Saints for Healing: A Full List of Patron Saints

Someone you love is ill. That is the whole situation, and it is enough. You may be sitting in a hospital corridor, or at a kitchen table with a phone in your hand, or in a church pew with no words left. You want a name to say to God. You want a saint who understands this particular illness, this particular fear.

The Catholic Church has never promised that praying to a saint will cure anyone. God heals. The saints intercede. What the Church does offer is a long, crowded list of men and women who are asked for help with very specific things: cancer, blindness, addiction, sleepless nights, a difficult birth, a body that has been in pain for years. This article is that list, gathered in one place, so you can read down it and stop at the name that fits.

You do not have to know the whole list. You need one name. Start there.

The Archangel Catholics Name First

Raphael the Archangel (feast day 29 September) is asked for healing, the sick, doctors and travellers. His name means God heals. In the Book of Tobit he restores Tobit's sight and drives out the demon. He is an angel, not a canonized saint, and Catholics ask his prayers rather than his power. Many people begin here because Raphael is the one who stands closest to illness in the Bible.

For Cancer and Life-Threatening Illness

Peregrine Laziosi (feast day 1 May) is asked for cancer, AIDS and other life-threatening illness. A Servite friar from Forli, he was healed of cancer in his right leg the night before his scheduled amputation, at about the age of sixty. You can read more about the life of St. Peregrine.

Agatha of Sicily (feast day 5 February) is asked for breast cancer and diseases of the breast. A young martyr of the third century, she is shown with pincers and her breasts on a plate, which is why women with breast cancer ask her prayers.

Aloysius Gonzaga (feast day 21 June) is asked for young people with AIDS and plague victims. A Jesuit scholastic, he died of plague at twenty-three while nursing victims in Rome.

Carlo Acutis (Blessed) (feast day 12 October) is asked for young cancer patients and the internet. An Italian teenager who died of leukemia in 2006 and was beatified in 2020, he is not a canonized saint yet, which is why he is written Blessed.

If you are looking for more names, Catholic saints for healing: who to ask when you are sick gathers them by need.

For Anxiety, Depression and Mental Illness

Dymphna (feast day 30 May) is asked for mental illness, anxiety and neurological disorders. A seventh-century Irish princess venerated at Geel in Belgium, where a town has welcomed people with mental illness into ordinary family homes since the Middle Ages.

Bibiana (feast day 2 December) is asked for insanity and mental disorders. A Roman martyr, she shares this patronage with Christina the Astonishing, a thirteenth-century woman whose neighbours thought her mentally ill.

Peter Damian (feast day 21 February) is asked for insomnia and sleep disorders. An eleventh-century cardinal who wrote about the difficulty of prayer and sleepless nights.

For the Eyes, Ears, Throat and Teeth

Lucy of Syracuse (feast day 13 December) is asked for blindness and diseases of the eye. One of the most ancient martyrs of Sicily, her name comes from lux, light, and she is shown holding her eyes on a dish or a lamp.

Odile of Alsace (feast day 13 December) is asked for the blind and the partially sighted. A seventh-century abbess of a monastery in Alsace, she is usually shown holding a book with two eyes on it.

Francis de Sales (feast day 24 January) is asked for deafness and those who work with the deaf. A bishop of Geneva who taught a deaf man to understand the faith through signs, and founded a school of sign language for the deaf.

Blaise of Sebaste (feast day 3 February) is asked for ailments of the throat. A bishop and martyr, on his feast day throats are blessed with two crossed candles, which is where his symbol comes from.

Apollonia (feast day 9 February) is asked for toothache and diseases of the teeth. An elderly deaconess of Alexandria, killed in a riot in the third century, she is shown with pincers holding a tooth.

For the Heart, Lungs, Stomach and Joints

John of God (feast day 8 March) is asked for heart patients, hospitals, nurses and the mentally ill. A Portuguese soldier turned hospital founder in Granada, he died in 1550 after saving a drowning man.

Bernardino of Siena (feast day 20 May) is asked for chest and lung problems. A fifteenth-century Franciscan preacher whose emblem is a tablet with the name of Jesus, he is asked for help with diseases of the chest.

Erasmus of Formia (feast day 2 June) is asked for intestinal and abdominal ailments. A martyr of the fourth century, better known as St Elmo, patron of sailors, invoked against colic and illness of the intestines.

Alphonsus Liguori (feast day 1 August) is asked for arthritis and rheumatism. A bishop and moral theologian who suffered from arthritis badly enough that he dictated his last works to scribes.

For Skin, Infection and Epidemic Disease

Roch (feast day 16 August) is asked for plague, cholera, epidemics and skin disease. A fourteenth-century pilgrim who nursed plague victims in Italy and was healed of the disease himself, he is shown with a wound on his thigh and a dog carrying bread.

Sebastian (feast day 20 January) is asked for plague and contagious disease. A Roman soldier shot with arrows, Christians have invoked him against the plague since the seventh century.

Anthony the Great (feast day 17 January) is asked for skin diseases and shingles. The father of desert monasticism, the burning skin infection shingles is still called St Anthony's fire after him.

Bartholomew the Apostle (feast day 24 August) is asked for diseases of the skin and nervous disorders. One of the twelve, he is shown holding a knife and his own flayed skin, which is how he is linked to the skin.

Damien of Molokai (feast day 10 May) is asked for people with leprosy. A Belgian priest who lived and died among people with leprosy on the island of Molokai in Hawaii, he caught the disease himself.

