The St. Andrew Christmas Novena
"Hail and blessed be the hour and moment…" One short prayer, fifteen times a day, from the feast of Saint Andrew to Christmas Eve.
The prayer
- The custom
- Pray it fifteen times a day, every day, from 30 November — the feast of Saint Andrew — through Christmas Eve, 24 December. That is how Ascension and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles print it; the St Paul Center says “until Christmas.”
- In 2026
- Monday, 30 November 2026 to Thursday, 24 December 2026 — twenty-five days.
- Time it takes
- The prayer is about sixty words. Fifteen repetitions, unhurried, run about six minutes.
- What it is not
- Not nine days, so not a novena in the strict sense. Not a liturgical obligation. No guarantee attached — see below.
Wordings vary slightly between Catholic publishers. The text above is the one printed by the St Paul Center. EWTN prints this version:
Either is fine. Pick one and stay with it, so the words go into your family by Christmas.
The custom, stated plainly
Fifteen times a day, from 30 November to 24 December. That is the whole instruction, and Ascension, the St Paul Center and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles all print the same fifteen-a-day custom beginning on the feast of Saint Andrew. Ascension puts it as praying the prayer “FIFTEEN times each day from the feast of St. Andrew (November 30th) until Christmas Eve.” The Archdiocese of Los Angeles prints it as “traditionally prayed fifteen times each day, beginning on the feast of St. Andrew (November 30) and concluding on Christmas Eve.” The St Paul Center and the Dominican nuns of Summit say “until Christmas” instead. Either way the last day of praying is the day before the feast, so the calendar below ends on 24 December.
There is no formula to learn, no set of daily meditations to keep up with, no book to buy. One prayer. A tally you keep in your head or on your hand. It is about as simple as an Advent devotion gets, which is exactly why it survives in households that cannot manage anything longer.
Is it actually a novena?
No — not in the strict sense, and it is worth being straight about that. A novena is nine days of prayer for one intention. This devotion runs twenty-five days: 30 November plus the twenty-four days of December up to Christmas Eve. It carries the name by custom, not by arithmetic. The St Paul Center calls it the Christmas Anticipation Novena, and that first half describes it better: you are counting down to the hour the prayer names.
If you want the shape and the purpose of a real novena — and the Church’s own nine days, from the Ascension to Pentecost — start with what a novena is.
About the promise you will see
Some pages that print this devotion add a line — Ascension prefaces it “It is piously believed that,” and a Chesterton Academy page “Tradition holds that” — saying whoever prays it fifteen times a day until Christmas Eve will obtain the favor requested. Others — the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the St Paul Center among them — print the same custom with no promise attached at all.
We are not going to repeat the promise. Look at what the prayer actually says: vouchsafe, I beseech Thee … to hear my prayer and grant my desires. It asks. Asking a good Father for something is what the Our Father has us do every day — give us this day our daily bread — so ask, and ask with confidence. But a count of fifteen is not a lever that moves God, and a devotion is not a transaction. Pray it because Advent is short and your household needs the habit. If the thing you asked for comes, thank Him. If it does not, you have still spent twenty-five days naming the hour God became a child in the cold, which is not a small thing to have done with December.
Where it came from — honestly, no one we checked knows
You will find the claim that this prayer came out of nineteenth-century Ireland, or that it was written by a particular priest, or that it appeared first in one prayer book. None of the pages we opened gives a source for any of that. We opened EWTN, Ascension, the St Paul Center, Hallow, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Archdiocese of Brisbane, the Dominican nuns of Summit, a Chesterton Academy page and Aleteia: none of them names an author, a date, or a printing. The closest any of them comes is Aleteia quoting the Catholic Company: “While the origins of this prayer are unknown, it is over 100 years old (at least) and may have come from Ireland.” Note the words: unknown and may.
So we will say only what we can stand behind. The prayer is old enough and widespread enough that Catholic publishers, an archdiocese and a Catholic school print it without hesitation; where it began is not documented in anything we could open. Treat every origin story you read about it — including the Irish one — as an unverified tradition until someone produces the printing. A devotion does not need a pedigree to be good, and inventing one for it does no honour to Saint Andrew.
Free · St. Andrew Novena Reminders
Twenty-five days is easy to start and easy to drop. Add one daily reminder, Nov 30 to Christmas Eve, to your phone’s calendar in one tap, with the prayer in each reminder. Enter your email and we’ll open the calendar; you’ll also get the Sunday Sanctum Dispatch. Unsubscribe any time.
