02 — The Physician of Nicomedia
The developed tradition of Panteleimon’s early life and conversion as the Passio narrates it: the pagan youth Pantoleon, son of the pagan Eustorgius and the Christian Euboule, trained in medicine under the renowned physician Euphrosynos; and his conversion by the priest Hermolaos, sealed by the raising of a child killed by a viper. Every claim is pinned to the Passio and the menologia as its earliest written attestation, not asserted as documented biography.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Great Martyr; Unmercenary Healer)
This section narrates the formative half of the saint’s vita as the tradition tells it, while keeping the source-critical guard-rail in view: this is the Passio‘s story, the developed martyr-legend, and not a chronicle. The two files cover, first, the young pagan physician of imperial Nicomedia — his mixed household, his medical training, the worldly promise of his career at the tetrarchic court — and, second, the conversion: the catechesis under the hidden priest Hermolaos and the dramatic sign, the raising of a dead child, that the Passio makes the hinge of his coming to Christ. The conversion-by-miracle is read as the narrative’s own claim and as a recognisable hagiographic pattern.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Pagan Youth and the Physician | The Passio‘s account of Pantoleon’s origins — the pagan father Eustorgius, the Christian mother Euboule, the medical apprenticeship under Euphrosynos, physician to the court — read as developed tradition, attestation-pinned. |
| Conversion by Hermolaos | The hidden priest Hermolaos and his catechesis; the raising of the child killed by a viper as the Passio’s conversion-miracle and the hagiographic pattern it follows; the baptism of Pantoleon. |
See Also
- The Name Panteleimon — the new name received at or after conversion
- Healing Without Payment — the unmercenary practice that follows his conversion
- Denounced Before Maximian — where the converted physician’s path leads
- Pantoleon to Panteleimon — the source-critical layering of this biography
- The Church Fathers — the patristic and early-Church world of the Passio
References
- The Greek Passio of St. Panteleimon (BHG 1412z–1418). In Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca, 3rd ed., ed. François Halkin. Brussels, 1957.
- Symeon Metaphrastes. Vita et passio S. Panteleemonis, in Patrologia Graeca 115, where verified.
- Delehaye, Hippolyte. Les légendes hagiographiques. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1905.
- Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae. Ed. Hippolyte Delehaye. Brussels, 1902.