The cult of the 'Fourteen Helpers', a group of saints believed to offer succour to those in need, arose in Germany during the late Middle Ages and is now best known through Balthasar Neumann's famous Baroque pilgimage church of Vierzehnheiligen near Bad Staffelstein. Other depictions of this subject with this same long, low format, like that of  c. 1527 by the Master of the Gregory Mass (Evangelische Marktkirchengemeinde, Halle), are predellas - the small panel which sits under an altarpiece. If this served as such it would have been for a small domestic triptych with a central panel of approximately 100 x 86 cm and two doors of c. 100 x 43 each. 

Cranach's painting depicts St Christopher in the centre, presumably in order to give prominence to the Christ Child on his shoulders. From left to right the other saints can be identified by their attributes: St Vitas with his cockerel; St Pantaleon, martyred by having his hands nailed to his head, and St Giles with his hind struck with an arrow. Next comes a group of three bishops: St Wolfgang, Bishop of Regensburg, with a model church and an axe; St Dionysius holding his head in his hands and St Erasmus with a windlass. After St Christopher comes St George with his dragon and Lawrence with this grill. Three female saints stand in front of St Eustace with his stag: St Margaret with her dragon; St Barbara with a chalice and St Catherine with her wheel. St Agathius, with his bough of thorns is just visible in the background at the right hand edge.

A preparatory drawing for this painting, very close (though not quite identical) to the final composition, is in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.