“...Whether we receive it faster or slower, let us remain grateful to the Lord, because everything that the Master does is arranged for the sake of our salvation; But let us not stop asking out of cowardice.”
Saint Basil the Great.
People are sinful by nature and the Lord allows them various ailments. People get sick and pray more fervently to the saints for the health of themselves and their loved ones, and believe that their heavenly patrons will not abandon them. To recover from an illness, they travel far away to the relics of especially revered saints. One of the favorite heavenly healers, who showed hundreds of healings to the world, was the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon.
Iconography: Panteleimon, great martyr. Dating: XX century. Icon painting school or art center: Russia. Material: Wood, oil. Dimensions of the icon: height 71 cm, width 52.5 cm. Half-length image of the saint. In his left hand he holds a small casket with medicines, and in his right hand a spoon. © Omsk Regional Museum of Fine Arts named after M.A. Vrubel
Where are the relics of the saint today?
The healer’s holy relics scattered like life-saving particles throughout the world. Its honorable head has been carefully guarded by monks in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos for 16 centuries. It is here that pilgrims, who have lost hope of recovery, rush to venerate the relics of their beloved patron and pray for health for themselves and their loved ones.
Not everyone can go to Greece. Thank God, in every Russian church there is an icon depicting Panteleimon. Often holy relics are placed on temple icons, in reliquaries. The saint holds a casket in one hand and a spoon in the other. And only he alone knows how to heal body and soul in the name of Jesus.
What does Saint Panteleimon the Healer help with?
Panteleimon is the protector of doctors, sailors and military personnel. People whose professions involve protecting others need to read a prayer not only to Panteleimon, but also to the Lord. This should make their hard work easier and encourage them.
The icon of Panteleimon helps:
- patients with the most severe diseases;
- for any life difficulties;
- heals not only the body, but also the soul;
- improves well-being;
- helps maintain health, strengthen the spirit and give strength.
Panteleimon, as Orthodox Christians say, always helps in everything. Moreover, this will not depend on the status or religion of the person turning to him.
It is recommended to read the prayer in front of the icon. If you don’t have it in your house, it is recommended to purchase it at one of the church shops at the temple. While reading, you need to be alone with the icon; a lit candle will help you tune in to the right mood. When reading a prayer, it is important to think about every word and pronounce it with sincere love. You can also order church liturgy, magpie, prayer services. However, it is important to remember that a prayer spoken from a pure heart cannot be compared with anything.
Particles of relics in churches in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ryazan
In many Russian cities, pieces of the relics of the healer Panteleimon are preserved.
In Moscow:
- in the Zachatievsky Stavropegic Convent, in Khamovniki, between the Moscow River and Ostozhenka Street;
- in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, near Sokolniki.
In St. Petersburg:
- in the Church of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, building 2A on Pestel Street;
- in the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God of the local metochion of the Valaam monastery, on Narvsky Prospekt;
- in the Church of the Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon in Tarkhovka.
In Ryazan:
- in the Nikolo-Yamsky Church, on Tsiolkovsky Street-8;
- in the temple of the healer Panteleimon, in Diaghilevsky.
But not only in the listed cities, in many churches and monasteries of Orthodox Russia these shrines are carefully preserved.
Why do people trust a saint?
After the death of his father, the young man spent his entire life treating the sick, the poor, the needy, and the persecuted. He never took money for his work. He often visited prisons and helped prisoners, especially Christians, whose persecution was very fierce at that time.
Useful materials
Nowadays it is difficult to imagine such a feat of a doctor, but what is impossible for man is possible for the Lord. Many cases have been witnessed when, through prayers to Saint Panteleimon, doctors performed successful operations, and patients recovered faster. The saint of God does not refuse anyone. Helps people who have lost hope of healing. That is why they go to Panteleimon to ask for help from serious bodily ailments.
People often pray to him for the healing of diseases of the soul, in moments of despair, despondency and depression. Relatives ask for patronage for the military, sailors, emergency workers, and doctors. Because the Great Martyr Panteleimon is considered the patron saint of warriors. Pantoleon – his first name means “lion in everything.”
It is military people who experience the hardships of service and receive severe physical and mental wounds that do not heal for a long time. They really need the help and protection of their heavenly patron. And Healer Panteleimon helps everyone who sincerely, with deep faith turns to him and heals in the name of Jesus Christ.
This is interesting: Holy Healer Panteleimon
“The young man was looking at me. It turned out that the healer is Panteleimon” - a doctor’s story about a personal miracle
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes.
