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As non-canonical texts, apocryphal prayers had been exposed to various influences, and thus became the most comprehensive written records of the interaction between medical knowledge on one hand, and folk and religious medicine on the other hand. This paper examines apocryphal prayers used to heal illnesses and acute conditions. By analyzing the selected examples of apocryphal prayers, such as against nežit (various inflammatory conditions thought to be caused by an evil spirit of this name), against toothache, against nosebleed, against snake bites, against bites by rabid dogs or wolves, the paper determines their characteristics. On one hand, the paper identifies medical knowledge appearing in the prayers and delineates ways in which the cause of an illness and the proper course of treatment are determined. On the other hand, apocryphal prayers are examined within a framework used for literary text analysis, which results in a consideration of their stylistic values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]