FOS SUMMARY - “Spirit and the City”

Feast of Saint Panteleimon, the Unmercenary

by Dorothy Poli & Daniel Padovano

29 July 2008

FOS Summaries are recaps of discussions points, organized and presented conceptually, in a session's dialogue and Q&A among Fr. Frank and FOS participants.  The Summaries' authors further elaborate on certain ideas from a theme offered by Fr. Frank.  All Summaries are approved by Fr. Frank prior to e-mail distribution.  Past summaries can be found on the Cathedral website at http://www.thecathedral.goarch.org/FOSSummary/. 

Fr. Frank opened up the session by asking what the Church defines as an: “unmercenary”.  An unmercenary is someone who does something without seeking or expecting reward or compensation. This involves both a healing of the body as well as the soul through witnessing.  Saint Panteleimon’s feast day is July 27^th.

Saint Panteleimon was a doctor who was a successful medical practioner. He also had the gift of healing people spiritually as well. During his years, Saint Panteleimon realized that his talent and skill were gifts from God. As such, Saint Panteleimon treated his patients without payment. His patients included those who were tortured by the emperor.  One patient cured by St. Panteleimon was a blind man, whom no one else could cure. When the blind was asked who cured him, he answered that it was St. Panteleimon, the formerly blind man also confessed the Gospel.

The emperor (Maximian) had St. Panteleimon arrested, tortured and executed. As he was about to be beheaded, St.  Panteleimon forgave his executioner. This was a very generous act as the executioner was unwilling to carry out the sentence. St. Panteleimon reminded the executioner that if he failed to carry out his orders, the executioner would lose his head as well.  When he was beheaded, milk flowed from St. Pantelemion’s body instead of blood.

We also talked about other unmercenaries recognized by the Church. There are twenty, including three sets of brothers named Cosmas and Damianos. Each of the sets of brothers lived in different times and places. The unmercenaries were doctors who gave freely of their talents and skills without seeking compensation.       

We discussed the icon of the twenty umercernaries. Fr. Frank conveyed to us that as doctors, the unmercenaries, remind us that our bodies are “good”. That is they (or bodies) are created in God’s image and likeness. This is a counter argument to those who view the body as evil or as a prison or shell confining the soul inside.

Church tradition (more so with Orthodoxy and Catholicism), teaches that the body is to be honored and not abused. There is to be a balance between the soul and the body; both are a unity and a convergence.  At the second resurrection, we will experience both a physical and spiritual resurrection. The physical body will become a spiritualized, perfected body. This is one reason why the Church tradition rejects cremation. Cremation is viewed as desecrating God’s temple – the human body.

Organ Donation:  A member asked about organ donation. Does the Church allow this? Fr. Frank answered that yes, the Church allows for organ donations and that a booklet is available on the subject. The Church does not allow for a person to leave his or her body to science for use in research or as a cadaver.

Name-giving:  The naming of babies came up as well. Church tradition is that babies be given the name of a Saint who is commemorated on the day of the baby’s birth. The goal is that the child will learn about the Saint whose name he or she carries and that the Saint being honoured will serve as a role model for the child. The practice of naming a child after other family members is a pagan practice.

Moving back to the subject of “unmercenaries”, we discussed the fact that unmercenaries receive great joy in giving of themselves freely. The joy in helping others is in making use of the gifts, talents and skills given to the unmercenaries by God. This is an example of True Stewardship because as one finds and uses his / her gifts that are shared without expectation or seeking of compensation.

Fr. Frank reminded us that we are born with seven gifts given to each of us by God. The Church Fathers teach us that it is truly a miracle if we discover even one gift and make use of it before our death.

St. Panteleimon:

St. Panteleimon was born in the late second century in Nicomedia.  He was perfected in martyrdom in 305 A.D.  He was of noble lineage, his father being a pagan and his mother a Christian (St. Eubola). His birth name was Panto Leon (always like a lion). After baptism, he was known as Panteleimon (full of mercy).  He is the patron saint of both doctors and soldiers.

In life he became a well known and respected physician, eventually coming to the attention of the emperor. During his practice, he came to the realization that his skill and talent in healing were a gift from God. Soon, he became a member of the Church.

St. Panteleimon was also known for treating those tortured in the emperor’s prisons. His actions and skills also made others jealous and at some point, he was denounced by adversaries. 

He is credited with healing a blind man whom no one else could heal. Church tradition holds that when St. Panteleimon cured the blind man, he also “opened the eyes” of the former blind man to the faith.  When the blind was asked about this, he said that it was St. Panteleimon who cured him and the former blind man also confessed the Gospel. The blind man was immediately executed upon his confession of faith. St. Panteleimon was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death.  

At his execution, St. Panteleimon prayed. Each time the executioner tried to behead him, the blade broke. The executioner said he could not carry out the execution. St. Panteleimon told him he had to, or the executioner would lose his life as well. At his death, he forgave the executioner, stopped praying and was martyred. Forgiveness is identified as St. Panteleimon’s most important gift and legacy.  

As an imitator of Jesus, St. Panteleimon forgave his executioner just as Jesus did when he was on the Cross. Forgiveness heals the one seeking / receiving absolution as it also heals the one granting forgiveness. This is what makes this gift miraculous.  It works for both parties.  To be effective, it has to be freely given. In this, forgiveness becomes the great mercy as to the recipient it brings relief and release.

However, we must remember that true forgiveness requires true repentance. If we seek and ask for forgiveness for past or current wrongs, we have to understand that we have to change and turn away from our hurtful actions.

Our Imperfections as Gifts

As for using gifts given to us by God; Fr. Frank reminded us that each of us has different gifts; gifts that God uses in a variety of ways. Many times we do not know or perceive how. To illustrate the point, Fr. Frank told us a story of monk who carried water from a well to the monastery.

The monk used a yoke with a bucket on each side. Every day, for several years the monk filled the buckets and carried them to the church. One bucket was in good shape and always remained full during this daily journey. The second bucket had a hole in it and lost half of its water.

One day the bucket with the hole spoke to the monk and apologized for the hole and for losing the water. The monk told the bucket that no apology was needed. He walked with the bucket and showed the bucket a strip of flowers along the path the monk walked each day after filling the buckets with water. The monk told the bucket that the flowers only blossomed where the bucket passed – the leaking water kept the flowers alive. The monk also told the bucket that some of these flowers wound up on the altar.  The monk explained to the bucket that unknown to it, the bucket, in its imperfection helped bring life and beauty to a dirt path and brought glory to the church, since some those flowers were used by the monk to beautify the church’s interior.

Two examples of “imperfect” people are Moses. Moses was a stutterer and he feared this would hurt his chances in trying to free Israel from Egypt. David had many liaisons, and even so, God kept him as the first King of Israel and the ancestor of Jesus Christ. 

Using this parable, we are reminded that God uses us as well, in our brokenness and imperfection, and many times we are unaware of it. The question we should ask is: How is God using us so we can be used more efficiently for God’s glory? We should also ask God what is it that He wants us to do?