Fr Peter Helman
“Therefore, I endure all things” (2 Timothy 2:10)
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Dear beloved of God,
At the monastery of Saint Katherine on Mount Sinai there is a 13th century icon of Saint Pantaleon the Great Martyr, whose name means “all compassionate.” He is painted on a field of gold with scenes of his life framed all around him. His right hand carries the cross and his left a gold medicine box. Today we celebrate with the Church the Feast of Saint Pantaleon.
Pantaleon was born in the late 3rd century in Nicodemia to a wealthy pagan father, Eustorgius, and converted to Christianity by his mother, Eubula. When she died before he was baptized he wandered from the faith. He studied medicine, become a renowned physician, and eventually served the emperor, Galerius Maximian. A priest named Hermolaus, who because of persecutions against Christians secretly instructed the Church of Nicodemia, found Pantaleon one day and taught him of Christ the divine healer of souls. “But, my friend,” Hermolaus asked Pantaleon, “of what use are all thy acquirements in this art, since thou art ignorant of the science of salvation?” Shortly after Pantaleon tended to a sick man and healed him by invoking the name of Jesus over him. He returned home, converted his father, and Hermolaus baptized them both.
At his father’s death he inherited an immense fortune. He freed his slaves and gave his money to the poor of the city. His colleagues, though, jealous of his notoriety, denounced him to the emperor, before whom he confessed his faith openly. When he had finished giving testimony, Pantaleon said he was ready to prove the faith of Christ. “Let them bring,” he said, “a sick person, of whose recovery there is no hope. Then call all the idolatrous priests, in order that they may pray to their gods, while I will ask the aid of my God; and then we shall see whether your gods are able to restore the sick man to health. I know that my God has the power.” Pantaleon healed the man to the bewilderment of all, but the emperor took the healing for magic and condemned him. Pantaleon endured much torture, being burned with torches, boiled in lead, thrown into the sea, thrown to lions, bound on the wheel, and finally beheaded. Tradition says the Lord appeared to Pantaleon and extinguished the torches. The Lord stepped with him into the cauldron of lead and the liquid became like a cold bath. The millstone fastened to him, when flung into the sea, floated. The lions laid at his feet and could not be taken away until he blessed them. The cogs of the wheel stuck and broke and the ropes binding him snapped. The executioner attempted to behead him but the sword bent and the executioner converted.
Only when Pantaleon had prayed for his torturers and handed his life over were they able to behead him.
In the East, Pantaleon is venerated as an Holy Unmercenary Healer, a physician saint of the early Church who cared for the sick without payment. The Church in the West has venerated him since the late Middle Ages as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, saints whose intercessions are believed to be specially efficacious for those afflicted by disease. Devotion to him grew while the bubonic plague swept across Europe.
The more I read about the lives of the saints, the more I turn to them and ask for their intercessions. The saints stand before God as we will one day and pray for all those who run their course in this world. Pantaleon intercedes for us and for this world suffering from pandemic and the greater sickness still of lovelessness, that God would heal and transform us. He prays to God for our healing, of body and soul. And we pray for the grace to live as lights in this world like he did.
Today, what does the life of Saint Pantaleon teach us about God and about ourselves as the children of God? How does his life and the presence of Christ in his sufferings lead us to hope and deeper faith in the midst of our own sufferings? How do his acts of charity inspire us in the care we offer our neighbors?
Bless you today, beloved. Christ the divine healer is with you, and the saints pray for your strength.
In Christ,
Peter+