Saint Panteleimon the Great Martyr and Healer

Saint Panteleimon is an early Christian physician, a great martyr and an image of merciful service to others. He lived in Nicomedia at the turn of the third and fourth centuries and, according to his life, after receiving Christianity he helped the sick and the needy without payment. In iconography he is traditionally depicted as a young man with a healer’s instruments. People pray to Saint Panteleimon for healing, for the health of those close to them, for help to physicians and for strength during illness.

Veneration of Panteleimon spread after his martyrdom at the beginning of the fourth century. Byzantine iconography developed a characteristic image of the young healer with a physician’s instruments.