My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
On the 27th of July, Our Holy Orthodox Church Commemorates
the Holy and Great and Healer PANTELEIMON.
Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn. Third Tone
O HOLY prizewinner and healer Panteleimon, intercede with the
Merciful God that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of
offenses.
Kontakion Hymn. Plagal of First Tone
SINCE thou art an imitator of the Merciful One, and has received
from Him the grace of healing, O prizewinner and Martyr of Christ
our God, by thy prayers heal the diseases of our souls, and ever
dispel the stumbling-blocks of the enemy from them that cry
unceasingly: Save us, O Lord.
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The Saint, who had Nicomedia as his homeland, was the son of Eustorgius and Euvoula. His father was an idolater (pagan), but his mother was a Christian from her ancestors. It was through her that he was instructed in piety, and still later, he was catechized in the Faith of Christ by Saint Hermolaus and baptized by him. Being proficient in the physician’s vocation, he practiced it in a philanthropic manner, healing every illness more by the grace of Christ than by medicines. Thus, although his parents had named him Pantoleon ("in all things a lion"), because of the compassion he showed for the souls and bodies of all, he was worthily renamed Panteleimon, meaning "all-merciful." On one occasion, when he restored the sight of a certain blind man by calling on the Divine Name, he also enlightened the eyes of this man’s soul to the knowledge of the truth. The miracle brought many of the pagans to the Christian Faith. This also became the cause for the martyrdom of him who has been flind, since when he was asked by whom and in what manner his eyes had been opened, in imitation of that blind man of the Holy Gospel he confessed with boldness both who the physician was and the manner of his healing. For this he was put to death immediately. The Emperor put the Saint to torture, but the Lord appeared to him on several occasions and delivered him whole and uninjured. Condemned to death, Saint Panteleimon knelt in prayer. At that, the executioner gave him a blow on the neck with his sword, and the sword broke as if made of wax. The executioner could not kill him UNTIL HE HAD FINISHED HIS PRAYER AND HAD HIMSELF GIVEN THE WORD TO BEHEAD HIM. Saint Panteleimon was beheaded under an olive tree, which after that became laden with fruit. He was finally beheaded on July 27 305 A.D., during the reign of pagan emperor Maximian. Saint Panteleimon is one of the Holy Unmercenaries, and is held in special honor among them, even as Saint George is among the Holy Martyrs. God the All-Merciful received his righteous soul, and glorified him among His greatest Saints, his holy relics remaining incorrupt. Saint Panteleimon is invoked in the prayers at the Blessing of Water and the Blessing of Oil, together with Saint Hermolaus and the other unmercenaries and Wonderworkers. The loveliest church dedicated to him is to be found on the Holy Mountain, in Greece. [Source: The Great Horologion and The Prologue from Ochrid]
Please note: When we compare what our faith is to that of the Holy Martyrs and Saints of the Church, our faith is incomparably insignificant. A most pertinent question for us is if our government was to declare unlawful and a persecution against Christians, how many of us would be willing or ready to suffer and to die for Christ? We today are fair-weather Christians who may confess our devotion to Christ but our confession has not been tested as of now. We ought to know that many of the Christian martyrs of our Christian Church have been young men and young women.
Christian parents can also learn what it means to be a Christian parent from Saint Panteleimon’s holy mother who, although married to a pagan, raised her son in the Christian Faith. She instructed him from a child and taught him all that she knew about Christ and had him baptized. Currently there are many young Orthodox young men and women who are not married in the Church or civilly and have children but who are not either interested in having a Christian marriage or to baptize their children in the Faith. Christians especially in Western Europe today consider Christianity no different than an old custom or a superstition inherited from their parents. Even though some may admit to be Christian, they do not practice it or adhere to its precepts or morality, because they accept the secular positions on homosexuality, abortion, prostitution, "open marriage." and others that are totally unacceptable in our Christian Faith.
We also witness how very important prayer was to Saint Panteleimon and the Saints of the Church. Saint Panteleion would not consent to his beheading until he finished his prayer. How many of the Christians today have a prayer life or worship in Church as a family? It seems as though Christianity has been changed in the middle of the night, and that contemporary Christianity has become very permissive, tolerant to all practices and beliefs in society, there are no longer any restrictions, divine commandments, it is "all inclusive," and it has been water down or diluted to the point that Christianity has become one with the secular world or has been absorbed by the world. Who made this dreadful decision? Has anyone asked if this is acceptable by our Lord God Jesus Christ? Is this not His Church? What happened to His Ten Commandments? What happened to His Holy Gospel? What about 2,000 years of Christian history, persecution, martyrdom, and preaching the word of God? There are some so-called Christians, especially some ‘Christian’ nuns, who are reverting back to paganism and turning to ancient Greek mythology and Gaia the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother–sometimes parthenogenetic- of all life. What is happening is truly unbelievable and frightening.
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 