The 2026 calendar, day by day
Twenty-five days, Monday 30 November to Thursday 24 December 2026. Each line gives the day the Church keeps, as the bishops’ liturgical calendar for the dioceses of the United States lists it, and that day’s Gospel at Mass. The fifteen boxes are in three fives, to match the plan below: morning, midday, night. Print it, put it on the fridge, tick as you go.
Two things the calendar shows. Advent 2026 begins on Sunday 29 November, so the devotion starts on the Monday of the first week. And the Gospel at Mass on Day 1 is Matthew 4:18–22: the call of Andrew and his brother at the Sea of Galilee, the same passage quoted further down this page.
| Day | Date | The Church’s day | Tally: Fifteen |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mon 30 Nov | Saint Andrew, Apostle · FeastGospel: Mt 4:18–22 | |
| 2 | Tue 1 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Lk 10:21–24 | |
| 3 | Wed 2 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 15:29–37 | |
| 4 | Thu 3 Dec | Saint Francis Xavier, Priest · MemorialGospel: Mt 7:21, 24–27 | |
| 5 | Fri 4 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 9:27–31 | |
| 6 | Sat 5 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6–8 | |
| 7 | Sun 6 Dec | Second Sunday of AdventGospel: Mk 1:1–8 | |
| 8 | Mon 7 Dec | Saint Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church · MemorialGospel: Lk 5:17–26 | |
| 9 | Tue 8 Dec | The Immaculate Conception · Solemnity, patronal feast of the United States, holy day of obligationGospel: Lk 1:26–38 | |
| 10 | Wed 9 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 11:28–30 | |
| 11 | Thu 10 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 11:11–15 | |
| 12 | Fri 11 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 11:16–19 | |
| 13 | Sat 12 Dec | Our Lady of Guadalupe · Feast (USA)Gospel: Lk 1:26–38 or Lk 1:39–47 | |
| 14 | Sun 13 Dec | Third Sunday of Advent · violet or roseGospel: Jn 1:6–8, 19–28 | |
| 15 | Mon 14 Dec | Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church · MemorialGospel: Mt 21:23–27 | |
| 16 | Tue 15 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 21:28–32 | |
| 17 | Wed 16 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Lk 7:18b–23 | |
| 18 | Thu 17 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 1:1–17 | |
| 19 | Fri 18 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Mt 1:18–25 | |
| 20 | Sat 19 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Lk 1:5–25 | |
| 21 | Sun 20 Dec | Fourth Sunday of AdventGospel: Lk 1:26–38 | |
| 22 | Mon 21 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Lk 1:39–45 | |
| 23 | Tue 22 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Lk 1:46–56 | |
| 24 | Wed 23 Dec | Advent weekdayGospel: Lk 1:57–66 | |
| 25 | Thu 24 Dec | Christmas Eve · Advent weekdayGospel: Lk 1:67–79 (morning Mass) |
Days and Gospels: USCCB, Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America, 2027 (the 2027 liturgical year begins in Advent 2026). Optional memorials are left out.
On 8 December, Mass that day, on top of the prayer. On 24 December, the last fifteen, then the Vigil Mass, which satisfies the Christmas obligation: canon 1248 §1 counts a Mass “in the evening of the preceding day.”
Started late? Start anyway. This is a private devotion, not a precept: a missed day is not a sin and does not have to be made up. Nobody is keeping score but you.
A father’s plan for the fifteen
Fifteen repetitions in one sitting is about six minutes and it is easy to skip. Fifteen broken into three fives is almost impossible to skip, because each five rides on something you already do. Here is the plan that works in a house with children in it.
Five in the morning — alone
Before the house is awake, at the same place you say your morning offering. Name the one thing you are asking for out loud the first time, then let the repetitions carry it. If you have not got a morning anchor yet, the Morning Offering is the one to build on.
Five in the middle of the day — in the truck, at the bench, at the desk
The prayer is about sixty words. It fits in a commute, a smoke break, a walk to the parking lot. Keep the count on your fingers; five is one hand.
Five at night — with the children
This is the one that matters. Gather them where you already do — the foot of a bed, the kitchen table, in front of the Advent wreath — and lead the five aloud. Little ones will not know the words on 30 November and will have them by the second week: at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. Let each child name one thing they are asking God for before you begin. Print the prayer and tape it where they can see it.
Two practical rules. First, lead it, do not assign it — you say it first, they answer; a father who prays in front of his children has taught more than a father who tells them to pray. Second, keep it to the end. The point of a twenty-five-day devotion is not the fifteen; it is that on 24 December your household has done one thing together every day for most of Advent. That is the whole training effect.
Why Saint Andrew
Andrew is the one who went and got his brother. In the Gospel of John he is following the Baptist, meets Christ, and “findeth first his brother Simon, and saith to him: We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ” (John 1:41, Douay-Rheims). The brother he dragged along is Peter.
