Patron saints of ailments, illness, and dangers

Saints have often been prevailed upon in requests for intercessory prayers to protect against or help combatting a variety of dangers, illnesses, and ailments. This is a list of saints and such ills traditionally associated with them. In shorthand, they are called the patron saints of (people guarding against or grappling with) these various troubles.

A

• Against abortion, miscarriage – Catherine of Vadstena
• Alcoholism – Martin of Tours
• Angina – Suitbert of Kaiserwerdt
• Arthritis – Alphonsus Liguori
• Auditory conditions and diseases – Ovidius

B

• Victims of betrayal and of torture – Epipodius
• Against motorcycle/bicycle accidents – Denise
• Invoked against blight, frost, storms, alcoholism, and faintness – Urban of Langres
• Blind and the lame – Abel of Reims
• The blind – Aloysius Gonzaga
• Blindness, eye disease, eye problems, sore eyes – Leodegar
• Protectress of blind people – Paraskevi of Rome
• Protector of sufferers from broken bones and hernias – Mammes
• Bodybuilders - Hyacinth, Sebastian
• Against bullies and verbal abuse – Kentigern, Therese of Lisieux, Galileo Nicolini

C

• Cancer – Peregrine Laziosi
• Breast cancer – Agatha
• Stomach cancer, youth, people who suffer from shyness – Alfie Lambe
• Invoked against cattle diseases – Berlinda of Meerbeke
• Chest problems, lung problems, gambling addictions – Bernardino of Siena
• Invoked during childbirth and against diseases of the eye – Hemma of Gurk
• Childbirth, sickness – Juliana of Nicomedia
• Women in difficult labor – John of Bridlington
• Difficult pregnancy and safe child birth – Peter and Fevronia of Murom
• Invoked by pregnant women for safe delivery of children – Silvia
• Childhood illnesses – Deicolus
• Childhood diseases; difficult marriages; victims of abuse – Pharaildis
• Convulsive children; invoked against storms and rain – Scholastica
• Invoked against cholera, epidemics, knee problems, plague, skin diseases – Roch
• Choreas (Sydenham's chorea, Huntington's disease), epilepsy, seizures, oversleeping – Vitus
• Invoked against cirrhosis and other liver diseases – Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo
• Riot, civil disorder – Andrew Corsini
• Against cold and cold weather – Sebaldus
• Against colic – Agapitus of Palestrina
• Invoked against colic in children, intestinal ailments and diseases, cramps and the pain of women in labour – Erasmus of Formiae (St Elmo)
• Convulsions, epilepsy, epileptics – Willibrord
• Coughs, sneezes, and dropsy – Quentin
• Invoked against cramps, afflictions associated with the nerves and ears – Cornelius
• Cramp, headache, bearing false witness, perjury – Pancras
• Involved against criminals – Saint Peter
• Crohns disease and IBS – Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Santiago

D

• Deafness – Audoin (Ouen)
• Dying people, expectant mothers, hesitation, happy death, holy death, interior souls, people in doubt, pioneers, pregnant women, travellers, and fetuses – Joseph
• Demons, fever – Patroclus of Troyes
• Diabetics – Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus
• Invoked against dropsy, childhood sicknesses, hailstones, the pain of childbirth, and gout – Gotthard of Hildesheim
• Invoked against drought – Reverianus
• Against drought – Trophimus of Arles
• Those in danger of drowning – Hyacinth
• Drug addiction – Maximilian Kolbe

E

• Earache, dysentery – Polycarp
• Invoked against earthquakes – Emygdius of Ascoli
• Epidemics, diseases – Four Holy Marshals
• Invoked against epilepsy and headaches – Gerard of Lunel
• Epilepsy, against rabies, against infantile convulsions – Guy of Anderlecht
• Invoked against erysipelas, lightning, horse theft, wildfires, and drowning – Castulus
• Invoked against evil spirits, leprosy, thunderstorms, bacterial diseases, and bacterial infections – Agrippina of Mineo
• Sore eyes – Augustine of Hippo
• Eye disease – Cyriacus
• Eye and skin conditions; knee pains; invoked against adultery and marital difficulties – Gangulphus
• Eye problems, eye disease – Harvey

F

• Fainting, plague, epilepsy – Valentine
• Against diseases in the feet – Saint Alphonsa
• Invoked against foot troubles, lameness, rheumatism, rats, and mice – Servatius
• Invoked against fever, rats, and mice, particularly field-mice – Gertrude of Nivelles
• Fever – Hugh of Cluny
• Invoked against fever; afflictions associated with the eyes; Dry cough; infertility; panic attacks – Theobald of Provins
• Invoked against fire, floods and drowning – Florian
• Invoked against flooding, and for the good success of Caesarean section – Caesarius of Terracina

G

• Against gallstones, colic – Liborius of Le Mans
• Invoked against illegal gambling – Cajetan
• Diseases and sicknesses affecting the genitals – Vitalis of Assisi
• Gout, sore throat, fever, whooping cough – Andrew the Apostle
• Gout – Apollinaris

H

• Pathologies of the hands and the feet – Julia of Corsica
• Against hanging – Coloman
• Hangovers – Bibiana
• Against headache – Agathius, Teresa of Ávila, Bibiana, Crescentinus, Denis of Paris, William Firmatus,
• Heart disease – John of God
• Haemorrhage, eye complaints – Lucy of Syracuse
• Against hernias – Conrad of Piacenza
• The homeless – Benedict Joseph Labre, Nicholas of Trani, Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur
• Sick horses – Hippolytus of Rome

