A saint's day
St Panteleimon the Healer
St Panteleimon was a young physician of Nicomedia, born to a pagan father and a Christian mother. The priest Hermolaus brought him to Christ, and after he raised a child killed by a snake he was baptized with the name Panteleimon, “all-merciful.” From then on he treated everyone without payment, healing in the name of Christ, until envious physicians betrayed him and he was beheaded around 305.
The dates
- Kept on
- 27 July (9 August on the Old Calendar)
- Next, New Calendar
- Next, Old Calendar
The New Calendar (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches, the OCA and most converts) keeps fixed feasts on the church date; the Old Calendar (the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos) keeps them 13 days later. Pascha and the feasts that follow it are kept on the same day by both.
How the day is kept
His name is invoked in the Mystery of Holy Unction and at the sanctification of water, with the other unmercenary physicians.
Families of the sick read the akathist to him, and Orthodox doctors and nurses keep his icon close.
His venerable head rests at the Russian monastery of St Panteleimon on Mount Athos, and his patronage of soldiers is especially strong in Russia.
Name days
These names keep their name day on this feast: