St. Panteleimon

The Holy and Great Martyr Panteleimon was born in Nicomedia of a Christian mother, Eubula, and a pagan father Eustorgius. He studied medicine as a young man. The priest Hermolaus befriended him, instructed him in the Christian faith and baptized him. Panteleimon miraculously healed a blind man who other doctors had treated in vain; he healed him by the name of Christ and baptized him. From jealousy, the doctors denounced Panteleimon as a Christian, and he went before the Emperor Maximilian for judgment. He stood before the earthly ruler in the body, but in his mind he stood before the Heavenly King. He freely declared himself to be a Christian before the Emperor, and in front of his eyes, healed a paralytic of a long infirmity.

This miracle brought many of the pagans to the Christian faith. The Emperor put him to torture, but the Lord appeared to him on several occasions and delivered him whole and uninjured. When he would not abandon Christ for the idols, he was stretched across a rack and burned with candles. Then he was thrown into a pit of fire and then to wild beasts. But Jesus appeared to him many times and kept him whole and unharmed. The idol worshippers believed it was sorcery. He was thrown into a river with a large stone tied to him, but it floated. When he was retrieved, he was sentenced to beheading. Condemned to death, St. Panteleimon knelt in prayer. At that, the executioner gave him a blow on the neck with his sword, and the sword broke as if made of wax. The executioner could not kill him until he had finished his prayer and had himself given the word to behead him. Panteleimon was beheaded under an olive tree, which after that became laden with fruit. "Panteleimon" means all-merciful. God the all-merciful received his righteous soul and glorified him among His greatest saints. His relics remained incorrupt. This wonderful martyr suffered with honor as a youth for Christ on July 27th, 304, when he was 29 years old.

Holy Monastery of Agios Panteleimon, Aghion Oros - Athos, Greece

St. Panteleimon Church, Aghion Oros - Athos, Greece

St. Panteleimon is the Patron of physicians and medicine; St. Panteleimon's Day is celebrated on the 9th of August according to the Julian Calendar (July 27th according to the Gregorian calendar).