Saint Pantaleon

Panteleimon remained for seven days with the good old man, nourishing his soul and heart with the abundance of the word of life he received from him. Thus he prepared himself, by strengthening himself in the true spirit of Christianity, to become an instrument of salvation for a great number. On the eighth day, he returned to his father, who said to him: "Where were you, my son, during these last days? Your absence caused me great anxiety. Has something happened to you?"

Panteleimon replied: "We had gone, my master and I, to one of the emperor's courtiers who, being very gravely ill, needed constant care. We therefore remained there for seven full days, not wishing to leave until he had recovered perfect health."

He said this, not in a spirit of lying, but to express mysteriously what had happened, acting with very judicious prudence, and not out of any ill intent.

The following day, when Panteleimon returned to his master Euphrosyne, he was also questioned by him, and replied with a similar excuse: "My father," he said, "having bought a piece of land, ordered me to take care of it. I therefore had to go there and not return until I had sufficiently examined it, and distributed the work to those who must cultivate it; for it is a possession of such great price that no other is comparable to it."

He said this to designate in veiled terms the inappreciable grace of holy baptism. He also took the greatest care not to omit anything that could withdraw his father from the fatal error in which he was plunged. Wishing to win him to the true religion, and to give the life of grace to him from whom he had received temporal life, he did not cease to attack him skillfully every day from some side, and to pose questions to him that would be difficult to answer, in order to weaken little by little in his mind the belief in false gods.

"Why," he said to him, "O my father, are some of your gods always standing without ever thinking of sitting down? Why are the others always sitting without ever rising?" His father did not know how to answer, and the idea he had of the power of his gods diminished day by day. Panteleimon thanked Christ in the depths of his soul, seeing that his father's heart was, if not yet entirely won, at least already divided, so that from then on he no longer offered as frequent or as magnificent sacrifices as he had done before.

Panteleimon had first thought of breaking and annihilating his father's idols; for there were many in his house. He did not do so, however, because he had it very much at heart not to do anything disrespectful toward his father, and also because he said to himself: "By persuasion and gentleness, I will more easily bring him to the faith of Christ, and then together we will both break these vain simulacra."

Because of this, our God, who commanded to honor parents, seeing the pious designs of this excellent young man, gave him a favorable opportunity to execute them. For when Panteleimon was still occupied with searching in his mind for ways to win his father, some men brought to his dwelling a blind man whom they were leading by the hand. They knocked at the door, asking if the physician Panteleimon was there. They were answered in the affirmative, and they waited for him. Our Saint, having been warned, took his father with him, came to them, and when he was near the blind man, he asked him what he wanted. The sick man replied: "I am deprived of light, which is for all men the sweetest good. Have pity on my ills; make it so that I no longer live thus only half-alive, but that I see the sun, that I see the sky; in the infirmity that afflicts me, I am like a man plunged into the depths of the shadows of hell. I have spent all my wealth to be treated by physicians; I have gained nothing but to ruin myself completely, and to lose the faint glimmer that still remained to me."

— "Well," replied Panteleimon, "if I make you recover your sight, what will you give me?"

"The little that remains to me," replied the unfortunate blind man, "I will give willingly and with a great heart, in reward for such a benefit."

Panteleimon replied: "The Father of lights will restore to you through my ministry the sight you desire; as for the money you promised me, you will give it to the poor."

The senator, hearing these words, interrupted him by saying: "Do not undertake this, O my dear son; for you would become, you too, a subject of mockery. Can you then do more than the other physicians to whom he has already addressed himself?"

Panteleimon replied: "No one until now has known how to treat this man as I am going to treat him. There is a great difference between the other physicians and the master who gave me his lessons."

His father, believing that he meant Euphrosyne, said to him: "I know that your master himself gave him care without being able to succeed in healing him."

Panteleimon replied: "Wait only a moment, O my father, and you will see what is going to happen."

At these words, he touched the eyes of the blind man, and invoked with a fervent prayer the holy name of Christ. The eyes of the blind man were suddenly opened; and this miracle, dissipating the darkness of impiety that filled the soul of Eustorgius, forced him to confess the true faith. The blind man also received a double benefit; for, as he was a worshiper of idols, the eyes of his soul were no Eustorge Bishop of Limoges who oversaw the translation of relics in 1130. less closed than those of his body. Both believed; and, having been judged worthy of holy baptism, were admitted to the number of the faithful. Eustorgius did not stop there: as a worthy father of the great Panteleimon, he felt that he must destroy the idols that filled his house. He broke them, and had them buried in a pit, so that they would be forever plunged into the oblivion they deserved.

