Latter-day Saint apostle Jeffrey R. Holland has been hospitalized “for observation and treatment of ongoing health complications,” according to a Thursday news release from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Holland, one of the faith’s top leaders and a popular member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is “grateful for the many prayers offered in his behalf in recent weeks for his health and during this time of mourning,” the release said. “He sincerely appreciates the well wishes and kindnesses shown by friends and members of the church who know and care for him and his family.”
These health challenges began for the 82-year-old apostle, known for his compelling and compassionate sermons, as he neared his 80s.
In June 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, he was hospitalized to undergo diagnostic tests for an undisclosed illness not related to COVID-19.
He bounced back, thanks to a “miraculous” recovery.
“All at once ... I had a number of health issues, but I’m doing fine,” Holland told Church News Editor Sarah Jane Weaver in a December 2020 podcast. “And (for) some of these, the recovery has been really miraculous. I don’t use that word lightly. I don’t use it lightly at all. But that’s the only word I could use for the recovery I’ve had from some of these issues.”
In spring 2021, during a video appearance for a family history conference, the church leader used a walker after a previous illness had left him with numbness in his legs.
In April, the apostle was temporarily excused from his duties as an apostle as he underwent kidney dialysis, and he and his wife, Patricia, suffered from the effects of COVID-19. Illness kept him from attending General Conference in April, but, in June, he announced that he had begun slowly returning to work.
Patricia Holland died last month at 81.
“This is the 60th year of my marriage to the greatest woman I have ever known,” Holland said in a statement read at the funeral. “I am heartbroken. I thought the onset of neuropathy and dialysis was enough, but this loss of Pat so unexpectedly has been devastating.”