04 — The Martyrdom
The Passio‘s martyrdom-cycle: the denunciation of Panteleimon by jealous rival physicians and his trial before the emperor Maximian (or Diocletian, as the recensions vary); and the elaborate sequence of tortures from which he is repeatedly delivered, ending in his beheading, the olive tree that bore fruit where his blood fell, and the milk that flowed in place of blood — all pinned to the Passio and read as the developed martyr-legend’s own narrative.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Great Martyr; Unmercenary Healer)
This section narrates the death that made Pantoleon a Great Martyr, as the Passio tells it, with the hagiographic discipline kept firmly in view: the torture-cycle and its wonders are the common stock of the high-Byzantine martyr-legend, reported here as what the Passio claims and never certified as documented fact (METHODOLOGY §3.5). The first file covers the human machinery of the martyrdom — the envy of the court physicians, the denunciation, the interrogation before the tetrarch. The second covers the martyrdom proper: the cycle of tortures (wheel, fire, molten lead, wild beasts, the sea) from each of which the saint is delivered, the failed first attempts at beheading, and the closing signs — the olive tree and the milk — read as topoi with named parallels in the martyr-literature.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Denounced Before Maximian | The envy of the rival physicians; the denunciation to the emperor; the trial and interrogation before Maximian (Diocletian in some recensions); the saint’s confession — the Passio’s account, attestation-pinned. |
| The Tortures and the Olive Tree | The torture-cycle (wheel, fire, lead, beasts, drowning) and the deliverances; the beheading and the olive tree that fruited where the blood fell; the milk in place of blood — read as hagiographic topoi with named parallels. |
See Also
- Healing Without Payment — the unmercenary practice that provoked the physicians’ envy
- The Tortures and the Olive Tree ↔ Denounced Before Maximian — the two halves of the martyrdom
- The Passio Tradition — the source whose narrative this is
- Reading the Martyr-Healer — how to read the torture-cycle as topos
- Nicomedia and the Great Persecution — the historical persecution behind the legend
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 passions des martyrs et les genres littéraires. 2nd ed. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1966.
- Delehaye, Hippolyte. Les légendes hagiographiques. Brussels, 1905.