One cannot express the joy that this good son felt to see his father on the path of the eternal saint; he gave a thousand praises to God as the author of such a great good, and was inflamed more and more with the desire to please Him and to do something extraordinary for His service. The death of his father, which occurred shortly thereafter and which God sent to this good old man to put him out of danger of losing the grace received in baptism, provided him with a fine opportunity. Seeing himself the heir to all his goods and in the power to dispose of them, he freed his slaves and gave them enough to make an honest establishment in the world; he sold a portion of his assets and distributed the money to the poor; he disposed of his furniture and jewels in favor of widows and orphans; in a word, if he kept anything for himself, it was only to be able to continue his alms and to have the means to relieve all kinds of miserable people until his death. His condition as a physician led him to devote himself to visiting prisoners and the sick. But what was admirable in his conduct was that he effectively remedied three kinds of evils: poverty, by giving abundantly to those in need to relieve their misery; sickness, by healing the most desperate ailments, not by the rules of Hippocrates and Galen, but by the virtue of Jesus Christ; and the needs of the soul, by converting sinners and enlightening the infidels with the pure lights of the Christian religion.

Such brilliant actions soon brought him such a reputation that there was no one in Nicomedia, poor or rich, who did not want to have him as a physician, and people came to him from all sides as to a man who held life and death, health and sickness in his hands. But what should have won him the goodwill of everyone excited the hatred and envy of the other physicians. They feared that his admirable cures would make them pass for ignorant and diminish their earnings. Thus, learning that Pantaleon was in continuous relations with the Christians and that those he healed were or became of that religion, they went to denounce him as a Christian to Maximian, who was then in Nicomedia, pointing out to him that, if he did not put an order to it, he would soon see Christia nity est Maximien Roman emperor associated with the persecutions. ablished and the worship of the gods entirely ruined. They confirmed what they said by bringing before the prince the blind man whom they had not been able to heal with their remedies, and whom Pantaleon had healed by invoking the name of Jesus Christ.

Maximian asked him how he had recovered his sight. He replied courageously that he was indebted to Pantaleon for it, and that it was not by remedies, but by the virtue of the Almighty, who was none other than Jesus Christ, that it had been restored to him. "Do not say that," replied Maximian; "but acknowledge that you owe such a signal favor to our gods."

"But how can it be," said the healed blind man, "that those who do not see and who have neither feeling nor life give sight; that is beyond all appearance and even against all kinds of reason."

Maximian immediately flew into a fury against him and ordered that his head be cut off: which was executed. Saint Pantaleon, being warned of this, bought his body and had it buried next to that of his father, considering them both as children whom he had begotten to the faith and to grace and with whom he had a most holy and divine alliance, which infinitely surpassed that of flesh and blood.

Some time later, the emperor had Pantaleon summoned, whom he treated at first with enough gentleness, contenting himself with pointing out the love he bore him, the kindnesses he had shown him, the care he had taken to have him educated, and the intention he had had to appoint him his physician. "It is not believable, after that," he added, "that you should be ungrateful toward me and that you should revolt against the justice of my ordinances, by refusing the gods of the empire the worship that I wish to be rendered to them."

— "I must not hide it from you, great prince," said Pantaleon, "I no longer worship your gods, I no longer recognize them as true divinities: I worship only Jesus Christ, my sovereign Lord, who has the power to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, walking to the lame, and life to the dead. If your gods had this power, they would deserve some honor; but, to show that they do not have it, and that Jesus Christ truly does, have a sick person brought here for whom all medicine despairs; let your priests invoke Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, and Neptune, and I will invoke the formidable name of Jesus Christ, and we shall see by whom he will be healed, so that he alone may be recognized as the true God."

The emperor agreed to this proposal. A paralytic was called who, for a very long time, had been so crippled in all his limbs that all human remedies had become useless to him. The idolaters did what they could with their prayers, their cries, and their sacrifices to obtain his healing, but it was in vain. The prayers of Pantaleon were much more effective. He raised his eyes and hands to heaven, and, after having offered his prayers to the true God, he took the paralytic by the hand, raised him from his bed, commanded him to walk in the name of Jesus Christ, and immediately the sick man found himself happily delivered from his ailment and in the free use of his whole body.

