Lena Tchibor (2020) Saint Pantaleon. Oil on board, 90x50 cm. Sacred Heart Church, Carndonagh, Ireland.
Pantaleon (Panteleimon) (d. C.305), doctor and martyr. His name means ‘all-compassionate’: his cult was well established from the early date in both East and West, particularly in Nicomedia and Bithynia. According to his Legend he was the son of a pagan father and a Christian mother , Eubula, who brought him up as a Christian. But he later relapsed into paganism until he was reconciled to the Church through a fellow-Christian , Hermolaos. By this time he was a successful physician who numbered the Emperor Galerius among his patients. When the persecution of Diocletian began in Nicomedia in 303 he was denounced as a Christian by his colleagues, was arrested, tortured in various ways, and ultimately beheaded. In the East he is venerated as a great martyr and wonder-worker and as one of the holy men who looked after the sick without being paid. In the West he was considered (in Germany and the Low Countries) as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers; his blood at Ravello is believed to liquefy like that of Januarius. Churches were dedicated to him in Constantinople and Rome. Feast: 27 July.
Source: Farmer, D.H. (2011) The Oxford Dictionary of Saint. 5th ed. rev. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.342.
