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Summary
- Ten short prayers cover another person’s recovery (full, quick, after an operation, after an injury, for the medical team) and the sick person’s own prayers (slow progress, a setback, strength, a calm mind).
- Traditional prayers are quoted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“A Prayer for Recovery,” p. 315; “For the Recovery of a Sick Person,” p. 597) and from the Orthodox service of Holy Unction in Hapgood’s 1906 translation.
- Thanksgivings for a recovery come from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (pp. 315–316) and the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers (pp. 470–471).
- Orthodox Christians often ask St. Panteleimon, a physician martyred about 305, to pray for the sick; he is named in the Holy Unction prayer.
- Scripture records quick healings (Mark 1:31; John 4:46–53) and Hezekiah’s recovery through prayer and a poultice of figs (2 Kings 20:5–7).
- Prayer goes alongside medical care and never replaces it.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (2 Kings 20:5, 7; Psalm 30:2; 31:15; 41:3; 103:2; 118:17; 147:3; Isaiah 38:1–3; 40:29; 41:10; Jeremiah 30:17; Mark 1:31; John 4:46–53; 3 John 2). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Visitation of the Sick, “A Prayer for Recovery,” p. 315, and “A Thanksgiving for the Beginning of a Recovery,” pp. 315–316; Family Prayer, “For the Recovery of a Sick Person,” p. 597. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Office of Holy Unction, pp. 340–341 and 346. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. “Prayer in the Beginning of Sickness,” pp. 459–460; “Thanksgiving for Recovery,” pp. 470–471. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Löffler, Klemens. “St. Pantaleon.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11447a.htm
- Orthodox Church in America. “Greatmartyr and Healer Panteleimon.” Lives of the Saints, commemorated July 27. https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2026/07/27/102111-greatmartyr-and-healer-panteleimon