This miracle had a marvelous effect on the minds of all the spectators. Most recognized the truth, and, rising from their spiritual paralysis, began to have movements useful for heaven. As for the idolatrous priests and the physicians who, through their own fault, were in a state beyond healing, they did not receive the light of the truth; but approaching Maximian, they stirred up his fury against the Saint by saying to him: "If you let this impious man live, our gods and our sacrifices will soon be annihilated: our religion will be relegated to the rank of fables: the Christians will laugh at us, and their affairs will prosper more and more."

Maximian easily lent an ear to this perfidious discourse; he had the Saint brought in, and as if he had wished to show him his benevolence by giving him salutary advice, he said to him: "Believe me, Pantaleon: sacrifice to the gods. Do you not see that all those who have not wished to be persuaded to do so have been punished for their sacrilegious incredulity by torments and by death? You have seen the fate of Anthimus, that foolish old man who de Anthime Second bishop of Albi and disciple of Saint Clair. spised our gods. But I have pity on your youth; know then that you will perish like him in torments, if you persist in the same disobedience."

Pantaléon took great care not to let himself be seduced by these counsels, the perfidy of which he knew; as for the threats, he despised them, knowing that the pains of this life, compared to eternity, are but shadows. He therefore replied: "Do not think, O emperor, that you can win me over with your promises or frighten me with your threats. Could I be tempted by the love of the goods of this world or frightened by passing torments, I who not only despise death, but who even desire to suffer it for the love of Christ? Far from fearing the torments, I would fear that they were too few and too light: in this regard, I dread clemency more than rigor. As for Anthimus, I envy his fate; for I know that he is not unhappy, as you are destined to be, but that he enjoys beatitude. I place his glorious death above the sweetest life, since he has crowned his old age with such a beautiful end and heightened the luster of his white hair with the purple of martyrdom. If, therefore, in this advanced age, he showed such great strength and such constancy, is it not just that I, who am in the strength of youth, should endure the same pains to arrive at the same crown? You will not persuade me, you will not defeat me: I swear it by these evident signs, by these countless miracles that have brought me to the knowledge of the true faith; for otherwise, I would dishonor the memory of my father and my mother who formed me in piety, and with whom I hasten to go and rest in the eternal tabernacles."

Thus spoke Pantaleon, showing clearly enough to the tyrant, too proud of his empire, what kind of man he was about to fight. No longer knowing what to say to him, Maximian had recourse to torture, preferring to abuse his power rather than act according to true wisdom and prudence.

Pantaleon was first seized, tied to the rack, and torn with iron claws; at the same time, his sides were burned with flaming torches. In the midst of this torture, he seemed to feel nothing, for his soul was raised toward Him from whom he awaited his help. His hope was not deceived: Christ appeared to him in the figure of the old man Hermolaus and gave him the sweetest consolations. "I am with you," He said to him, "in all these torments that you suffer for my love with such great patience."

This divine liberator gave him signs of his assistance without delay: the arms of the lictors were as if numbed, the torches extinguished themselves; and the emperor ordered the execution to be suspended for the moment, not knowing even if he would have it recommenced later. He therefore had the martyr untied, not because he was touched by a feeling of compassion, but because he was undecided on the course he should take. Approaching him then, he said: "What is this magical art, O Pantaleon, by which you have tired the lictors and caused the torches to be extinguished?"

Pantaleon replied: "My magical science is the power of Christ who comes to assist me and who Himself performs all these wonders."

"And what will you do," the emperor resumed, "if I make you undergo even greater torments?"

"Then," the martyr replied, "I shall be entitled to a greater reward."

Maximian ordered a bronze cauldron to be brought, lead to be melted in it, and the martyr to be plunged into the burning metal. The emperor's orders were carried out; but, at the moment of undergoing this terrible ordeal, Pantaleon asked for the help of Him who could transform the heat of this cauldron into a sweet refreshment, and he said: "Lord, hear me when I pray to you: deliver my soul from the fear of enemies. Protect me against the plots of the wicked, against the multitude of those who commit iniquity."

Such was his prayer; immediately Christ, appearing to him a second time in the form of the holy old man Hermolaus, entered the cauldron with him: at that very instant the fire went out, and the martyr suffered no harm from it. The martyr then began to pray again, and choosing this time a psalm of thanksgiving, he said: "I have cried to the Lord, and He has heard me; in the morning, at noon, and in the evening, I will recount His benefits and announce His greatness; and He will hear my prayer."