For Illness That Does Not Go Away

Lidwina of Schiedam (feast day 14 April) is asked for chronic illness and long suffering. A fifteenth-century Dutch woman who spent her last decades in bed after a fall on the ice, and who wrote about suffering as a share in the cross.

Pacificus of San Severino (feast day 24 September) is asked for chronic pain and deafness. A Franciscan priest who was blind and lame for the last years of his life, he is invoked by people with constant pain.

Rita of Cascia (feast day 22 May) is asked for sickness, wounds and impossible cases. An Augustinian nun from Umbria, widowed and then a nun for forty years, with a wound on her forehead that never healed.

For Addiction and the Families Around It

Maximilian Kolbe (feast day 14 August) is asked for drug addiction, prisoners and families. A Franciscan priest who gave his life at Auschwitz for another prisoner, he is invoked by people fighting addiction.

Mark Ji Tianxiang (feast day 9 July) is asked for drug addiction. A nineteenth-century Chinese doctor who was an opium addict for years, he died a martyr for refusing to renounce the faith.

Martin of Tours (feast day 11 November) is asked for alcoholism and recovering drinkers. The bishop of Tours who cut his cloak in two for a beggar, French towns put their wine under his protection, and he is invoked by those who struggle with drink.

For Mothers, Children and Childbirth

Gerard Majella (feast day 16 October) is asked for expectant mothers, childbirth and unborn children. A Redemptorist lay brother of the eighteenth century, his letters were once placed under the pillows of women in labour.

Margaret of Antioch (feast day 20 July) is asked for pregnant women and difficult births. A legendary martyr of the ancient church, women in labour have called on her for well over a thousand years.

Joseph (feast day 19 March) is asked for a happy death, fathers and workers. The husband of Mary, he is asked above all for a good death, because tradition holds that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary.

For Doctors, Nurses and Carers

Camillus de Lellis (feast day 14 July) is asked for nurses, hospitals and the dying. A former gambler and soldier who founded an order of men who served the sick, including plague victims, he signed his letters with a cross instead of a signature because of his own useless hand.

Luke the Evangelist (feast day 18 October) is asked for physicians, surgeons and artists. A companion of Paul whom Paul calls the beloved physician, he is the traditional author of the third Gospel and of Acts.

Cosmas and Damian (feast day 26 September) are asked for surgeons, doctors and dentists. Twin brothers who practised medicine in Asia Minor and, according to tradition, took no payment from the poor.

If you want to know how to tell them apart in art, how to recognise saints by their symbols explains the pincers, the knives and the lamps.

Saints Who Were Sick Themselves

Bernadette Soubirous (feast day 16 April) is asked for illness, poverty and those who are ridiculed. The girl who saw Our Lady at Lourdes in 1858 and then spent thirteen years in a convent in Nevers, in constant pain from asthma and a knee tumour.

Charbel Makhlouf (feast day third Sunday of July) is asked for healing, Lebanon and the sick who come to his tomb. A Maronite monk and hermit of Lebanon, after his death in 1898 people came to his grave for healing, and he was canonized in 1977.

Therese of Lisieux (feast day 1 October) is asked for people with tuberculosis and those who are praying for the seriously ill. A Carmelite who died of tuberculosis at twenty-four.

How to Choose One and Begin

Read down the list until one name stops you. That is usually the one. It may be the illness itself, or it may be something in the saint's life that you recognise. If you are still unsure, patron saints by illness sorts them by condition.

Then say one sentence. It does not have to be beautiful. Something like: St Peregrine, I ask you to pray for my father, who has cancer. That is enough.

What you do next is up to you. You can pray a novena for healing, nine days in a row, asking the same thing each time. You can ask a priest to offer a Mass for the sick person. You can light a candle in a church and sit with it. You can also pray a prayer for the sick if you cannot find your own words. And if you want a form of prayer that the Church has used for centuries, Catholic prayers for healing has several. None of this is magic. It is company. You are asking the friends of God to stand with you while you wait.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which saint is the patron saint of healing?

There is no single patron saint of all healing. Raphael the Archangel is often named first because his name means God heals, and he appears in the Book of Tobit restoring sight. But Catholics also turn to Peregrine for cancer, Dymphna for mental illness, Lucy for the eyes and Blaise for the throat. The Church gives you a whole list, not one name.

Who is the patron saint of the sick?

Several saints share this. John of God is asked for the sick and for hospitals. Camillus de Lellis is asked for nurses and the dying. Raphael is asked for the sick in general. Our Lady is also invoked as Health of the Sick. If you are not sure where to start, Raphael is a safe first name to say.

Is there a saint for chronic illness?

Yes. Lidwina of Schiedam is asked for chronic illness and long suffering, because she spent her last decades in bed. Pacificus of San Severino is asked for chronic pain, having been blind and lame for years. Rita of Cascia is asked for sickness and impossible cases. These are the names for an illness that does not end.

Can I choose a saint for someone else?

Yes. You can ask a saint to pray for anyone you like, whether or not that person knows you are doing it. You might choose a saint whose illness matches theirs, or one whose life they would recognise. Then simply say the person's name in your prayer. You are not deciding for them. You are asking for them.

Do I have to pray on the saint's feast day?

No. The feast day is a good day to begin, and many people do, but the saint is not limited to one date. You can pray any day, at any hour. If the feast day helps you remember to start, use it. If you have already started, keep going. God is not checking the calendar.