Best Catholic novenas for healing
When serious illness, cancer, or a long recovery touches a Catholic household, the Catholic tradition offers three principal novenas: to Saint Peregrine, the patron of cancer; to Our Lady of Lourdes, under whose intercession the Catholic Church has authenticated more miraculous healings than any other Marian title; and to Saint Padre Pio, the great twentieth-century saint of healing and stigmatic.
Each is described below with its specific tradition, when to pray it, and the Catholic theological basis for the particular grace it asks.
If you need to start a novena today: begin with the Saint Peregrine Novena if the intention is cancer, the Lourdes Novena if the intention is general physical healing, or the Padre Pio Novena if the intention is a grave or chronic condition with no clear medical path.
The St Peregrine Novena
For: the intercession of Saint Peregrine Laziosi for healing from cancer and serious illness
Saint Peregrine Laziosi (1260-1345) was healed by a direct miraculous intervention from a malignant tumor on his leg the night before scheduled amputation. He is the universal Catholic patron of those suffering from cancer. The Saint Peregrine Novena is the classical Catholic devotion for anyone with a cancer diagnosis, undergoing chemotherapy, or in remission.
When to pray it: From the day of diagnosis, before surgery or treatment, or on the feast day of Saint Peregrine (May 1).
The Our Lady of Lourdes Novena
For: obtaining the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes for physical and spiritual healing and for the conversion of sinners
Our Lady appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes in 1858 and revealed the healing spring, where the Catholic Church has authenticated 70 miraculous physical healings under the strict canonical investigation of the Lourdes Medical Bureau. This is the Marian novena most associated with the grace of physical and spiritual healing.
When to pray it: On the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (February 11), the World Day of the Sick, or anytime serious illness touches a household.
The Saint Padre Pio Novena
For: obtaining the intercession of Saint Padre Pio for serious personal needs, healing, and the perseverance in faith of family and friends
Saint Padre Pio (1887-1968) bore the stigmata for fifty years and was given the gift of healing through which thousands of attested medical cures occurred during his lifetime. The Padre Pio Novena is prayed for grave and chronic illness, for those facing surgery, and for the discernment of medical decisions in serious cases.
When to pray it: On the feast of Padre Pio (September 23) or before major medical procedures.
The Catholic theology of healing prayer
Catholic doctrine holds that all healing, physical and spiritual, is ultimately the gift of God, communicated through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1503-1505). Praying a healing novena is not an act of magic or formula. It is an act of trust: the Catholic places the sick person, or himself, into the hands of the Lord through the intercession of a particular saint whose own life is marked by the grace of healing.
Three principal forms of healing are sought in Catholic healing novenas:
- Physical healing: the restoration of bodily health. The Catholic Church teaches that miraculous physical healing is real, has occurred throughout the apostolic and post-apostolic tradition, and continues to occur in our own time (most famously at Lourdes, where the Medical Bureau has authenticated 70 cases under strict canonical investigation).
- Spiritual healing: the restoration of the soul to the state of grace, the healing of memories, the breaking of patterns of sin, the gift of inner peace under the weight of chronic illness. This is the more universal form of healing.
- The grace of redemptive suffering: the union of the sufferer's pain with the Cross of Christ, by which suffering itself becomes a means of grace for the sufferer and for souls. This is the form of healing Catholic spiritual writers consider deepest, even when it does not include physical cure.
Any of these is a legitimate answer to a healing novena. The Catholic praying for healing trusts that God hears the prayer and answers it according to His own deeper knowledge of what the soul most needs.
Pairing healing novenas with the sacraments
Catholic healing prayer is most fruitful when accompanied by the sacramental graces of the Church. Where serious illness is present, the Catholic tradition urges the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (formerly called Extreme Unction), administered by a Catholic priest, which confers spiritual strength and, where God wills, physical healing as well (Catechism 1499-1532). The Sacrament of Penance is the proper preparation for serious surgery, just as the Eucharist received as Viaticum is the proper Catholic preparation for death itself.
A healing novena, prayed alongside reception of these sacraments, situates the Catholic patient firmly within the sacramental economy of the Catholic Church and disposes the soul to receive whatever form of grace God wills to give.
Frequently asked questions
Which Catholic novena is best for someone with cancer?
The Saint Peregrine Novena. Saint Peregrine was himself miraculously healed of a cancerous tumor the night before scheduled amputation, and is the universal Catholic patron of cancer patients. The Catholic Church recognizes Peregrine's intercession specifically for malignant disease and difficult medical cases.
Can I pray a healing novena for someone else?
Yes. The Catholic doctrine of intercessory prayer holds that prayers offered for another are received by God for the benefit of that person, even if they themselves are unconscious, non-Catholic, or unaware of the prayer being offered. Name the person at the start of each day and continue for the nine days.
What if the person dies during the novena?
Continue the novena, now praying for the eternal repose of their soul, for the consolation of the family, and for the graces the deceased may need in purgatory. The Catholic tradition holds that prayers offered for one intention can be redirected to a related intention by God in the order of His providence.
Do healing novenas work?
The Catholic Church teaches that God hears every prayer and answers each according to His perfect will. Some healings are physical and immediate; some are spiritual and gradual; some are the grace of patient suffering united to the Cross of Christ. The fruit of a novena is always the work of God, not an automatic outcome guaranteed by the technique of prayer.
Related Catholic devotions for the sick
Beyond these three novenas, the Catholic tradition offers several related devotions for the sick and dying: the Holy Rosary prayed at the bedside, the Divine Mercy Chaplet (a three-o'clock devotion of Saint Faustina), and the Anima Christi, the great prayer of Catholic confidence in the wounds of Christ. The Divine Mercy Novena is often prayed alongside the healing novenas above, particularly for the grace of a good death.