Dmitry GLINSKY
Once upon a time, about 40 years ago, my grandmother prayed to the healer Panteleimon for my salvation. For several months, I, then a three-year-old baby, balanced over the abyss in the surgical department of the Moscow Children's Hospital. Rusakova. According to doctors, there was practically no chance of survival. Mom was already thinking about what to bury such a little one in, but grandma didn’t give up. She was sure that this saint would hear her. Days and nights she tried to reach him. The saint heard. I survived.
Much later, she whispered to me that it was the healer Panteleimon who took me under his wing and begged me from the Lord when there was absolutely no hope left.
Grandmother died a long time ago. For many years I lived an absolutely secular life, in which the words “temple”, “saints”, “prayer” surfaced only at Easter, when the house smelled dizzyingly of Easter cakes and the words “Christ is risen”, which I did not understand, were said. Yes, due to my profession, I have seen many miraculous healings, but I attributed them more to some inexplicable coincidences - “wow, wow!” - than to the grace of God.
Everyone has their own road to church, although it seems to me that for me it is similar to a million other roads: a loved one got sick. He became seriously ill, one might say fatally. At such moments, you begin to look for That Same thing - something that will help, that will support and show the way. “God help!” - burst out from my gut. And I went to the temple.
Days, weeks, months passed. I already understood what an akathist, a liturgy, a magpie were. I believed and prayed, but it didn’t get any easier. Neither my loved one’s health, nor my soul’s. But I didn't give up.
Every day the way to work passed by a small icon shop. I once flew past, I once stopped, looking at the goods in her window. Maybe nothing would have happened that morning if at home, reading the morning rule, I had not howled from powerlessness: “I believe, Lord! Help my unbelief!
The eyes of a young man looked at me from the window. Perhaps they didn’t even just look, but stopped me then. “I’m with you,” they seemed to say. I stopped. I looked at the icon, looked at the rest of the goods, then back at the icon... It was she who pulled me in. It was pulling hard, I felt it. "I'm with you!" - said the young man depicted on it.
I walked away. Returned. He stood still. And yet he asked the woman at the window:
— Tell me, what kind of icon is this? What kind of saint?
- This is the healer Panteleimon...
Panteleimon! The forgotten name resonated in every cell of mine. I remembered my childhood, my pain, my grandmother, and her words about the wing.
"I'm with you!" It seemed to me that everyone, including the saleswoman herself, could hear this voice, it was so clear.
— This is a completely new icon. They just brought it from the Kyiv Lavra yesterday.
I took it, put it in my bosom with a quick movement and ran to work. My heart seemed to let go. For the first time in months it became calm. "I'm with you!" - warmed me from the inside.
This is how an icon of a healer appeared in my home. There were still many problems ahead, but it was as if I was hugged by someone’s kind arms, I felt support and help. When it was difficult, the gaze itself came across the icon and the tension subsided.
There was no miracle with the health of my loved one. There was absolutely no chance there and I, as a doctor, understood this. But we were given a little more time to enjoy each other's company in this world. And I'm very grateful for that.
And still, there were many miracles in this story. Only they happened to me myself. Then, perhaps, I did not fully realize it, but as time passed, I understood a lot.
Having come to the temple to pray for the health of the sick person, I began to learn to take my own steps there. For the first time I confessed and took communion. Yes, the Lord, from Whom nothing is hidden, knew that my main desire would not be fulfilled. And now I realize that He then tried in every possible way to protect me, to caress me, to help, to insure me so that I would continue to walk towards Him, towards the light. I hope they ask me for such bold thoughts, but that’s exactly how I feel about it.
I constantly felt a hand from above. This manifested itself in everything: in people who appeared out of nowhere in my life, in books that I came across and received answers, in signs. I didn't feel dark and alone with my trouble. I was led and skillfully led to accept the inevitable with dignity and not turn away from faith with the death of a loved one.
If it weren’t for this incredible support then, then, most likely, at the finish line I would have simply been carried out of the temple, as many are carried out, shouting “I believed in you, Lord! I asked - and what happened in the end???!” This didn't happen to me. I didn’t throw icons off the shelves, I wasn’t disappointed.
You can laugh a thousand times at the “painted pieces of wood,” as some people who have not yet come to church call icons; you can not believe in saints, in God. This is a personal matter. But I know for sure that there is help from the saints. Moreover, they do not wait for us to contact them; they come on their own, hug us from behind and quietly pray to the Lord for us. And the Lord hears these prayers.
One of the strongest helpers in health problems is the healer Panteleimon (all-merciful). It is not for nothing that he is considered the patron saint of doctors and warriors.
Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon! Pray to God for us!
Prepared by Anastasia Bavinova
Reverence
| Relics of St. Panteleimon. Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery. Athos |
Lawrence, Vassa and Provian, servants of the great martyr, wrote a narrative about the life, suffering and death of the great martyr.
