Pantaleon | |
|---|---|
 13th century icon of Saint Panteleimon, including scenes from his life, from theMonastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai | |
| Great-Martyr and Unmercenary Healer | |
| Born | c. 275 Nicomedia (modern-dayIzmit,Kocaeli,Turkey) |
| Died | 305[1] Nicomedia (modern-dayIzmit,Kocaeli,Turkey) |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church Anglicanism Oriental Orthodox Church Catholic Church |
| Majorshrine | Pantaleon Monastery in the Jordan desert, Pantaleon Church built by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, Constantinople |
| Feast | 27 July[2] (Western Christianity,Byzantine Christianity) 19 Epip (Coptic Christianity)[3] |
| Attributes | A compartmented apothecary's (medicine) box, with a long-handled spatula or spoon; a martyr's cross |
| Patronage | Physicians, Apothecaries, midwives, livestock, lottery, lottery winners and victories, lottery tickets; invoked against headaches, consumption, locusts, witchcraft, accidents and loneliness; helper for crying children |
Saint Pantaleon (Greek:Παντελεήμων,romanized: Panteleïmon,lit. 'All-compassionate'), counted inWestern Christianity as among theFourteen Holy Helpers of theLate Middle Ages, and inEastern Christianity as one of theHoly Unmercenary Healers,[4] was amartyr ofNicomedia inBithynia during theDiocletianic Persecution of 305 AD.
Though there is evidence to suggest that a martyr named Pantaleon existed, some consider the stories of his life and death to be purely legendary.[5]
According to themartyrologies, Pantaleon was the son of a rich pagan, Eustorgius of Nicomedia, and had been instructed in Christianity by his Christian mother, Saint Eubula; however, after her death he fell away from the Christian church, while he studied medicine with a renowned physician Euphrosinos; under the patronage of Euphrosinos he became physician to the emperor,Maximian (or alternativelyGalerius).[5]
He was won back to Christianity by Saint Hermolaus (characterized as a bishop of the church at Nicomedia in the later literature), who convinced him thatChrist was the better physician, signalling the significance of theexemplum of Pantaleon that faith is to be trusted over medical advice.[6]
St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote regarding this incident:
He studied medicine with such success, that the Emperor Maximian appointed him his physician. One day as our saint was discoursing with a holy priest named Hermolaus, the latter, after praising the study of medicine, concluded thus: "But, my friend, of what use are all thy acquirements in this art, since thou art ignorant of the science of salvation?[7]
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By miraculously healing a blind man by invoking the name of Jesus over him, Pantaleon converted his father, upon whose death he came into possession of a large fortune. He freed his slaves and distributed his wealth among the poor.[6] Envious colleagues denounced him to the emperor during theDiocletian persecution. The emperor wished to save him and sought to persuade him toapostasy. Pantaleon, however, openly confessed his faith, and as proof that Christ was the true God, he healed a paralytic. Notwithstanding this, he was condemned to death by the emperor, who regarded themiracle as an exhibition ofmagic.[8]
According to the legend, Pantaleon's flesh was first burned with torches, whereupon Christ appeared to all in the form of Hermolaus to strengthen and heal Pantaleon. The torches were extinguished. Then a bath of molten lead was prepared; when the apparition of Christ stepped into the cauldron with him, the fire went out and the lead became cold. Pantaleon was now thrown into the sea, loaded with a great stone, which floated. He was thrown to wild beasts, but these fawned upon him and could not be forced away until he had blessed them. He was bound on the wheel, but the ropes snapped, and the wheel broke. An attempt was made to behead him, but the sword bent, and the executioners were converted to Christianity.[8]
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Pantaleon implored Heaven to forgive them, for which reason he also received the name ofPanteleimon ("mercy for everyone" or "all-compassionate"). He was then beheaded.[6]
St. Alphonsus wrote:
AtRavello, a city in the kingdom of Naples, there is a vial of his blood, which becomes blood every year [on his feastday], and may be seen in this state interspersed with the milk, as I, the author of this work, have seen it.[7]
Thevitae containing these miraculous features are all late in date and "valueless" according to theCatholic Encyclopedia.[8] Yet the fact of his martyrdom itself seems to be supported by a veneration for which there is testimony in the 5th century, among others in a sermon on the martyrs byTheodoret (died c. 457);[9]Procopius of Caesarea (died c. 565?), writing on the churches and shrines constructed byJustinian I[10] tells that the emperor rebuilt the shrine to Pantaleon at Nicomedia; and there is mention of Pantaleon in theMartyrologium Hieronymianum.[11]
Pantaleon is a patron saint of physicians and of midwives, and is invoked againstconsumption.[4] He is depicted as a beardless young man holding a book with a cross on it.[12]
The Eastern tradition concerning Pantaleon follows more or less the medieval Western hagiography, but lacks any mention of a visible apparition of Christ.[dubious –discuss] It states instead that Hermolaus was still alive while Pantaleon's torture was under way, but was martyred himself only shortly before Pantaleon's beheading along with two companions, Hermippas and Thermocrates.
