Auxiliary Saints 1.3.2004

Devotion to the fourteen "Auxiliary Saints" began in Rhineland, now part of Germany, at the time of the Black Death.

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.