Fourteen Holy Helpers

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The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints venerated together in Roman Catholicism because their intercession is believed to be particularly effective, especially against various diseases. This group of Nothelfer ("helpers in need") originated in the 14th century at first in the Rhineland, largely as a result of the epidemic (probably of bubonic plague) that became known as the Black Death.

At the heart of the fourteen were three virgin martyrs:

Saint Margaret with the dragon Saint Barbara with the tower Saint Catherine with the wheel those are the three holy maids.

Protection from the Plague

Help with headaches

Help with Ills of the Throat

Help with Abdominal Maladies

Fever

  • Saint Barbara

Epilepsy

Patron of Physicians

Temptation on the Deathbed

Sudden and Unprovided-for Death

  • Saint Christopher
  • Saint Barbara
  • Saint Catherine

Good Confession

Healer of Family troubles

Protection for Domestic Animals

  • Saint George
  • Saint Elmo
  • Saint Pantaleon
  • Saint Vitus

Safe Childbirth

  • Saint Margaret

For one or another of the saints in the original set, Anthony the Anchorite, Leonard of Noblac, Saint Nicholas, Saint Sebastian, Oswald the King, Pope Sixtus II, Saint Apollonia, Dorothea of Caesarea, Wolfgang of Regensburg or Saint Roch were sometimes substituted. In France an extra "helper" is added, the Virgin Mary.