Prayer for Someone in the Hospital
For the one in the bed, and for you in the chair beside it — this is the very hour Saint Expedite was made for.
Pray by name, right now — from the waiting room or the bedside chair. Saint Expedite does not delay: ask him to guard your loved one, guide the hands caring for them, and speed the good news.
A Prayer for the One You Love
Say their name where the prayer leaves room for it — he knows it, but it will do your heart good to speak it:
Prayer to Saint Expedite for Someone in the Hospital
Saint Expedite, swift soldier of God, I bring you the one I love, who lies in a hospital bed tonight. You know their name — (say their name) — and you know I cannot mend this with my own hands. So I place them in yours.
Hurry to their bedside. Stand guard over them through the night watches. Guide the doctors and nurses who care for them; let the right hands be there at the right moment. Speed the diagnosis, speed the healing, and shorten these long hours of waiting. Give the one I love strength for the fight — and give me strength to keep watch beside them without losing hope.
Saint Expedite, you do not delay. Come quickly, and bring good news with you. Hodie — today, not tomorrow. Amen.
Then Pray the Classic Prayer
Prayer to Saint Expedite for Urgent Help
Saint Expedite, you lay in rest.
I come to you and ask that this wish be granted.
(Here, clearly express what you want, and ask him to find a way to get it to you.)
Expedite now what I ask of you.
Expedite now what I want of you, this very second.
Don’t waste another day.
Grant me what I ask for.
I know your power, I know you because of your work.
I know you can help me.
Do this for me and I will spread your name with love and honor
so that it will be invoked again and again.
Expedite this wish with speed, love, honor, and goodness.
Glory to you, Saint Expedite!
Light a Candle for Them
Light a free virtual candle for your loved one in the shrine’s chapel, and let it burn while you keep watch — a small, steady flame that says this intention is being prayed for tonight, and every night until the good news comes.
You can also place their name on the shrine’s petition wall, where others will take up the prayer with you — no one should have to carry a night like this alone.
For the other hard hours of an illness, there is a prayer before surgery and a nine-day novena for the sick — and the shrine’s general prayer for healing. More prayers are on the prayers page.