All those who were present felt filled with admiration; the emperor alone persisted in his blindness. He wondered what new torment he should use against the martyr of Christ to make him abandon the faith or to take his life. Several of the emperor's officers advised him to throw Pantaleon into the depths of the sea; for, after the death of the martyrs, Christians were accustomed to carefully collect their relics. The emperor yielded to this advice; he ordered that a large stone be tied to the saint's neck and that he be cast into the sea. The satellites carried out this order; but God took care to send His help to the one who was suffering for Him, as was soon seen. For when they had arrived at the shore and had tied a stone to Pantaleon's neck, they threw him into the sea; but Christ, appearing for the third time, still in the form of Hermolaus, caused this large stone to float like a tree leaf; and the Lord, taking the saint by the hand, as He once did the apostle Saint Peter, made him walk upon the waves. It was easy to recognize by this that the liberator and savior of the martyr was He who, as the holy King David says, finds in the sea and upon the abyss of the waves paths and trails that no one could know.

Pantaleon thus reached the shore, blessing God with an outpouring of gratitude worthy of his greatness of soul and the immense benefits he had received. The emperor, seeing him reappear against his expectations, said to him: "Is the sea also subject to your enchantments?"

Pantaleon replied: "The sea obeys, like all other elements, the orders it receives from God; for if your servants obey the orders you give them, you whose reign will last only a few days, how could all creatures not obey the voice of the eternal monarch?"

The tyrant, without letting himself be convinced by all these prodigies, but still hoping to persuade Pantaleon to return to the worship of false gods, ordered that wild beasts of every kind be brought. The satellites obeyed: the beasts were brought; and the emperor, showing them to Pantaleon, wanted to inspire fear in him, and on the other hand, feign being moved by compassion. He therefore said to him: "These wild animals that you see have been brought to make you perish. If therefore you have any pity for yourself, for as for me, I am touched by your youth and your beauty, let yourself be persuaded; show your prudence by choosing, while you still can, life rather than death, happiness, glory, and delights in preference to shame and pain."

The saint replied: "If, even before having experienced the help of God, I did not let myself be won over by your promises, I will listen to you even less now, after having received such striking proofs of God's protection over me. Why do you seek, O emperor, to frighten me by the sight of the beasts? He who rendered the hands of the executioners powerless, who extinguished the fire and restored the boiling lead to its natural temperature; He finally who knew how to chain the waves of the sea, will also know how to soften the fury of the wild beasts and make them gentler than lambs."

The martyr of Christ, not wishing to obey the tyrant's orders and preferring to be delivered to the wild beasts rather than worship demons, the whole city gathered to see what was going to happen. The saint was brought; he presented himself, brave as a lion, just as his name indicates. His gait was firm; one saw nothing in his gaze that seemed to implore pity. And how could it have been otherwise, since Christ, appearing to him once more in the figure of Hermolaus, ordered him to take courage?

When the tyrant had given the order to release the beasts, it was believed that they would immediately tear our holy martyr to pieces; but such was not the will of Him who said: "The place of your refuge is an inaccessible height: evils shall not reach you, and scourges shall not penetrate to your dwelling. You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon underfoot."

The hope of the faithful servant of God was therefore not deceived. Indeed, far from doing any harm to the saint, the beasts seemed to have lost all their ferocity; for they came to lie at his feet and licked them gently: each of them seemed to want to get ahead of the others; and they only withdrew after the saint, placing his hand on their heads, had given them his blessing.

All the people who were present were seized with admiration and cried out: "Great is the God of the Christians: He is the only one, He is the true God!" Others cried: "Let the just man be set free."

But what! He who alone on this day was truly ferocious, the emperor, blamed the beasts because they did not serve his desires, and he ordered that they all be taken away and killed; for he could not endure the lesson of humanity they had given him. The bodies of these animals that had been slaughtered in this way remained for several days without being devoured by other carnivorous animals. God permitted this for the glory of His faithful servant and for the instruction of the impious men who persecute His saints. The emperor ordered the bodies of these animals to be thrown into a pit and then deliberated with his officers on what he should do regarding Pantaleon. "You see," he said to them, "that he has already won a great number of men to the faith of Christ; what shall I do now to remain the victor in this struggle?" They replied: "A wheel must be made, which will be placed on some mountain. Pantaleon will be tied to this wheel; then it will be launched with violence down the steep slope, so that all his limbs may be broken."

