In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
Dear brothers and sisters, today the Orthodox Church honors the memory of one of the most venerated saints—Greatmartyr and Healer Panteleimon. His Life tells us of the multitude of miraculous healings that occurred both during the lifetime of this amazing physician, a young Christian who courageously confessed his faith, even after his martyrdom. Many of us turn to him in our prayers when we experience severe physical suffering, or when our relatives and friends have health issues.
Icon of Greatmartyr Panteleimon with his Life scenes Greatmartyr Panteleimon was born into the family of a very wealthy man from Nicomedia: a city in Asia Minor, which at the time when St. Panteleimon lived was the residence of the Roman emperor. He lacked nothing, and everything was available to him: both a military and a state career—he could have chosen either path, but the young man chose knowledge. His father sent him to study so that he could master medical sciences and use his knowledge to help those who needed it. However, for Pantoleon, which was the saint’s name before his Baptism (this name translates from Ancient Greek as “lion in all things”), this was not enough. It was not enough for him to simply master the profession of a court physician, while earning good money treating the illnesses of wealthy officials and members of the imperial family. He desired to help people.
And we know from his Life how his calling came about. Born to a Christian mother, at an early age Pantoleon was introduced to the concept of the One God; however, after his mother had passed away, his father raised the boy outside of the Christian spirit. As a youth, St. Panteleimon would often walk past a house where Priest Hermolaus and other Christians were hiding from persecution. Hermolaus later became St. Panteleimon’s teacher. The youth was seeking the truth; he understood that his medical knowledge was incapable of curing all the diseases that people suffered from, and therefore he desired to know what is greater than this. And so he visited Hermolaus’ house once, twice, a third time, and became increasingly convinced of the truth of the Christian faith. He wanted to acquire the genuine knowledge that everyone connected in any way to rational thought and scientific inquiry strives for, and St. Panteleimon was precisely such a person.
And then he prayed to God: “Give me a true sign of how I ought to believe in Christ, in Thee.” And then he saw on the road a boy who was already dead—he had been bitten by a venomous snake that was crawling nearby. And he prayed to Christ, in Whom he did not yet fully believe, asking, “Bring him back to life.” And he came back to life: the soul returned to the boy’s body, and at that very moment St. Panteleimon fully realized that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true Physician of human souls and bodies.
What does the life experience of the holy Greatmartyr Panteleimon teach us? It instructs us not to rely entirely on ourselves in everything. St. Panteleimon was a physician, but at those moments when his profession could not bring any benefit, he turned to God so that He might make up for the weakness of human strength and grant healing to the sick. For the rest of his short life, Greatmartyr Panteleimon practiced the art of medicine, helping people with the skills he had acquired from ancient medical treatises and his teachers; but when his strength failed him and he could not help others in any way, he turned to God so that He might heal sick people.
Greatmartyr Panteleimon and Hieromartyr Hermolaus
So must we too, dear brothers and sisters, deal with not only our bodily illnesses that torment us from time to time or constantly, but also with our spiritual problems, our anxieties, our troubles in life and unfavorable circumstances. Let us strive to fix everything that we can fix ourselves with God’s help and prayer. And everything that is beyond our strength—and this is much—let us entrust to God in our hope so that He may arrange not only as we wish, but as is necessary for our salvation. This is what the life experience of Greatmartyr Panteleimon teaches us.
Not everything is possible for man, and not everything is available to him. Especially with modern technology, when it might seem: “Look what we have achieved! What else will we accomplish? Which stars will we reach? Which depths will we explore?” but still there will always be something that is beyond our comprehension and beyond our power, and let us surrender this to God. If in our bodies, in our souls, and in our spiritual life something is not well-ordered, let us turn to God so that He, as the Physician of our souls and bodies, may heal us through the prayers of Greatmartyr Panteleimon and all the saints now abiding in the Heavenly Kingdom, which we too desire to attain in this temporary life. Amen.
