Saint Pantaleon

Pantaleon was born in Nicomedia, in Asia Minor, to a pagan father and a Christian mother, who died when he was young. He studied medicine and became so skilled that he was appointed physician to the emperor Galerius Maximian. Drawn into the pagan life of the court, he drifted from the faith, but a priest named Hermolaus brought him back to Christ.

From then on he devoted himself to the sick, treating the poor without charge, so that the Eastern Church honors him among the "unmercenary" healers. Jealous colleagues denounced him as a Christian during the persecution of Diocletian, and after many tortures he was beheaded around the year 305. His name was later understood to mean "all-compassionate," and in the East he is called Panteleimon. In the Middle Ages he was counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, invoked especially in sickness.

A relic of his blood kept in the cathedral of Ravello, Italy, and another at the Royal Monastery of the Incarnation in Madrid are said to liquefy around his feast, drawing many faithful to pray. Physicians and nurses ask his intercession, especially in Italy, Spain and the Orthodox world.