Monday, July 27

Early Church · d. c. 305

Greatmartyr and Healer Panteleimon

Unmercenary physician and greatmartyr

A young physician of Nicomedia named Pantoleon, trained in the imperial court's medicine, he was brought to Christ by the elderly priest Hermolaus — tradition says his faith was sealed when a dead child, bitten by a viper, revived at his prayer. He practiced as an unmercenary, treating the poor and prisoners without fee and healing in Christ's name, which drew the envy of fellow physicians and denunciation to the emperor Maximian at the height of the Great Persecution, around 305. The passion accounts multiply miraculous frustrations of his tortures — the details are hagiographic embellishment, but the martyrdom itself and the immediate, immense veneration are ancient and secure. At his death he was renamed Panteleimon, 'all-merciful.' The East invokes him at every unction service as chief of the unmercenary healers, and his relics and honor spread from Nicomedia across the whole Christian world.

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