The memory of Saint Panteleimon has been revered by the Orthodox East since ancient times. Already in the century, churches were erected in the name of the saint in Armenian Sebastia and Constantinople. The blood and milk that flowed out during the beheading of the saint were kept for centuries and provided healing to the believers. The venerable relics of the Great Martyr Panteleimon were scattered in pieces throughout the Christian world. There are especially many of them on Holy Mount Athos.
His venerable head is kept in the Russian Athonite Monastery of St. Panteleimon, in the cathedral church dedicated to his name.
| Frontal part of the head of St. Panteleimon. Pavlov Monastery in honor of the Presentation of the Lord. Athos |
The frontal part of the head is on Mount Athos in the Paul Monastery in honor of the Presentation of the Lord.
| Right foot of St. Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon. Vatoped. Athos. |
The right foot of the great martyr is located in the Vatopedi monastery.
In Nicomedia, on the eve of July 27 - the day of remembrance of the holy great martyr - a solemn religious procession is held with the miraculous icon of the saint. Thousands of people - Orthodox Christians and non-Orthodox - Armenians, Catholics and even Mohammedans come and bring hundreds of sick people who receive healing through the prayers of the saint. In the church book Kontakion
, kept in the Nicomedia Metropolis, records two thousand autographs of Greeks, Turks, Italians and Armenians who received healing through the prayers of the Great Martyr Panteleimon.
The veneration of the holy martyr in the Russian Orthodox Church has been known since the 12th century. Grand Duke Izyaslav Mstislavich, in holy baptism Panteleimon, had an image of the great martyr on his battle helmet and through his intercession he remained alive in the battle of 1151. Under the command of Peter I, Russian troops won two naval victories over the Swedes on the day of remembrance of the Great Martyr Panteleimon: in 1714 at Gangut (Finland) and in 1720 at Grengam (a small harbor on the Åland Islands).
The name of the holy great martyr Panteleimon the healer is invoked when performing the sacrament of consecration of oil, consecration of water and prayer for the weak. His memory is especially solemnly celebrated in the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos. The cathedral in his name was built in 1826 according to the type of ancient Athonite temples. In the altar, in a precious ark, the main shrine of the monastery is kept - the head of St. Panteleimon. 8 days before the holiday, the forefeast begins. On these days, after Vespers, prayer canons are sung in 8 voices (it is noteworthy that there is a special canon for each day). On the day of the holiday, a solemn all-night vigil is held and thousands of guests and pilgrims participate in the service [2]. According to ancient tradition, pilgrims of the Russian Orthodox Church annually travel to Greece and to Holy Mount Athos on the day of remembrance of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon.
The Great Martyr Panteleimon is revered in the Orthodox Church both as the patron of warriors and as a merciful healer. These aspects of veneration reveal both his first and second names. The connection between these two patronages of the saint is clearly visible from the fact that warriors, who receive wounds more often than others, need a doctor-healer the most. That is why Christians waging spiritual warfare also resort to this saint with a request to heal the ulcers of the soul.
Amazed by the miracle, the Nicomedians betrayed the body of the great martyr to the ground.
From the wound of the murdered Panteleimon, milk flowed out along with the blood under the olive tree. The olive blossomed and was filled with healing fruits. Seeing such a miracle, many people believed in Christ. The soldiers threw the headless body into the fire.
But when it remained unharmed, ordinary people gave it to the land. Witnesses to the execution confessed Jesus Christ as the only true Lord and Savior and became Christians. This happened in 305.
Great Martyr Panteleimon in his life. Icon, Sinai, early 13th century. The earliest surviving icon
On all icons the saint is depicted with a medical casket in his hands
The miraculous icon of the Great Martyr Panteleimon helps not only the sick, it patronizes the military, sailors and doctors, people whose calling is to protect the lives of other people.
This is one of the most revered shrines not only in Russia, but also in many countries.
The saint is depicted on icons with a casket in his left hand.
His chest contains medical supplies. In his right hand he holds a medicine spoon. On some icons there is a cross in the doctor’s right hand, as a manifestation of what he heals through faith and prayer to the Lord. There is also an image of a saint holding a feather in his left hand as a sign of wisdom and generosity.
Panteleimon in his life. Icon. Moscow, Museum of Russian Icon. 1892
Martyrdom of Panteleimon
Following the denunciation of envious people, Panteleimon was arrested. The emperor invited him to renounce the Christian God and make a sacrifice to the pagan gods. In response to this, Panteleimon suggested calling some sick and pagan priest. So that everyone can see for themselves with the help of prayer to which God the sick person will receive healing.
When Saint Panteleimon called on the name of Jesus Christ, the sick man was healed. At the sight of such a miracle, many present began to confess the true God. The emperor, angry, ordered Panteleimon to be handed over to torture.
