If you found this page because a doctor said the word cirrhosis, or because someone you love is lying in a hospital bed with a swollen belly and a bad lab report, you are in very old company.
People have been searching for a patron saint of liver disease prayer for a long time. The Catholic Church has a name ready for you, and it is not a famous one.
His name is Erasmus. He has been quietly carrying this exact kind of request for seventeen centuries.
Below you will find who he was, why people ask for his help with the liver and the gut, and a complete nine-day novena you can start tonight.
Who Is St. Erasmus, the Patron Saint of Liver Disease?
Erasmus was the bishop of Formia, a coastal town sitting between Rome and Naples, and he died around the year 303. He was martyred during the persecution of Christians ordered by Emperor Diocletian.
Almost everything else about him reaches us through legend rather than record. One tradition says he hid on Mount Lebanon during the persecution and was fed by a raven.
Sailors later read the blue electrical glow on their masts as a sign of his protection. That is where the phrase St. Elmo’s fire comes from, since Erasmus and Elmo are the same man.
Tradition also holds that the holy martyr Erasmus was killed by disembowelment. That grim detail is why he became the saint of the stomach, the intestines, and the liver.
The Church remembers his great virtues and his unwavering faith far more than the manner of his death. He is usually pictured as a bishop in full vestments, calm, holding a windlass.
St. Erasmus and the Fourteen Holy Helpers
Erasmus is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints venerated together because their powerful intercession was believed to work especially well against disease. Communities turned to them during the bubonic plague, during famine, and during natural disasters.
Each of the fourteen carries a specialty. Erasmus carries the abdomen.
He was regarded as a powerful intercessor across Europe long before anyone could name a liver enzyme or read a scan.
The Feast Day of St. Erasmus
His feast day is June 2. A novena is often prayed on the nine days leading up to it, running May 24 through June 1.
You do not have to wait for the calendar. Illness does not check the calendar either.
Why People Ask for the Intercession of This Powerful Helper
Liver disease is quiet until suddenly it is not. Fatigue, swelling, stomach pain that will not resolve, then a column of numbers that changes everything about your week.
That kind of illness leaves a person with almost nothing to do but wait. Prayer gives you something to do with your hands and your fear while you wait.
The invocation of St. Erasmus is not a transaction. It is a way of saying that you are not alone in the room, and that someone who suffered in the body understands.
He is also asked for help with chronic pain, with colic in children, and with women in labor. The thread running through all of it is the abdomen and the entire body’s quiet, unglamorous suffering.
When Liver Diseases and Recovery Overlap
For a lot of people reading this, none of it is abstract. Alcohol-related liver disease is among the most common liver diseases in the United States, and for some people the diagnosis arrives before sobriety does.
If that is your story, hear this plainly. A damaged liver is not a verdict on your worth as a person.
The liver is also one of the few organs capable of genuine repair once the drinking stops. Many people have gotten frightening numbers, put down the drink, and watched those numbers move back toward good health.
How to Begin: A Preparatory Prayer
A novena is nine days of prayer, one day at a time. That structure does its own quiet work, because nine days is short enough to actually finish and long enough to soften something in you.
Begin each day in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Then offer this preparatory prayer:
O Lord, I come to you with whatever faith I have today, which is not much. Receive these nine days, poor as they are, for the salvation of my soul and for the greater glory of your holy name. Amen.
Close each day with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be. Older novena books often add a petition for the great grace of purity of heart alongside the request for bodily healing.
Novena to St. Erasmus: Nine Days of Asking for Miraculous Healing
Pray one section each day for nine days. Say the words out loud if you are able, and write your specific request somewhere you will see it.
Day One: Trust
Eternal God, you knew my name before I did. I bring you a body that is failing and a heart that is frightened. Holy martyr Erasmus, who held a strong faith under torture, ask that I be given enough trust for today only. Amen.
Day Two: The Healing Hand
Dear Lord, you have never once withdrawn your healing hand from a person who asked for it. Lay it now on my liver, my blood, my entire body. St. Erasmus, patron saint of those who suffer in the gut, join your voice to mine. Amen.
Day Three: Fear
Merciful Lord, fear has worked its way into the deepest recesses of my heart and I cannot get it out alone. Lighten the darkness of my intellect so I can see this illness plainly, without panic and without pretending. St. Erasmus, pray that I am not ruled by what I cannot control. Amen.
Day Four: The Body as a Temple
Lord Jesus, my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit even now, even damaged, even after everything. Let the fire of your healing love pass through the damaged areas and make them new. St. Erasmus, who knows abdominal pain from the inside, carry this request for me. Amen.