I

• Patron of immigrants, migrant workers, separated families – Lorenzo Ruiz
• Invoked against infertility – Maturinus
• Female infertility (in Syria) – Abd-al-Masih
• Against infestations of bedbugs, rodents and locusts – Tryphon
• Against insanity, mental disorders – Bibiana, Christina the Astonishing
• Against insomnia and other sleep disorders and difficulties – Peter Damian

K

• Against kidnapping, illness – Arthelais
• Kidney disease, and rheumatism – Ursus of Aosta
• Diseases of the kidneys, invoked against physical defects, back pains, and school-related students' crises – Nonnosus

L

• Leprosy, HIV and AIDS – Damien of Molokai, Evmenios Saridakis
• Against lightning; fear of insects – Gratus of Aosta
• Invoked against lightning – Victor of Marseilles
• Lost causes, desperate situations – Jude Thaddaeus
• Lost causes or impossible cases, marital problems, abuse – Rita of Cascia
• Missing people and lost things – Anthony of Padua

M

• Difficult marriage – Olaf
• Mental illness – Bibiana, Fillan, Hermes, Dymphna
• Migraine – Aspren, Gereon

N

• Invoked as a protector from natural disasters, plague, invasion – Leoluca
• Invoked against stiff neck – Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne
• Neuralgia, sick children, obsessive compulsive disorder – Ubald
• Nyctophobia – Cannera

P

• Chronic pain – Pacificus of San Severino
• Patron saint against pandemics – Edmund the Martyr of East Anglia
• Invoked as protection against perjury, loss at sea and destructive rains – Maximin of Trier
• Against pirate attack – Albinus of Angers
• Plague, epilepsy – Adrian of Nicomedia
• Against plague – Sebastian
• Plague, epilepsy – Natalia of Nicomedia
• Bubonic plague, misfortunes – Agricola of Avignon
• Bubonic plague or the Black Death – Fourteen Holy Helpers
• Invoked against the bubonic plague, smallpox, and gout – Quirinus of Neuss
• Pneumonia - Casimiro Barello Morello
• Poverty – Macrina the Elder
• Against poverty, impoverishment, torture victims – Regina
• Pregnancy – Gerard Majella
• Invoked against procrastination – Expeditus
• The souls in purgatory – John Macias

R

• Rabies – Domninus of Fidenza
• Rabies – Hubert of Liège
• Against rabies – Quiteria –
• Invoked against rabies – Sithney
• Victims of rape – Clementina Nengapeta
• Victims of rape, crime victims, invoked against pedophiles – Maria Goretti
• Rape victims – Potamiana
• Against venomous reptiles – Abhai
• Invoked against snakes, and snake bites; also invoked against demonic possession, mental illness, poison, wild beasts – Amabilis of Riom
• Against snake bites – Peregrine of Auxerre
• Rheumatism – James the Great
• Maurus – rheumatism, gout, epilepsy
• Against rheumatism – Miliau
• People ridiculed for their piety, repentance, temptation – Mary Magdalene
• Politicians, athletes, road safety – Alberto Marvelli

S

• Invoked against sciatica – Dometius of Persia
• Those who suffer scoliosis, against animal attacks – Joseph of Anchieta
• Scrofula – Saint Balbina
• Scrofula, diseases of the skin – Marculf
• Against danger at sea, against temptations, sick people, storms at sea, police officers – Michael the Archangel
• For protection against the dangers of the sea – Wulfram of Sens
• Against sepsis – John Henry Newman
• The sick, asthma sufferers, nurses and carers – Bernadette
• Those who serve the sick – Peter of Saint Joseph de Betancur
• Skin disease, Saint Anthony's fire – Anthony
• Skin diseases, victims of child abuse – Germaine Cousin
• Sleepwalking, epilepsy, insanity, mental illness – Dymphna
• Smallpox – Matthias
• Invoked against stomach pains, especially in children – Rasso
• Invoked against storms, hail storms, lightning – Eurosia
• Stress relief and New year blues – Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
• Invoked against stress – Walter of Pontoise
• Students, youth – John Berchmans
• Sudden death – Andrew Avellino
• Syphilis, eye troubles – Symphorian

T

• Ailments of the throat – Blaise
• Throat trouble – Godelina
• Against thunderstorm, evil spirits, and plague – Deodatus of Nevers
• Toothache – Apollonia
• Invoked against toothache – Engelmund of Velsen
• Toothache – Medard
• Stenographers, printers, lawyers, epileptics, thieves, torture victims – Genesius of Rome
• Travelers facing hardships -- Saint Raphael
• People seeking relief from tribulations, in particular by women who wished to be liberated from abusive husbands – Wilgefortis

V

• Venereal disease sufferers, hemorrhoids – Fiacre

W

• Protector of soldiers against the dangers of war; also invoked for fertility – St. Bessus
• Whooping cough – Winnoc
• Invoked against wolves and fires – Defendens
• Invoked to cure wounds – Marciana of Mauretania
• Curing of wounds – Marciana of Toledo
• To cure open wounds, against eye diseases – Reinildis

See also

• Patron saints of occupations and activities
• Patron saints of places
• Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary

References