Rudy Giuliani received last rites when hospitalized with pneumonia

Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News on May 5, 2026

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Rudy Giuliani received his last rites, a Catholic sacrament often administered to the dying, while hospitalized in Florida with pneumonia and placed on a ventilator, his doctor revealed.

“He’s a fighter — the way he was yesterday in such a critical condition, he did have a priest come anoint him,” Dr. Maria Ryan, his primary care provider, told Fox News on Monday, adding that the priest also performed last rites.

“And all the prayers from around — it’s like a miracle,” she said. “This guy’s got nine lives, today he’s doing much better.”

The 81-year-old Giuliani began experiencing breathing issues shortly after returning from a trip to Paris, according to Ryan.

In a statement shared to social media on Sunday, his spokesperson, Ted Goodman, confirmed Giuliani had been hospitalized in “critical but stable condition.” In a follow-up post, Goodman noted the 9/11 terror attacks left Giuliani with lasting health complications that exacerbated his pneumonia.

“On September 11th, 2001, as so many of us so vividly remember, Mayor Rudy Giuliani ran toward the towers to help those in need, which later led to a diagnosis of restrictive airway disease,” Goodman said Monday night.

“He is now breathing on his own, with his family and primary medical provider at his side,” he continued. “Mayor Giuliani is the ultimate fighter—as he has demonstrated throughout his life—and he is winning this battle.”

Giuliani’s hospitalization comes months after he was seriously injured in an August 2025 car accident. He suffered a fractured thoracic vertebra and other significant injuries — including multiple lacerations and contusions, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg — after a driver rear-ended his vehicle in New Hampshire, police said at the time.

Trump the next month announced he was awarding Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

Giuliani was was mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, with the 9/11 attacks occurring just months before the end of his eight-year tenure. His subsequent leadership of the city thrust him into the national spotlight, earning him the nickname “America’s Mayor.”