: "Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord" (James 5:14). The Catechism teaches that this sacrament is not only for the dying: anyone who begins to be in danger because of sickness or old age may receive it, and it can be received again if the illness becomes worse (CCC 1514 to 1515). Its grace brings strength, peace and courage, unites the sick person to the Passion of Christ, forgives sins if the person could not confess, and restores bodily health if this is good for the salvation of the soul (CCC 1520 to 1523). If someone you love faces surgery or a serious illness, call your parish priest.

Prayer never replaces medical care. "Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God," says the Catechism, and we must take reasonable care of them (CCC 2288). As Sirach says: "My son, in thy sickness neglect not thyself, but pray to the Lord, and he shall heal thee" (Sirach 38:9, Douay-Rheims).

Holy water and holy oil: sacramentals, not the sacrament

The Oil of the Sick used in the sacrament is blessed by the bishop and given only by a priest. Holy water and blessed oil kept at home are different: they are sacramentals, holy signs that prepare us to receive grace and help us pray (CCC 1667 to 1670). Learn more in What is holy oil used for?

A prayer for the sick, with the saints of healing

A prayer written for this article: Lord Jesus Christ, Divine Physician, You touched the sick and they were made whole. Look with mercy on (name), who is ill. St. Raphael, St. Philomena, St. Anne, St. Peregrine, St. Dymphna, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Padre Pio, Our Lady of Lourdes, Health of the Sick, and all the saints of healing, pray for us. Give strength to the one who suffers, wisdom to the doctors and nurses, patience to those who keep watch, and, if it is Your will, restore health of body and peace of soul. Amen.

Holy Oil, Blessed by Pope Leo XIV

Browse holy water and holy oil

Continue Reading

• The Power of Faith: The Story of Saint Raphael the Archangel
• Prayer to Our Lady of Good Health (Our Lady of Velankanni)
• What is holy oil used for?