SAINT PANTELEIMON

August 9 (July 27) The Church celebrates the memory of the holy martyr Panteleimon. Saint Panteleimon is one of the most beloved and revered saints of Christian antiquity and all subsequent centuries. The significance of the veneration of the martyr in the Orthodox Church is evidenced by the fact that his name is mentioned in the rite of preparing bread and wine at the liturgy, and in the main prayer of the sacrament of unction, beginning with the words: “Holy Father, Physician of souls and bodies,” which, according to the theology of the sacraments, is considered a prayer, that performs the sacrament. In the Orthodox liturgical calendar the saint is called “Great Martyr and Healer.”

In some geographical parts of the Christian world the saint is also venerated under the name “Pantoleon”. In the Russian liturgical tradition, during the liturgy of preparation, in the name of Panteleimon, along with other specially invoked saints, the seventh particle is taken out in honor of the rank of the holy Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers. Thus, the Church designated their holiness before God, as part of a single great offering to the entire Universe. As it is sung about this in the troparion to all the saints: “Adorned in the blood of Your Martyrs throughout all the world, / as if clothed in purple and linen, / through them Your Church cries out to You, O Christ God: / “Bestow Your bounties upon Your people, / grant peace to Your habitation, and great mercy to our souls.”

Panteleimon suffered for Christ under Emperor Maximian in one of the most important capital cities of the then Empire—Nicomedia in 305. According to his life, he was directly accused of professing Christianity. The example of other holy doctors of the Ancient Church, who, preaching Jesus, treated people for free, tells us that he was probably slandered by pagan competitors on charges of self-interest and magic. Thus, the fate of the disciples of Christ at all times from the time of the Gospel was to be a victim of slander (cf. Matt. 5:11).

The very name “Great Martyr”, adopted by Panteleimon by the Orthodox tradition, does not at all mean the particular severity of the suffering he endured. A great martyr is a martyr of high, royal, noble origin. Original Christianity was the faith of the common people (cf. 1 Cor. 1:26). The conversion of great people, and, most importantly, their selfless preaching, meant great testimony to the truth of the Faith of Christ. In fact, the word “great martyr” in a kind of “intersemantic” translation into the language of our time means “Apostolic” or “Equal to the Apostles.” After all, the Church, in the ancient Creeds, was always called “apostolic.” Thus, the Society of Believers, which is primarily the Church, confessed that it sees the essence of its calling as preaching, the truth of the words of which, according to the example of Panteleimon and many others, following the life of Jesus Himself (cf. John 15:13), it is ready to seal with blood and martyrdom.