St. Pantaleon

St. Pantaleon (died c. 305), also called Panteleimon ("the all-compassionate") in the East, was according to tradition a physician of Nicomedia in Asia Minor, born of a pagan father and a Christian mother. Trained in medicine and serving as physician to the emperor Galerius, he lapsed for a time but was brought back to the faith by the priest Hermolaus, thereafter treating the sick freely and without payment for the love of Christ, healing many.

Denounced during the persecution of Diocletian, he confessed his faith and, after enduring a series of tortures from which he was said to be miraculously preserved, was finally beheaded. His veneration spread rapidly through both East and West, and a relic of his blood, kept at Ravello, is reported to liquefy on his feast, as with St. Januarius. He is honored as a patron of physicians and the sick and is counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers invoked against illness.