Patron Saint of Nurses: St. Camillus and a Nurse's Prayer

The patron saints of nurses are St. Camillus de Lellis (1550–1614) and St. John of God (1495–1550), two men who turned from wild early lives to found religious orders devoted to caring for the sick, and whom the Church named patrons of nurses and hospitals. Many nurses also turn to St. Agatha, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Elizabeth of Hungary and St. Marianne Cope. Below are their stories, the traditional prayer to St. Camillus for the sick, a nurse’s prayer, and prayers for nurses and nursing students.

A short nurse’s prayer, written for this page:

Lord Jesus, Divine Healer, let me see you in every patient I care for today.
Give me skill, patience and a gentle heart,
and when I am tired, be my strength.
St. Camillus and St. John of God, pray for me. Amen.

St. Camillus de Lellis

Camillus was born in 1550 in the Abruzzo region of Italy, a giant of a man who became a soldier and a compulsive gambler. Penniless, he took work at a Capuchin friary, where a sermon moved him to conversion in 1575. A painful wound in his leg that never healed brought him to the hospital of St. James in Rome, first as a patient and then as a servant of the sick. Shocked by the neglect he saw, he gathered men who would care for patients “with the tenderness of a mother for her only sick child,” and founded the Ministers of the Sick, the Camillians, who wore a large red cross on their habits, long before the Red Cross existed. They nursed plague victims, cared for wounded soldiers on the battlefield and ministered to the dying. Camillus died in Rome on July 14, 1614, and was canonized in 1746.

In 1886 Pope Leo XIII named St. Camillus and St. John of God patrons of the sick and of hospitals, and in 1930 Pope Pius XI named them patrons of nurses and nursing associations. His feast is July 14 (July 18 in the United States).

The prayer to St. Camillus from The Raccolta (1910), approved by Pope Leo XIII:

Glorious St. Camillus, special protector of poor sick people, who for forty years, with a charity truly heroic, didst devote thyself to alleviating their spiritual and corporal miseries; be pleased to succour them still more generously, now that thou art happy in Heaven and that they have been confided by the Church to thy powerful protection. Obtain for them from God either that they may be healed of the evils from which they are suffering, or that by patience and Christian resignation they may be sanctified and strengthened in the hour of their death; and obtain also for us the grace to live and die, after thy example, in the practice of divine love. Amen.

And the collect for his feast in the 1916 daily missal, which recalls his care for the dying:

O God, who didst adorn the holy Camillus with a singular quality of charity for helping souls struggling in the last agony: through his merits, we beseech thee, infuse into us the spirit of thy love, that in our last hour we may deserve to overcome the enemy and attain the heavenly crown. Through Jesus Christ, thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God world without end. Amen.

St. John of God

John Cidade was a Portuguese shepherd, soldier and bookseller whose conversion in Granada was so dramatic that he was locked in an asylum as a madman. Seeing how the mentally ill were treated, he dedicated the rest of his life to the sick poor, opening a hospital in Granada where he carried patients in on his own back. His companions became the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, who still run hospitals around the world. He died in 1550 and his feast is March 8. See the St. John of God prayer.

Other patron saints of nurses

St. Agatha (February 5), a virgin martyr of Sicily, traditionally patron of nurses and of women with breast cancer. See the St. Agatha prayer.
St. Catherine of Siena (April 29), who nursed the sick and plague victims of her city with fearless love. See the St. Catherine of Siena prayer.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary (November 17), the young queen who built a hospital and cared for its patients herself. See St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
St. Marianne Cope (January 23 in the USA), a Franciscan sister who helped found some of the first hospitals in New York and spent thirty years caring for people with leprosy on Molokai.
St. Luke (October 18), “the beloved physician,” patron of doctors and all who heal. See the St. Luke prayer.

Prayers for nurses

Written for this page.

A nurse’s prayer before a shift

Lord, as I begin this shift, I offer you my hands, my mind and my heart.
Help me to be alert and careful, to notice what others miss,
to treat each patient with dignity, and to comfort the frightened and the dying.
Keep my coworkers and me safe, and give me the grace to leave each patient in your hands. Amen.

A prayer for nurses

God of mercy, bless the nurses who care for the sick day and night.
Give them strength when they are exhausted, patience when they are pressed,
and the joy of knowing that what they do for the least, they do for you. Amen.

For nursing students

Lord Jesus, bless my studies and my clinical hours.
Help me to learn well, to stay calm under pressure,
and to grow into a nurse who heals with both skill and love. Amen.

For a nurse who is burned out

Lord, I have given so much that I feel empty.
Restore my strength, heal the sorrow I carry from the patients I have lost,
and give me rest, good friends and renewed hope. Amen.

Scripture for nurses

Christ’s words about the sick (Matthew 25:35–36):

For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:
Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.

And the Good Samaritan, who “took care of him” (Luke 10:33–35):

But a certain Samaritan being on his journey, came near him; and seeing him, was moved with compassion.
And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine: and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
And the next day he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him; and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay thee.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the patron saint of nurses?

St. Camillus de Lellis and St. John of God, named patrons of nurses by Pope Pius XI in 1930. St. Agatha is also traditionally invoked.

Is there a male patron saint of nurses?

Yes: both official patrons, St. Camillus de Lellis and St. John of God, were men who founded orders of brothers to nurse the sick.

Who is the patron saint of doctors?

St. Luke the Evangelist and the twin physicians Sts. Cosmas and Damian.

More prayers

Texts and sources

The Raccolta (London: Burns and Oates, 1910), no. 348, public domain (archive.org).
The Mass Every Day of the Year (1916), St. Camillus of Lellis, Collect.
Matthew 25:35–36 and Luke 10:33–35 (Douay-Rheims).
Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Camillus de Lellis,” public domain (Wikisource).