St. Pantaleon, a physician and martyr, and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Note: We are in the only period of the year when over the course of eight days we celebrate the Feasts of three of the Fourteen Holy Helpers: St. Margaret, Virgin and Martyr, on July 20th, St. Christopher, Martyr, on July 25th, and today, July 27th, St. Pantaleon, Physician and Martyr.
BAPTISM AND CONVERSION
Pantaleon lived in the third century, and was of a noble family of Nicomedia. He was the son of a pagan but was raised as a Christian by his mother. He became a famous physician in the service of Emperor Maximian, where he succumbed to the dissolute culture of the royal court. He was seduced by the bad example of those with whom he associated, and abandoned the Faith!
By the grace of God, a zealous priest named Hermolaus, awakened Pantaleon’s conscience to a sense of his guilt, and brought him back to the fold of the Church. From this point on, Pantaleon devoted himself ardently to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of all. He offered his medical skills without fee and gave away all his possessions to the poor. He was also able to convert his father, Eustorgius, who became a Christian. Many suffering from incurable diseases were restored to health by Pantaleon’s prayer and the invocation of the Holy Name of Jesus.
PERSECUTION AND CHALLENGE
In today's epistle, we hear St. Paul state: "And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution"(2 Tim 3:12).
When the persecution of Christians began once more in 303 A.D. under the Emperor Diocletian, it was fiercer and more widespread than ever before. Many thought the Endtimes of the antichrist were upon them. Pantaleon was accused of being a Christian and arrested. He was brought before the emperor’s tribunal and ordered to sacrifice to the idols. He replied, “The God whom I adore is Jesus Christ. He created Heaven and earth, He raised the dead to life, made the blind see and healed the sick, all through the power of His word. Your idols are dead, they cannot do anything. Order a sick person to be brought here, one declared incurable. Your priests shall invoke their idols for him and I shall call on the only true God, and we shall see who is able to help him.” The proposal was accepted. A man sick with the palsy was brought, who could neither walk nor stand without help. The heathen priests prayed for him, but in vain. Then Pantaleon prayed, took the sick man by the hand, and said, “In the name of Jesus, the Son of God, I command thee to rise and be well.” And the palsied man rose, restored to perfect health.
By this miracle a great number of those present were converted. But the emperor and the idolatrous priests were all the more enraged.
St. Pantaleon miraculously survived six different attempts at execution — including fire and wild animals. He was finally nailed to a tree and beheaded in Nicomedia in 305 A.D. The priest Hermolaus and the brothers Hermippos and Hermocrates suffered martyrdom with him.
St. Pantaleon is much revered in the Eastern Church, and was ranked as one of the patron saints of physicians during the Middle Ages. His blood is said to have liquefied on his feast day.
Let us pray and ask the help and intercession of St. Pantaleon:
St. Pantaleon, who during life didst have great pity for the sick and with the help of God didst often relieve and cure them; I invoke thy intercession with God, that I may obtain the grace to serve Him in good health by cheerfully fulfilling the duties of my state of life. But if it be His holy will to visit me with illness, pain, and suffering, do thou aid me with thy powerful prayer to submit humbly to His chastisements, to accept sickness in the spirit of penance and to bear it patiently according to His holy will. Amen.