Pantaleon (saint)

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Depiction of Saint Pantaleon on a mosaic in a church in Korinos ( Greece ).

Pantaleon ( ancient Greek Παντελεήμων Panteleimon ; * middle of the 3rd century in Nicomedia ; † approx. 305 ) is an early Christian martyr and saint . He is one of the fourteen emergency helpers and is the patron saint of doctors and midwives . Originally it was called Pantaleon , in German “All-Mercy”, (from Greek “panta”, in German “everything”, and “elein” (cf. Kyrie eleison) in German “have mercy”, in a figurative sense also “heal” ). According to tradition, the name Panteleimon , translated as "The Most Merciful" or "Most Merciful", was given to the tortured by God. His feast day is July 27th.

Life

According to legend, Pantaleon was the son of a Christian and a pagan. He was instructed in the art of healing by Euphrosynus , the personal physician of Emperor Maximian . But the presbyter Hermolaus also took on the young Pantaleon and led him to the Christian faith. After he managed to raise a child who had been killed by a snakebite through prayer , he was finally baptized by the old man. When he made a blind man see again by invoking Jesus Christ , his father was also converted.

Pantaleon was appointed his personal physician by the emperor . But other doctors, who were jealous of him because he healed people by virtue of his faith, denounced him to the ruler as one who worshiped the Christian God. Maximian now persuaded Pantaleon to sacrifice to the old gods again. But he suggested bringing him a sick person, in whom all healing arts had failed so far, so that he could show the truth in him. A lame man was brought in and Pantaleon made him walk in the name of Christ. The emperor then ordered Pantaleon to be tortured. But it withstood the nails that were used to tear it apart, the fire that was used to burn it and the liquid lead that was dipped into it. The fact that he had to roll down a mountain, braided on a bike, could not harm him. And the wild animals that were to tear it apart became tame. At last the emperor called the soldiers to behead Pantaleon. Before they killed him, however, he asked the Lord - his hands were nailed to his head - to forgive his murderers. Then a voice rang out from heaven that it was happening and that he should no longer be called Pantaleon , but Panteleimon , so that name and deed would be the same. When they cut off his head, milk instead of blood flowed from his wound, and the tree to which they had tied him was suddenly overloaded with fruit. The soldiers who ultimately worshiped him and whom he had to urge to fulfill their mission did not return to the emperor.

The fourteen emergency helpers with their attributes. Pantaleon at the bottom left at the foot of the cross with hands nailed to the head

Adoration

The veneration of St. Pantaleon has been documented in the Eastern Church since the end of the 4th century. Already Theodoret of Cyrus witnessed a celebration in honor of St. Pantaleon and Justinian I , he was in Constantinople Opel a church first ordained. Starting from the oriental area, in which he experienced the most important devotion, his cult spread from the 8th century to the West . In Rome his veneration can be proven as early as 708. However, the cult center and starting point for Western pantaleon worship was Cologne . The first Pantaleon patronage was erected here on East Franconian soil in 866 , so that it can be assumed that relics of the saint had already reached Cologne at that time. In his world chronicle, the Benedictine monk and chronicler Sigebert von Gembloux claims that the first transfers of Pantaleon relics into the Franconian Empire took place as early as 802. There are many indications that the Pantaleon cult reached the Rhineland from the Gallo-Franconian region . Presumably these first relics, which were required for the patronage of the church in Cologne built in honor of St. Pantaleon, were lost during the Norman storm 881/882. In the 10th century, however, further relic transfers could have reached the Roman-German Empire as a gift from the Byzantine emperor Johannes I. Tzimiskes when his niece Theophanu married Emperor Otto II . When Archbishop Brun of Cologne , Otto I's brother , founded a Benedictine monastery around 955 near the church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne, which had become very dilapidated , the cult of the Pantaleon experienced an upswing. In addition, Empress Theophanu, who supported the newly founded Benedictine abbey consecrated to St. Pantaleon with numerous donations, was probably very keen to promote the veneration of a saint from her Greek homeland. Since both Theophanu and the founder of the monastery, Brun, were buried at their own request in the crypt of the church dedicated to St. Pantaleon in Cologne, the veneration of the saint was also encouraged. From Cologne, the cult of the Greek martyr spread through numerous reliquary translations in the 11th and 12th centuries, experienced an upswing after a renewed elevation of the bones in 1208 and achieved with the inclusion of St. Pantaleon in the group of fourteen helpers in need 14th century culminated.