Day Five: Surrender
Divine Majesty, I would rather be well than be wise, and you already know it. Teach me the will of God for me today, whatever the next scan shows. St. Erasmus, ask on my behalf for the gifts of wisdom I have never had. Amen.
Day Six: The Cross
Heavenly Father, by the bitter passion and death of Jesus Christ, and by the most precious blood of your Son, look with pity on the infirmities of my soul and of my body. St. Erasmus, who wore his suffering into a crown of glory, walk beside me. Amen.
Day Seven: For Others
O Lord, there are people sicker than I am in this same building tonight. Let your divine love reach every one of them, and let the sufferings of this life be wasted on none of us. St. Erasmus, pray for everybody waiting on results. Amen.
Day Eight: Gratitude
Lord, thank you for the day I was given today. Thank you for the people who showed up and for the ones who kept calling. St. Erasmus, ask that I keep a lively faith when the fear comes back, because it will come back. Amen.
Day Nine: The Ask
Almighty God, through the merits of the saint I have prayed beside for nine days, I ask plainly for physical healing and for good health. If it pleases you, grant it. If it does not, grant me the grace to live well anyway. St. Erasmus, pray for us, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.
Closing Prayer for Each Day
Glorious St. Erasmus, I do not presume upon miraculous healing. I do know that the power of Jesus is no smaller today than it was on the roads of Galilee. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, ask that God’s power be shown in me, and that thy grace hold me steady through the sufferings of life. Amen.
More Catholic Prayers for Physical Healing and Chronic Pain
Many people pair the novena with shorter prayers they can say anywhere, including a waiting room or a parking lot.
A Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Sacred Heart of Jesus, make my heart a privileged sanctuary of God’s love, even while my body is at war with itself. Amen.
Turning to the Blessed Mother
The Memorare is one of the oldest Catholic prayers of appeal to the Blessed Mother, and it is short enough to say under your breath. Catholics know her under many titles: Mother of God, Mother of Sorrows, refuge of sinners.
Our Lady of Lourdes belongs in this conversation too. In 1858, a young girl named St. Bernadette Soubirous reported visions at the grotto of Lourdes, and people with serious illness have traveled to that spring ever since.
Other Patron Saints for Serious Illness and Mental Health
You are not limited to one saint, and asking several is not disloyalty to any of them.
St. Peregrine. Patron of people with cancer. Tradition says a tumor on his leg was scheduled for amputation and was gone the next morning.
St. Rita. Patron of impossible causes, which is a category most families arrive at eventually.
St. Camillus. Patron of the sick, of hospitals, and of nurses. He gambled away nearly everything he owned before he entered religious life and spent the rest of it at bedsides.
St. Raphael the Archangel. His name is often rendered as medicine of God, and in Scripture he travels with young Tobias and restores his father’s sight.
St. Dymphna. Invoked for mental illness, anxiety, and the mental health strain that so often rides alongside a physical diagnosis.
St. Michael the Archangel. Called the great prince of the heavenly court and asked for protection when the nights are long.
St. Therese of Lisieux. A Doctor of the Church who taught that small, ordinary faithfulness counts.
People say these names over a heart attack, over blocked arteries, over a failing liver, over anything at all. No illness is too specific, and none is too ordinary.
Praying for Someone You Love
If the sick person is not you, this novena still belongs to you. Families carry a particular weight, especially when the illness is connected to drinking and the feelings are complicated.
You can pray the nine days on their behalf without telling them. You can also tell them, which is sometimes the more courageous option.
One honest note for family members. Praying for someone’s liver is not the same as being responsible for their sobriety, and you are allowed to want them well without carrying the whole thing yourself.
Faith, Medical Care, and Recovery
Prayer belongs alongside treatment, not instead of it. Keep the appointments, take the medication, get the bloodwork drawn, and go to the specialist.
If alcohol is part of the picture, medical detox is a serious matter and should never be attempted alone. Talk to a doctor first, and consider a meeting, a sponsor, or a treatment program as part of the same plan.
The people at your first AA meeting will not be shocked by your lab results. Many of them have their own.
Keep Praying, One Day at a Time
Nine days will not fix a liver. What nine days can do is change the person waiting on the results, and that is not nothing.
Pray it once. Pray it again if you need to. St. Erasmus, patron saint of the suffering gut, pray for us.
This article is for information and spiritual encouragement only and is not medical advice. If you are experiencing symptoms of liver disease, or you are struggling with alcohol or other drugs, please contact a qualified medical professional. The SAMHSA National Helpline is available free and confidential at 1-800-662-4357, 24 hours a day.
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