By DEB PIROCH
“For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood [emphasis ours]” (John 5:4-6).
Saints Pantaleon and Januarius are two saints linked to the earliest era of the Church. They also have more than one factor in common. Both lived in the Roman Empire during the reign of Diocletian. Both are martyrs. Both were beheaded. While not exact, the blood of St. Januarius was preserved by a pilgrim named Eusebia, but the mother of St. Pantaleon was St. Eubala. And both have blood yet preserved in reliquaries, which still liquefy miraculously annually.
The blood of St. Januarius is preserved in a double reliquary in Naples. His blood generally liquefies three times per year: It liquefied most recently this past December 16, which marks the patronage of Naples and the archdiocese, it liquefies the first Saturday in May and on the saint’s feast day, September 19. December 16 is also marked locally as the day when Naples was saved from an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1631. While the miracle has not been officially sanctioned by the Church, Catholics are free to believe in the miracles as they wish.
St. Pantaleon, in comparison, is found mainly in Ravello. I say “mainly” because a smaller amount of his blood in Madrid also liquefies, both on St. Pantaleon’s feast day, July 27.
The actual St. Januarius (died c. 305) was bishop of Beneventum. We know little of his life. He went to visit Misenum, near Naples, to see a fellow Christian, named Sosius. When he saw his friend in church, he saw his comrade’s head encircled by flames, which he took as a sign his friend was soon to be martyred, and so it was. When his friend was taken, the saint went to visit him in prison and soon was arrested as well.
Other Christians soon joined them. All were released in the amphitheater, to be ravaged by the wild animals. When the animals would not harm them, they were beheaded. Their bodies would have been carried out by the Gate of Death.
It is unclear whether the bodies would have been buried or dumped, but surely any blood would have had to be surreptitiously salvaged. It is miraculous in itself that any survived till today.
In 2015 Pope Francis was in Naples, saying Mass. He said the “Our Father,” kissed the relic and blessed the people with it. The blood of Januarius partly liquefied, which has been known to happen rarely on certain occasions in the presence of Popes. It never did so, however, for Pope Benedict XVI or Pope John Paul II. Those in Naples take it as a bad omen if the miracle should not take place three times per year but, needless to say, no miracle can be said to happen according to a time clock. As it is, the blood may liquefy over the course of minutes or many hours and stay in that state for various amounts of time. The first historic mention known to us dates back to 1389.
St. Januarius is not surprisingly the patron saint of blood banks and volcanos.
St. Pantaleon lived approximately from AD 275-305 and we know only slightly more about his life. Like St. Mark he was also a physician, but was born with a Christian mother. Studying with a well-known doctor of the time, Euphrosinos, he became appointed the chief doctor to Emperor Galerius, the chief successor named by Diocletian (who had married to his daughter). While at court he was lured away from his faith by the temptations of the world.
Through one named Hermolaus, who reminded him that Christ calls Himself the Great Physician in the Gospel of Mark, and only through Him can any of us truly be healed, Pantaleon returned to Christianity. Expecting there to be more blood of martyrs shed, he apparently wished to be among them. Toward this end he gave away his possessions in preparation and indeed, not long after, was apprehended, suffered, and was beheaded. Emperor Galerius would end the persecution of Christians after spilling so much blood only six days before his own death in 311. Dying of a loathsome and extremely painful condition, some think he was trying to appease the Christian God and he even asked them to pray for him.
Pantaleon means “mercy for all” in Greek. There is more to the legend of the saint, but all of it is apocryphal. The legend that arose around him included him converting his pagan father with a miracle and then about five attempts to martyr him before he allowed his captors permission to behead him. In truth, Butler’s Lives does not allow any of this information to be substantiated, however.
St. Pantaleon is a patron saint for physicians and midwives, but also was known in medieval times as one of the “Fourteen Holy Helpers.” All the saints involved were dedicated to some aspect of bodily health, at a time when life was short and illnesses such as the Black Death among the threats. The devotion began in the Rhineland, then spread from Germany to other areas. Our saint came to be invoked against cancer and tuberculosis, as well. But if one had taken him as a special patron, of course one could have prayed to him for all causes, as an additional advocate in Heaven, like the Holy Virgin. Among all the original fourteen, the only one who would still be recognized by most practicing Catholics today is St. Blaise, who was then as now invoked against illnesses of the throat.
Oddly enough, in Italy St. Pantaleon is also the patron of winning the lottery, only you have to pray to him and then apparently dream of the winning number.
To return to the theme with which we began, that of blood which liquefies, surely any miracle must be meant to mirror and remind us of the miracle, that of the living God, the Christ? He gave Himself to us on Cavalry to open wide the doors to salvation. He is the same who gives Himself to us in an unbloody sacrifice during each and every Mass.
“And behold they brought to him one sick of the palsy lying in a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man sick of the palsy: Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth. And Jesus seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? [Which] is easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee: or to say, Arise, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power on Earth to forgive sins (then said he to the man sick of palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house. And he arose, and went into his house. And the multitude seeing it, feared, and glorified God that gave such power to men” (Matt. 9:2-8).
Let us ask Saints Januarius and Pantaleon to intercede for our health, to heal us as did Christ for the man with palsy. And if it not be His will, to still serve Him best during our brief time in this life, and forever in the next. Amen.
(Note: For three years the author lived in Cologne and attended St. Pantaleon Church, built on the site of a monastery that dated to the first century. Badly bombed in the war, it was rebuilt beautifully. Pope Benedict visited there in 2005.)
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