Such were the counsels of the impious, always prompt to invent new crimes; but God, who watches unceasingly over those who love Him, defended Pantaleon as His beloved son.

The holy martyr was left in prison for all the time it took to build this wheel. When everything was ready, a great multitude gathered to witness this spectacle: the emperor himself was present. The martyr was tied to the wheel, and it was launched with force down the slope of the mountain. Pantaleon did not cease to pray: the divine words of the psalms were always on his lips, and he ardently implored the help of the Almighty. God showed well that He was with His servant; for the bonds broke, the martyr remained safe and sound; and the wheel, appearing to want to defend him rather than do him harm, killed many infidels. Thus was accomplished the just punishment of these wicked men; it showed that the Lord judges according to justice, and that the God of vengeance freely exercises His wrath upon the impious. At this prodigy, the city was filled with fear, and the emperor himself remained in astonishment. But, as he was still blinded by his vices and could not see the light of truth, he asked the saint: "What does all this mean? How long will you continue to lead a part of our people into your false doctrine, causing the loss of the others, so that the latter die miserably, and the others, by becoming Christians, become our enemies?" He then asked him who was the master who had instructed him in Christianity.

Pantaleon, without hesitation, named Her Hermolaus Christian priest and catechist of Saint Pantaleon. molaus, unable to leave in silence and oblivion a man who was so worthy of appearing in the light, and not of remaining ignored in an obscure retreat. The emperor ordered him to bring him before him, and the Martyr did not delay, knowing that the holy old man had enough knowledge and ease of speech that it would be easy for him to resist all attacks and to procure great conversions. He therefore left with three soldiers under whose guard he had been placed, and went to the house that served as a retreat for the holy old man Hermolaus. When the latter saw him: "What do you come to do," he said to him, "O my son, and what motive brings you?"

Pantaleon replied: "My father, the emperor calls you to appear before him."

— "I know it," replied Hermolaus; "it is now the time to suffer and to die for Christ, as he himself revealed to me last night."

They were therefore both brought before the emperor; and the latter, questioning the old man, asked him: "Who are you? and what is your name?" Hermolaus named himself; and the emperor having asked him if there were no other Christians hidden with him, he also named Hermippus and Hermocrates; for he would never have wanted to di sguise th Hermippus Martyr companion of Hermolaus. e tr uth. They Hermocrate Martyr companion of Hermolaus. were likewise brought before the emperor, and when they were reunited with Hermolaus, the emperor said to them: "Is it you who seduced Pantaleon to make him abandon the worship of the gods?"

They replied: "Christ himself knows well how to call to the light those who are worthy of it."

The emperor resumed: "Let us leave these vain reveries there. If you want to obtain pardon for the crime you have committed, persuade Pantaleon to sacrifice to the gods; if you succeed, I will count you among my friends, and I will give you the first dignities of the empire."

— "Ha! how would we do it," they replied, "since we are well decided ourselves never to abandon Christ, and never to sacrifice to your powerless divinities?"

They spoke, and raised their eyes to heaven. While they were praying, the Savior appeared to them full of glory and majesty, and in all the surroundings a violent earthquake was felt.

The emperor, quite frightened, said: "Behold, our indignant gods are making the earth tremble."

The Martyrs gave him this answer, which testified to their wisdom and courage: "What will you say then, O emperor, if your gods themselves are overturned?"

They had not finished this word, when one of the palace officers ran up shouting: "O emperor, the gods, what a dreadful misfortune! the gods have fallen and broken on the temple floor."

Any man gifted with a little judgment would have recognized the hand of the almighty Lord performing these wonders; but Maximian was not susceptible to opening his eyes to the light. He showed at once what fruit he had drawn from these warnings from heaven, and how much better he had become; for, after having subjected the three generous confessors to the cruelest tortures, he had their heads cut off. As for Pantaleon, he had him taken back to prison during that time. The Christians took care to collect the bodies of the holy Martyrs, and to give them an honorable burial.

Maximian then had Panteleimon taken from his dungeon and said to him: "Do you think you will leave my hands alive without having consented to sacrifice to the gods? Do you not wish to imitate the example of your masters Hermolaus, Hermippus, and Hermocrates, who have taken the right path? Indeed, as a reward for their obedience, I have given them high dignities in my palace. If, therefore, you do as they have done, if you imitate their happy change, then you will see, O Panteleimon, that while I am severe when it comes to punishing the wicked and the obstinate, I am liberal and magnificent when it is necessary to reward those who know how to obey."