Pantaleon'srelics, venerated at Nicomedia, were transferred toConstantinople. Numerous churches, shrines, and monasteries have been named for him; in the West most often as St. Pantaleon and in the East as St. Panteleimon; to him is consecrated theSt. Panteleimon Monastery atMount Athos,Agios Panteleimon Monastery inCrete,St Panteleimon monastery inMyrtou, Cyprus, and the 12th-centuryChurch of St. Panteleimon inGorno Nerezi,North Macedonia.
According toMovses Kaghankatvatsi, his relics were brought to church built in the town of Tsri (thenCaucasian Albania, near modernBarda, Azerbaijan) bySt. Grigoris.[14] Catholicos Lazar of Albania built Church of St. Pantaleon in his honor in Beghame'j (near modernAğcabədi,Azerbaijan).[15]King Vachagan III of Albania rediscovered his remains and interred them in theAmaras Monastery, located in modernNagorno Karabakh and named his firstborn son after the saint.[16]
After theBlack Death of the mid-14th century in Western Europe, as apatron saint of physicians and midwives, he came to be regarded as one of the fourteen guardian martyrs, theFourteen Holy Helpers. Relics of the saint are found atSaint Denis at Paris; his head is venerated at Lyon. ARomanesque church was dedicated to him inCologne in the 9th century at the latest.
In theBritish Library there is a surviving manuscript, written inOld English, ofThe Life of St Pantaleon (British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius D XVII), dating from the early eleventh century, possibly written for AbbotÆlfric of Eynsham.[17] The Canons' Vestry off the south transept ofChichester Cathedral was formerly a square-plan chapel dedicated to Saint Pantaleon - it was possibly under construction just before the cathedral's great fire of 1187.[18]
In France, he was depicted in a window inChartres Cathedral.[5] In southern France there are sixcommunes under the protective name of Saint-Pantaléon. Though there are individual churches consecrated to him elsewhere, there are no communes named for him in the north or northwest of France. The six are:
TheChurch of Saint Pantaleon, inCologne is a 10th-centuryRomanesque church, commissioned by the niece of the Byzantine emperor,Theophanu, who married theHoly Roman EmperorOtto II in 972.[20] It is the oldest church of the cult of Saint Pantaleon west of Byzantium.
At theBasilica of the Vierzehnheiligen nearStaffelstein inFranconia, St. Pantaleon is venerated with his hands nailed to his head, reflecting another legend about his death.
In Italy,San Pantalon gives favourable lottery numbers, victories and winners in dreams.[21] A phial containing some of his blood was long preserved atRavello.[5] On the feast day of the saint, the blood was said to become fluid and to bubble (compareSaint Januarius).Paolo Veronese's painting of Pantaleon can be found in the church ofSan Pantalon inVenice; it shows the saint healing a child. Another painting of Pantaleon byFumiani is also in the same church.[5]
He was depicted in an 8th-century fresco inSanta Maria Antiqua inRome, and in a 10th-century cycle of pictures in the crypt ofSan Crisogono in Rome.[5] In Calabria, there is a small town named Papanice, after Pantaleon. Each year on his feast day, a statue of the saint is carried through the town to give a blessing for all those who seek it.
San Pantaleone or Pantalon was a popular saint in Venice, and may have given his name to a character in thecommedia dell'arte,Pantalone, a silly, wizened old man (Shakespeare's "lean and slippered Pantaloon") who was a caricature of Venetians. This character was portrayed as wearing trousers rather than knee breeches, and so became the origin of the name of a type of trouser called "pantaloons", which was later shortened to "pants".[22]
Churches named for him include:
Saint Pantaleon (São Pantaleão in Portuguese) is one of the patron saints of the city ofPorto inPortugal,[23] together withJohn the Baptist andOur Lady of Vendôme. Part of his relics were brought byArmenian refugees to the city after theTurkish occupation of Constantinople in 1453.[24] Later, in 1499, these relics were transferred from the Church of Saint Peter of Miragaia to the cathedral, where they have been kept to this day.[25]
On 12 December 1499, Bishop Diogo de Sousa, in solemn procession, transferred the relics of Saint Pantaleon, deposited in the parish church of S. Pedro de Miragaia, to the Cathedral
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Pantaleon".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Crowley, John (1994). Aegypt (Bantam trade paperback ed.). New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-37430-3.
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