Matthew tells the same call from the shore: “And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea (for they were fishers). And he saith to them: Come ye after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men. And they immediately leaving their nets, followed him” (Matthew 4:18–20, Douay-Rheims).
That is why his feast is a fitting door into Advent for a man with a family. Andrew’s first act after finding Christ was to bring somebody home to Him. Twenty-five days of leading five prayers a night is the same act, at a smaller scale, with the people God actually gave you. Altar. Arms. Allegiance.
Frequently asked questions
When do you pray the St. Andrew Christmas Novena?
Every day from November 30, the feast of Saint Andrew, through Christmas Eve, December 24. In 2026 that runs from Monday, November 30 to Thursday, December 24 — twenty-five days. Catholic publishers and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles print the custom as fifteen times each day.
How many times a day do you say it?
Fifteen times a day is the custom as Ascension, the St Paul Center and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles all print it. The prayer is short — fifteen repetitions take about six minutes if said together, and most people split them across the day.
Is the St. Andrew Christmas Novena really a novena?
Not in the strict sense. A novena is nine days of prayer. This devotion runs twenty-five days, from November 30 to December 24, so it is a season-long devotion that carries the name novena by custom. It is also called the Christmas Anticipation Novena.
Does the St. Andrew Christmas Novena guarantee that your request is granted?
No. Some pages that print the devotion add a line saying whoever completes it will obtain the favor requested. Other Catholic sources, including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the St Paul Center, print the same custom with no promise attached. We do not repeat the promise. The prayer asks God to hear a petition; it does not oblige Him to answer it the way we want.
Is the St. Andrew Christmas Novena a prayer to Saint Andrew?
No. The St Paul Center puts it plainly: “the prayer is addressed to God and focuses our attention on the coming Nativity.” Saint Andrew is not named in it. His feast, 30 November, only sets the starting day.
Where did the St. Andrew Christmas Novena come from?
We do not know, and we will not guess. None of the nine Catholic pages we opened, from EWTN and Ascension to two archdioceses, names an author, a date, or a printing. Aleteia, quoting the Catholic Company, says the origins “are unknown” and that it “may have come from Ireland.” Stories about a nineteenth-century Irish origin circulate widely; treat them as unverified unless someone produces the source.
Can you start the St. Andrew Christmas Novena late?
Yes. Nothing in the custom forbids starting on December 3 or December 10 and praying to Christmas Eve. It is a private devotion, not a liturgical obligation, so a missed day is not a sin and does not have to be made up. Begin where you are.
Sources we opened
- Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States of America, 2027 (USCCB; the 2027 liturgical year begins 29 November 2026, so it carries Advent 2026) — every day and Gospel in the 25-day calendar: 29 November 2026 as the First Sunday of Advent; 30 November 2026 as the Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle (Gospel Mt 4:18–22); 8 December 2026 as the Immaculate Conception, a holyday of obligation; 13 December 2026 as the Third Sunday of Advent, violet or rose; 24 December 2026 as an Advent weekday. usccb.org (PDF)
- St Paul Center — the prayer text used above, the instruction to pray it fifteen times a day beginning on the feast of Saint Andrew “until Christmas,” that “the prayer is addressed to God,” and the name “Christmas Anticipation Novena.” stpaulcenter.com
- EWTN, “Christmas Novena” — the second wording printed above. ewtn.com
- Ascension — “FIFTEEN times each day from the feast of St. Andrew (November 30th) until Christmas Eve,” and the line, prefaced “It is piously believed that,” which we do not repeat as a promise. ascensionpress.com
- Archdiocese of Los Angeles — the same custom, printed with no promise attached. lacatholics.org
- A Chesterton Academy page — the same fifteen-a-day custom, prefaced “Tradition holds that.” chestertonqofm.com
- Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, Summit — the custom “from the feast of St. Andrew until Christmas 15 times each day.” summitdominicans.org
- Aleteia — the Catholic Company quotation on the prayer’s unknown origin. aleteia.org
- Hallow and the Archdiocese of Brisbane — opened for the origin question; neither names an author, a date or a printing. hallow.com · brisbanecatholic.org.au
- Code of Canon Law, canon 1248 §1 — the evening Mass of the preceding day. vatican.va
- Douay-Rheims Bible — John 1:41 and Matthew 4:18–20 as quoted. John 1 · Matthew 4
Published 27 September 2026. Updated 3 November 2026: the day-by-day 2026 calendar, and every source re-opened. Found an error? [email protected] — errata corrected the day they are found.