The St. Andrew Christmas Novena: The Prayer, Its History and How to Pray It

Of all the Advent devotions, few are as simple or as loved as the St. Andrew Christmas Novena. It is one short prayer, repeated fifteen times a day, from the Feast of St. Andrew on November 30 until Christmas Eve. Families pray it at the kitchen table, parents pray it on the school run, and many people keep a little card in their pocket so they never lose count.

The prayer

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

After the prayer, you quietly bring your intention before God. Many people keep the same intention for the whole of Advent.

Why is it called a novena?

A novena is usually nine days of prayer, and this devotion lasts almost four weeks. The name stuck because it is a time of focused prayer leading up to a feast, just like a traditional novena. It is also known as the Christmas Anticipation Prayer.

Where does it come from?

The prayer is traditionally linked to Ireland, where it has been prayed in homes for generations. It begins on the feast of St. Andrew, the apostle who brought his brother Peter to Jesus, and so it marks the very start of the Advent season. A printed version from New York in the late nineteenth century carried an imprimatur, and since then it has spread through Catholic families all over the world.

The words themselves are a meditation. Each time you pray them, you go back in your mind to that hour in Bethlehem: the cold night, the young mother, the newborn King. Fifteen times a day, Advent becomes a slow walk toward the manger.

How to pray it

• When: every day from November 30 until December 24.
• How often: fifteen times a day. You do not have to pray them all at once. Many people pray five in the morning, five at noon and five in the evening.
• Keeping count: use a decade of your rosary, your fingers, or fifteen small beads in a dish on the table.
• Missed a day? Simply continue. This is a devotion of love, not a test. Some people make up the missed prayers the next day, and that is fine too.

Praying it as a family

Children often love this prayer because it is short and paints a picture they can imagine. A few ideas:

• Let each child pray one of the fifteen out loud after dinner, and finish the rest together.
• Write the family's intentions on small slips of paper and keep them in a bowl in your prayer corner until Christmas Eve.
• Light the Advent wreath while you pray, so the prayer grows brighter week by week. Our guide to Advent prayers for Catholic families has more ideas for each week.

Download the prayer card for free

We made a printable St. Andrew Novena card, together with a prayer card for each week of Advent, so the words are always close at hand. You can download the free Advent printable here, print it at home and keep it on the fridge, in your missal or by your bed.

A card for the midnight hour

The novena brings us back again and again to that one hour at midnight in Bethlehem. Our Virgin of the Midnight Star prayer card captures that moment: Our Lady beneath the Star of Bethlehem, with a Christmas prayer on the back. Find more designs for the season in our Christmas & Advent collection.