They tried to drown him in the sea, burned his body with burning candles, whittled him with iron claws, dipped him into a cauldron of oil, and threw him to hungry wild animals. However, nothing could cause mortal harm to Panteleimon. The Lord appeared to him repeatedly, healed his wounds and strengthened him in his suffering. Finally, the emperor ordered the saint's head to be cut off.
The warriors, having tied Panteleimon to an old olive tree, were unable to carry out the emperor's order. The sword went around the saint's neck and did not cause him any harm. Then the tormentors threw themselves at Panteleimon’s feet, asking him for forgiveness and confessing the Christian God. The holy martyr, after praying to God, begged to carry out the order of the emperor, for such was the will of the Lord. Then the soldiers cut off his head. According to legend, milk flowed from the wound. The olive tree, to which Panteleimon was tied, blossomed and bore fruit.
The emperor ordered the saint's body to be burned, but the fire did not harm him. Christians buried the body. The head of the great martyr is the main shrine of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery (Athos).
The icon patronizes everyone who saves lives
The icon is revered not only by Christians; there is probably not a person on earth who does not know how the miraculous image of the healer Panteleimon helps.
Being the spiritual patron of all who dedicated their lives to saving and healing people, he helps doctors and military personnel, rescuers and firefighters.
Helps all those who, while saving other people's lives, are themselves in danger.
Those who offer prayers to her for the health of themselves or their loved ones are helped to heal not only physical ailments, but also mental ones.
Prayer for health and healing
O great saint of Christ, passion-bearer and merciful physician, Panteleimon! Have mercy on me, a sinful slave, hear my groaning and cry, propitiate the heavenly, supreme Physician of our souls and bodies, Christ our God, may He grant me healing from the illness that oppresses me.
Accept the unworthy prayer of the most sinful man above all, visit me with a gracious visit, do not disdain my sinful sores, anoint them with the oil of your mercy and heal me: yes, healthy in soul and body, I can spend the rest of my days, by the grace of God, in repentance and pleasing God and I will be worthy to receive a good end to my life.
Hey, servant of God! Pray to Christ God, that through your intercession he may grant me health to my body and salvation to my soul. Amen.
The servants of Saint Panteleimon described his life
The life of the holy martyr was described in the 4th century by his servants: Vassa, Lawrence and Provian. Even then, a temple was erected in Constantinople in the name of the saint. The blood and milk that flowed out during the execution were kept there, healing believers, until the 10th century.
Ark with the head of the Great Martyr Panteleimon from Holy Mount Athos
Pilgrim[edit]
Telephone:
+30 2377 23252, +30 2377 23682 (the office answers calls from 10:00 to 12:00)
Directions:
Panteleimon Monastery is located on the shore of a small bay in the southwest of Mount Athos between the Daphne pier and the Xenophon monastery.
A pilgrim who wishes to visit the Panteleimon Monastery is provided with free accommodation in the monastery for a day, subject to availability. During this time, the pilgrim can participate in all services and meals, relax in the guest room (archondarik), venerate the shrines, leave memorial notes, visit the sights of the monastery and the monastery shop.
You can book a place in the archondarik in person, through a pilgrimage organization or travel agency, by sending your passport data to the Pilgrimage Service of the Panteleimon Monastery by email
If you wish to stay in the monastery for more than one day, the pilgrim must indicate the days of his stay on obedience in the application for visiting the monastery.
Pilgrims can reach the monastery of St. Panteleimon a) by ferry from Ouranoupolis or from Daphne, or from the Xenophon monastery, b) on foot from the Xenophon monastery or from the Xiropotamos monastery.
Life of the Holy Healer Panteleimon
On the icons the saint looks like a young man. He holds a casket and a spoon in his hands (as a symbol that he is a doctor who will always come to the rescue). The saint’s entire life was spent in daily helping the suffering: he was a doctor and, turning to God, healed people from illnesses. Once he was able to bring a dead man back to life and restore the sight of a blind man.
At that time, most people professed a pagan faith, and Christians were persecuted. Panteleimon was a Christian, so he was captured and taken into custody, where, by order of Emperor Maximilian, he was subjected to painful torture. This did not break the spirit of the saint; he prayed intensely, turning to the Lord, and this allowed him to withstand incredible torment. Even those who carried out the emperor's orders were admired by Panteleimon's courage and fortitude and believed him. Having learned about this, the emperor became furious and ordered Panteleimon's head to be cut off. His order was carried out.
After Panteleimon was beheaded, it was decided to burn his body, but the fire was unable to harm his flesh. When Christians saw what happened with their own eyes, they decided to bury the relics with honors.