Pantaleon belongs - like Cosmas and Damian and like Cyrus - to a group of saints who are called "holy money despisers", Greek: Agioi Anárgyroi (Άγιοι Ανάργυροι), because they did not allow their (poor) patients to pay for their medical services .

The holy Pantaleon is often depicted in his function as a doctor with an ointment box and medical instruments as attributes . It appears to this day on the seal of the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne , which has been in use since 1393. He is also shown with a martyr's palm and tied to an olive tree, and since the 15th century with hands nailed to his head. Pantaleon is considered the patron saint of doctors, wet nurses and midwives and is called upon for help with headaches, emaciation , abandonment, livestock diseases and locust plagues.

Churches consecrated to the saint and bearing his name can be found all over Europe - in addition to Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for example, in Italy, Greece, Macedonia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Poland, Bulgaria, France, Belgium, Great Britain and Estonia as well in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

The annual blood liquefaction miracle of a blood relic assigned to Pantaleon is also very well known on the eve of July 27th in the Incarnation of the Convent in Madrid , which is one of the city's tourist highlights.

Literary processing

  • The legend Pantaleon by Konrad von Würzburg , written around 1270 (text edition: Pantaleon . Adjusted diplomatic copy and translation . Ed., Translated and provided with an afterword by Thomas Neukirchen. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2008 ( texts of the late Middle Ages and early modern times , Vol. 45). ISBN 978-3-503-09848-4 .)

literature

Web links

Commons : Pantaleon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Samuelersch, Johann Gottfried Gruber (Ed.): General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts in alphabetical order. Third Section O - Z. Part 10, Pales - Panus. Leipzig 1838, p. 440f
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Achnitz (Ed.): German Literature Lexicon. The middle age. Volume 2: The spiritual literature of the late Middle Ages. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 2010, p. 177
  3. ↑ a b Hans Joachim Kracht: History of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Pantaleon in Cologne 965–1250 (= Studies on the History of Cologne Church, Vol. 11). Schmitt Verlag, Siegburg 1975, ISBN 3-87710-067-8 , p. 11.
  4. ↑ Constantinople and St. Petersburg, Volume 2, p.326
  5. ↑ Stefan Samerski: The Cologne Pantaleon worship. Context - function - development (= research on folklore, issue 51). Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-3041-9 , pp. 13-15.
  6. ↑ Stefan Samerski: The Cologne Pantaleon worship. Context - function - development (= research on folklore, issue 51). Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-3041-9 , pp. 52-59.
  7. ↑ a b c Hans Joachim Kracht: History of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Pantaleon in Cologne 965-1250 ( Studies on Cologne Church History, Vol. 11). Schmitt Verlag, Siegburg 1975, ISBN 3-87710-067-8 , p. 14.
  8. ↑ Fredy Meyer: Sankt Pelagius and Gregory the Great. Their veneration in the diocese of Constance ( research on the history of the Upper Rhine region, vol. 47). Alber, Freiburg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-495-49946-6 , p. 287.
  9. ↑ Hans Joachim Kracht: History of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Pantaleon in Cologne 965-1250 ( Studies on Cologne Church History, Vol. 11). Schmitt Verlag, Siegburg 1975, ISBN 3-87710-067-8 , pp. 90-91.
  10. ↑ Singular anárgyros (ανάργυρος), literally: "moneyless", derived from the Greek árgyros (άργυρος) = silver, money.
  11. ↑ La misteriosa sangre de San Pantaleón. In: Cadena SER , July 26, 2018, accessed January 9, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Pantaleon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Panteleimon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION early Christian saint, martyr, helper in need
DATE OF BIRTH at 250
PLACE OF BIRTH Nicomedia
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 305