The St. Andrew Christmas Novena Prayer

The St. Andrew Christmas Novena is a beloved Advent prayer tradition that begins on November 30, the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, and continues through Christmas. Each day, the faithful pray a single short prayer fifteen times, meditating on the moment of Christ's birth and asking God for a special intention.

It is one of the most treasured devotions of the Advent season: a quiet, steady practice that draws the heart toward Bethlehem a little more each day as Christmas approaches.

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 the 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.

This single prayer is the entire novena. It is prayed fifteen times each day, from the Feast of St. Andrew until Christmas.

The novena begins each year on November 30, the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle. In 2026, that falls on Monday, November 30, the day after the First Sunday of Advent.

It is prayed daily through Christmas Eve, December 24, a span of twenty-five days. Many people also pray it a final time on Christmas Day itself, as a prayer of thanksgiving at the arrival of the feast the whole novena has anticipated.

If you'd like the novena on your calendar ahead of time, mark November 30 now. The season has a way of arriving quickly.

This devotion is both beautiful and simple:

1. Choose an intention. Traditionally, the novena is prayed for one special intention, a particular grace or need you carry through the whole season.
2. Pray the prayer fifteen times each day. You may pray all fifteen at once, as a single period of meditative prayer, or spread them throughout the day, five in the morning, five at midday, five in the evening.
3. Continue daily through Christmas Eve. Let the prayer stay with you through the whole of Advent.

There is no required posture, place, or time. Some families pray it together around the Advent wreath; others keep it as a personal devotion during a morning or evening quiet moment.

If you miss a day, simply pick the prayer up again the next. The novena is a gift of the season, not an obligation. God receives every prayer you offer with love.

The repetition is the heart of the devotion. Like the Hail Marys of the Rosary, praying the same short prayer multiple times slows us down. Over time, the words become a scene we enter: the hour, the midnight, the cold, the newborn Christ. By Christmas, the one who has prayed this novena faithfully has returned to Bethlehem in the heart 375 times, and arrives at the manger already at home there.

The number also makes the prayer portable. Fifteen repetitions take only a few minutes, and they can sanctify the small in-between moments of an ordinary December day: the commute, the school pickup line, the minutes before sleep.

Though it is called a novena, the St. Andrew Christmas Novena is not nine days long. It takes its name from its starting date on St. Andrew's feast rather than from the traditional nine-day structure. It is also distinct from novenas prayed in honor of St. Andrew in the days leading up to his feast; this devotion begins on his feast and looks ahead to Christmas. According to tradition, the prayer received an imprimatur in New York in the late 1800s, and it has been handed down for generations.

And though the prayer is not addressed to St. Andrew, beginning on his feast is fitting: Andrew was the first-called of the apostles, the one who heard the invitation of Christ and followed immediately. The novena begins Advent the same way, with a prompt, wholehearted turning toward the Lord who is coming.