Jeffrey R. Holland, a popular apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was hospitalized on Christmas Eve.
He is receiving “expert care” for “ongoing health complications,” according to a church news release. He is “with loved ones during this Christmas holiday.”
The apostle and his family “express gratitude for the many prayers offered on his behalf,” the release said, “and extend greetings of faith and peace during this season that commemorates the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.”
It marked another setback in the medical journey for the 85-year-old Holland, president of the faith’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and next in line to lead the 17.5 million-member church.
His health issues, primarily kidney disease, have flared on and off since June 2020, when he was hospitalized to undergo diagnostic tests for an undisclosed illness not related to the then-COVID-19 pandemic.
Holland bounced back, thanks to what he termed a “miraculous” recovery. In spring 2021, during a video appearance for a family history conference, the apostle used a walker after a previous illness had left him with numbness in his legs.
In April 2023, Holland was temporarily excused from his duties as an apostle as he underwent kidney dialysis, and he and his wife, Pat, suffered from the effects of COVID-19.
Then came the dramatic episode in summer 2023, when he faced his most severe challenge yet.
“Adrenaline-like drugs were being used to support his circulation. He was virtually nonresponsive,” fellow apostle Dale Renlund, a cardiologist by profession, explained in an Instagram post. “The physicians didn’t know exactly what was wrong and had informed his children that the prognosis was extremely poor.”
By November 2024, however, Holland was well enough to venture to the Dominican Republic — his first trip abroad since that 2023 health scare and his wife’s death.
“Miracles exist,” he emphatically declared to an arena full of 7,000 church members in that Caribbean country.
That he was unconscious for a month and nearly died is evidence of that fact, he said. “The miracle that I represent in the restoration of my life is as real as any miracle in the Old Testament or the New Testament or the Doctrine and Covenants or the Book of Mormon.”
At the church’s latest General Conference in October, Holland was in a wheelchair and using oxygen.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dallin H. Oaks, left, and fellow apostle Jeffrey R. Holland converse during a session of General Conference in October. Holland has been hospitalized.
“I am two months away from my 85th birthday,” he said. “I have walked with kings and prophets, presidents and apostles. Best of all, I have at times been overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit.”
Holland ended by quoting and semi-singing the famous Christian hymn “Amazing Grace,” with its powerful lyric, “was blind, but now I see.”