Fourteen Holy Helpers
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.