Panteleimion, whose name means all-compassionate or all-merciful, was born in 275 A.D. He's listed as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, called a wonder-worker, healer and great martyr. Trained as a physician, he dedicated his life to the unfortunate, to sufferers, prisoners and the needy - all without charge.
Healing a paralytic aroused jealousy in other local physicians who brought charges against him. It's said that at the moment of Panteleimion's execution, the olive tree beneath which he had been tortured, was suddenly covered with fruit: a spiritual-poetic image of the Christian life bearing the fruit of charity.
Here the holy saint is depicted with his medicine box; dispensing spoon at the ready. Notice the box contains four compartments. Four (a quaternity: like a square or rectangle) signifies completion or wholeness, as if to say Panteleimion possessed everything needed to effect healing.
Maybe Panteleimion was an expert in combining his four herbal ingredients. There are 15 combinations of four - the basic four, or each alone, then each combined with one, two or three others. Maybe we can imagine attaching a healing prayer to each. And utter one extra to make for an even 16. Maybe Panteleimion has one remedy up his sleeve!
Panteleimion is a patron saint of livestock; midwives; sufferers of headache, loneliness and consumption; locusts; the lottery and lottery winners; crying babies and witchcraft. Almost all of these have to do with external realities. We can do better with our prayer, as heaven's real work is interior: our inner growth and maturation, the waking up (seed-like) of what is latent within each human person by God's design.
Panteleimion died young in 305 A.D. His feast day on the Western calendar is July 27; on the Eastern calendar, August 9.
Panteleimion, restore human dignity to our degraded condition.
Panteleimion, a powerful healing of our war-obsession.
Panteleimion, we need a medicine to heal our fear of asking WHY.
Panteleimion, rid us of the worm of our hatred.
Panteleimion, insults fly like disease-bearing insects; relieve us.
Panteleimion, repair our spiritual lethargy.
Panteleimion, preserve what's healthy and good.
Panteleimion, rehabilitate the addicted.
Panteleimion, cure the prejudice.
Panteleimion, antidote for our discouragement and settled sadness.
Panteleimion, mend our rifts.
Panteleimion, put us right in our wearying fears.
Panteleimion, anti-serum for the poison of power abuse.
Panteleimion, make well again the culture in decline.
Panteleimion, soothe our anxious pettiness.
Panteleimion, calm the inflamed anger.