It was thus that, in order to win over the holy Martyr, he lied with impudence, trying to make him believe that his companions had abandoned the faith. But Panteleimon, enlightened by a divine light, confounded him by saying: "Why then do I not see them near you among the officers who surround you?"

Maximian, continuing his lies, replied: "They are absent because an urgent matter has forced me to send them to another city."

The Martyr replied: "You are forced against your will to tell the truth: for they are in heaven, and they truly dwell in the holy city of God."

After having tried every means to win over Panteleimon, the impious tyrant, seeing that he could not break his courage with his threats nor win him over with his promises, had him cruelly scourged, not to make an impression on the Martyr's mind, but to satisfy his own cruelty. Then he pronounced the sentence which stated that Panteleimon would have his head cut off, and that his body would then be burned. The athlete of Christ was then seized by the executioners and dragged to the place where his torment was to end. He arrived there full of joy, knowing by what ineffable consolations his pains were to be rewarded. On the way, he sang this psalm of David: "Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked."

God performed in this circumstance a miracle no less great than those that had preceded it; for when the executioners had bound the Martyr to the trunk of an olive tree, one of them tried to cut off his head; immediately the edge of the sword softened like wax, and the neck of the holy Martyr showed no trace of a wound.

At this sight, terror seized the murderers: they approached Panteleimon, asking for mercy and embracing the feet of the one whom, just a moment before, they did not judge worthy to live, and confessing loudly that they believed in Christ. The Saint not only forgave them for the malice they had shown toward him, but also obtained for them the pardon of God. For, after he had asked for it in prayer, a voice was heard saying to him: "Your requests are granted. Therefore, from now on you shall no longer be called Panteleimon, but Pantel Pantaléémon Martyred physician of Nicomedia, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. eimon, that is to say, the merciful: a name that will not be in vain; for many will obtain mercy through your intercession."

When the Saint had heard this voice, he turned toward the lictors, telling them to do what they had been commanded. They refused, saying that they could not lend themselves to such an act; the Martyr, for his part, insisted: they were thus divided, not knowing whether they should obey their righteous compassion or the pressing solicitations of the holy Martyr. Finally, after having embraced him and given him every possible mark of veneration, they cut off his head on the twenty-seventh day of July.

After his passing, he was further glorified by new miracles, God wishing to make illustrious before men the name of the one who had given his life for his love. Instead of blood, milk flowed from his wounds; and the olive tree to which he had been bound by the executioners appeared suddenly laden with fruit. This fact having come to the knowledge of the emperor, he ordered that this tree trunk be used to burn the body of the Martyr, as he had previously ordered. But the soldiers who had witnessed this spectacle were horrified by the cruelty of the tyrant; and they behaved toward him like the Magi toward Herod: they did not return to him; but they went away proclaiming the glory of God and his Martyr. The faithful gathered the holy body and carried it to the country house of a man of letters named Adamantius, and there they gave him an honorable burial.

He is depicted bound to a tree, and the Germans represent him with his hands nailed to his head. He is also seen holding a sword with a palm in his hand, and at his feet a lion that is caressing him.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The relics of this glorious Martyr were transported to Constantinople, and they were already there, in the place called Concorde, at the time of the second General Council which was celebrated in that city in 350. A church was built there in his honor, which was restored by Justinian, as reported by the historian Procopius . The Emper Charlemagne Emperor of the Franks and uncle of Saint Folquin. or Charlemagne, having obtained these same relics, had them brought to France. The head was placed in Lyon and the rest of the b ones in the famous ab abbaye de Saint-Denis Site housing a relic of an Innocent. bey of Saint-Denis, two leagues from Paris. The ci ty of Ravello, in royaume de Naples Place of the saint's death. the kingdom of Naples, still preserves today, in its cathedral church, a vial full of the bloo sang de ce Martyr Relic that miraculously liquefies in Lavelle. d of this Martyr, which is exposed every year on the day of his triumph, and which, as it is said, becomes liquid at that time, although for the rest of the year it is cold and congealed. Physicians honor Saint Pantaleon as their principal patron, after Saint Luke.

The martyrology of the Greeks and the martyrologies of the Latins all mark the memory of Saint Pantaleon and his companions on this day, July 27. Baronius also speaks of him in his Annals.

Acta Sanctorum; the Acts of the Martyrs, by the R.R. PP. Benedictines of the Congregation of France.