Which saint would help with a loss of a sense of smell? Or, brain injury?

St. Cornelius

http://www.catholicherald.com/stories/A-patron-saint-for-hearing-ailments,11026?sub_id=11026

@bkcunningham Thanks, but I need a saint for sense of smell. I tried to google, maybe one does not exist. It doesn’t have to be Catholic if there are other saints? The girl I know is Russian Orthodox.

Or, brain injury.

I understand that this doesn’t answer your question, but I think it’s helpful. I’d pray to God if I had any issues with brain injury or hearing loss. I’d also pray to God directly if I had heard about anyone with those issues. I am willing to pray for the person you know with those issues as God is a loving God and He does answer our prayers. Jus’ sayin’ :).

I’m so sorry, @JLeslie. I read your question and it didn’t hit my brain correctly. It is getting late for me. I was going to jokingly say, Saint Bernard. Get it? St. Bernard’s smell for rescue. Oh, never mind. It wasn’t funny anyway.

St. John Licci is the patron saint for head injury.

All kidding aside, I sincerely hope you are okay.

@bkcunningham No problem. :). It’s not me, it is my girlfriend who was in the accident with me. She suffered a subdural hemotoma and concusion, and now she can’t smell, and barely can taste anything. She is religious and superstitious, and today I had lunch with her and she mentioned feeling like she needed to go to church, and I told her maybe there is a saint she can pray to. I think it would make her feel better.

That must be horrible. I hope she gets better soon.

Speaking of brain injuries… I could have sworn I posted a comment on this question… I hope I didn’t post my comment on another, the wrong, question, but this is my answer:

You might also try Saint Aurelius

And The Blessed John Licci

They are the patron saints of head injuries.

I must confess, looked them up here

I have a few of my favorites, but I didn’t know this one off the top of my head. Maybe if I were actually Catholic, I might have. But still, my favorite saints are my favorite saints.

@lillycoyote Thank you very much! I am going to send her the information. She is Russian, she said she goes to the Orthodox church. I hope the saints are the same. It might not matter anyway. I think she will like any help she can get. The idea of it.

This is not a Q explaining why people are or are not religious, nor opinions on whether saints or certain beliefs are good or bad, please refrain from those opinions.

@prasad The saints that are thought to have helped with healing in life often are thought to be able to work miracles if prayed to. Think of the saints as God’s helpers. I think of it like this, God has a lot of things he is busy with, like a CEO of a corporation. If a Vice President can handle an issue, that leaves God freed up to take care of bigger more complicated things. The saints are like the Vice Presidents, capable and lighten the load on the CEO. Division of labor sort of. And they have their specialties so they can be very focused.

@prasad I don’t know how it works. I just know it does sometimes, and I don’t even believe in these things. I’m not only not Catholic but not even a Christian. I just know that when I have lost something and I say my little prayer to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things:

St. Anthony, St. Anthony
Please come around
Something is lost
And must be found

He comes through for me about 97% of the time, sometimes in some rather odd and miraculous ways.

Though I will admit, other saints have not been so obliging over the years. St. Anthony must just have a soft spot for me. :-)

I know any number of people will be more than willing and able to post a Wikipedia, etc. link that describes whatever cognitive bias it is that I am suffering from that makes me think my little prayer to St. Anthony actually works… but they have not been there all those times, so ‘eff ‘em. That’s what I say.

@bkcunningham I know, I am very upset about it for her. I told her I believe she will heal, she just needs to be patient. I hope it is just from swelling, and in time she will be back to perfect.

@JLeslie Healing is always about not just the body, but the mind and the spirit. If this helps her. and you can help her by getting the information to her, more power to you and to her. If it matters to her, then it may help her. Whether it is real or not is a separate issue. If it helps her, that’s all that matters, I think.

Though I certainly have seen this kind of thing go bad. For the survivors at least. My uncle died of esophageal cancer at 54. He and his wife were pretty devout Methodists and after his death my mother, my uncle who died, was my mom’s baby brother, told me that his wife, my aunt, felt that maybe she just didn’t pray hard enough, that’s why he died. It just broke my heart and made me so angry. What a terrible, terrible burden her religion, her beliefs, had put on her, I thought! That she could possibly think that her beloved husband might have died because her prayers just weren’t good enough for her God!

@lillycoyote That is sad. I hate when religion makes people feel like crap. It is very hard to sit by and watch loved ones suffer or die. We want to do something, and some people argue that is part of the reason we have prayer, to help people feel like they are doing something. The doctors give medicine, the spouse might sit vigil and pray.

My girlfriend and her mom feel like the doctors should be giving her some sort of treatment, so maybe at least praying will feel like she is actively doing something instead of just waiting to heal.

I, on the other hand, feel like every time I sleep I am healing. Years ago I had a back injury, and what finally made me better was I lived with my MIL for three months and she did everything. My laundry, cooking, cleaning. Everything.

@prasad IIRC the idea behind saints in Catholicism is that you can enlist them to bring your prayers to God’s attention. The reasoning goes that they were such stunning Catholics in life that they must now have a lot of pull on the other side.

The Saint is Sant’Anselm of Canterbury

I found this thread in a search for a saint to accompany me in one of the symptoms of COVID-19. Researchers are finding that this symptom (anosmia) can turn into a permanent disability.

I found Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porro, who gradually lost most of her primary senses through her lifetime. I hope the OP is still checking back and becomes acquainted with this saint. “link”: https://catholicsaints.info/blessed-benedetta-bianchi-porro/

There were a couple attempts to explain the fundamentals of Catholic thought on the communion of saints and intercession. While I applaud the effort, I must say they tend to make the faith a little ridiculous. God is not a super-delegating CEO, and God is aware of the deepest movements of our hearts (not up there distracted and unable to hear us until the right heavenly inhabitant gets his attention.) The communion of saints is a deep metaphysical reality called the body of Christ. In the style of St. Paul, I would ask, Who can say to the hand “Do not talk to the arm?” The reality of intercession (the Saints in heaven for us or the Saints on earth for one another) is the result of God’s superabundant power: he loves us so much that he gives us his power to communicate his grace and blessings to one another, and to speak to one another with love across time and space. See, Catholics pray to the saints because we believe in God’s love and power, not because we don’t.

Peace be with you all.