Physician Saints

Physician Saints

SAINT LUKE THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST 

d. 68

Feast day: 18 October

Saint Luke, the Evangelist, was a Greek doctor; he was called “Our Beloved Luke, the Physician” by the peripatetic Saint Paul of Tarsus (Col. 4:14). Evidence of Saint Luke’s medical background is peppered throughout his gospel. For example, when the other two synoptic evangelists recorded Christ’s warning that a rich man will have no more ease passing through the gates of heaven than would a camel passing through the eye of a needle, they use the household term for a woman’s sewing needle. Saint Luke, on the other hand, uses the Greek word for a surgeon’s suturing needle. At another point, in telling the story of the woman who suffered from hemorrhage, Saint Luke – keenly aware of the mercenary pitfalls of our profession — adds the sardonic observation that the woman had already spent all of her money seeking the advice of many physicians, and yet had been helped by not a one of them (Luke 8:43-48 vs Matthew 9:20-22) Luke alone of the evangelists recounts Christ’s stunning allegory of compassion and selflessness in the context of providing healing care for the helpless, the injured and afflicted — the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37)

An inherently pro-life physician, Luke uses the same Greek word for “baby”, whether writing about a baby in the womb or about a babe in the manger. And it is he who recounts how Saint John the Baptist, while still in the womb of Saint Elizabeth, leapt for joy at the approach of Jesus, unborn but very much alive, within the womb of his Virgin Mother (Luke 1:39-45). Finally, it is within the Gospel of Saint Luke, that Jesus makes his only reference to us practitioners of medicine: “Physician, heal thyself!” (Luke 4:23).

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SAINT URSICINUS OF RAVENNA 

Physician/Martyr

Feast day: June 19

d. circa 67

Saint Ursicinus, a physician in Ravenna, was condemned for being a Christian during the persecution of Emperor Nero. His faith began to waver, but he found new strength through the encouragement of Saint Vitalis and met his death with resolve.

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SAINT ALEXANDER, PHYSICIAN

Physician/Martyr of Lyons

Feast day: June 2

d. 177

Saint Alexander was born in Phrygia, but praticed medicine in Gaul, where he converted to Christianity. “Well known for his love of God and his boldness in spreading the Gospel,”4 he was arrested during the persecutions conducted by Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Alexander was caught encouraging fellow Christians, who had been condemned to death, to remain steadfast under torture. With forty-seven other Christians, Alexander was himself then tortured and executed, as one of the Martyrs of Lyons and Vienne.,

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SAINT THALELAEUS

Merciful physician and martyr

Feast day: May 20

d. 284

Saint Thalelaeus, a physician, was martyred with Saints Alexander, Asterius and companions. The son of a Roman general, he earned the epithet, “the Merciful One,” owing to his charitable service to the poor and sick in the town of Anazarbus, in Cilicia (Asia Minor). He was martyred at Aegae, in Cilicia, by beheading after drowning failed to kill him.1

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SAINT PANTALEON

Physician Wonder-Worker

(also known as Panteleemon, Panteleimon)

Feast Day: July 27

d. circa 300

Saint Pantaleon is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, known for their efficacious response to prayer, who are especially venerated in France and Germany. Pantaleon’s name in Greek, means “the all-compassionate one.” It is said that he was a doctor of such skill that Emperor Maximian, a great persecutor of Christians, employed Pantaleon as his court physician. Pantaleon had been raised as a Christian, but in the fanatically anti-Christian and dissolute court of Maximian, he lost his faith and nearly his soul with his self-indulgent lifestyle.

In time, however, a fellow-Christian restored the Saint Pantaleon to the faith he had abandoned. From that time Pantaleon’s skills were at the disposal of the poor. The wealth he had gained from his successful practice he gave away. Other physicians, jealous of his position at court, saw Pantaleon’s renewed faith as an opportunity for discrediting him. When the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian broke out in Nicomedia in 303, Pantaleon this time refused to reject the faith; instead he chose death. Vain attempts were made to put him to death in six different ways–including drowning, fire, and wild beasts–before he was successfully beheaded amidst a halo of other marvels.

A reputed relic of Pantaleon’s blood, kept at Ravello in southern Italy, displays the phenomenon of liquefaction on his feast day, similar to that of Saint Januarius. Saint Pantaleon has made the news recently, when his relics, on loan from Greece, were placed on display near what had until recently been the site of Lenin’s tomb. People were queuing up for hours, and youth, in particular, flocked to view the Saint’s relics. Russian media are calling the response phenomenal.

In art, Saint Pantaleon is a physician holding a phial of medicine. At times he may be depicted healing a sick child or bound with hands above his head to an olive tree, to which he is nailed. Together with Saint Raphael, Saints Cosmas and Damian, and Saint Luke, Pantaleon is a patron of the medical profession. He is invoked against tuberculosis and other lung diseases, and he is also patron of bachelors and of victims of torture (not that these two latter conditions are necessarily related). ,

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SAINTS COSMAS AND DAMIAN

Twin doctors who never charged a fee!

Feast Day: September 27

Date: circa 300

These two saints are venerated in the East as the “moneyless ones,” because they practiced medicine without ever charging their patients a fee. These twin brothers were born in Arabia and studied medicine in Syria. They practiced medicine on the coast of Cilicia in what is now Turkey, with remarkable generosity and outspoken zeal for their Christian faith. Their widespread reputation proved their undoing, when a persecution against Christians broke out. They were quickly arrested, tortured horribly, and beheaded, along with three of their other brothers. Many miraculous healings have since been attributed to their intervention. Saints Cosmas and Damian are considered Patrons of physicians and surgeons, as well as of pharmacists. They, along with Saint Luke, are the three physician saints cited in the canon of the Mass.

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SAINTS CYRUS AND JOHN

Martyrs from Arabia and Alexandria

Feast day: January 31

d. 303

Saint Cyrus was an Alexandrian doctor who used his calling to convert many of his patients to Christianity. He joined an Arabian physician named John in encouraging Athanasia and her three daughters to remain constant in their faith under torture at Canopus, Egypt. They, in turn, were both seized and tortured, and then all six were beheaded.3

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SAINT ZENOBIUS

Physician martyred with his sister.

Feast day: October 30

d. 305

Saint Zenobius was a priest and physician from the town of Aegae, in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), who practiced in Sidon (Palestine). He was tortured to death on the rack, in the city of Antioch, during the persecutions of Diocletian. Zenobia, his sister, was martyred with him.3,

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SAINT DIOMEDES

Physician from Tarsus

Feast day: August 16

d. circa 350

A martyr of Nicaea, in Bythinia, Saint Diomedes was originally a physician in Tarsus, in Cilicia. Saint Diomedes was a fervent preacher of the faith. 5

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SAINT CAESARIUS OF NAZIANZUS

Sainthood ran in his family

Feast day: February 25

d. 369

Brother of St. Gregory Nazianzus and son of St. Gregory the Elder, Saint Caesarius studied medicine and philosophy at Alexandria, Egypt, and in Constantinople. Famous as a physician, Caesarius was appointed to the court of Emperor Julian the Apostate, who tried repeatedly to get him to renounce the Christian faith. Caesarius was then only a catechumen, a Christian in training, but he resigned from the court rather than deny Christ. He later served Emperor Jovian as physician and was the treasurer for Emperor Valens.5

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SAINT SAMSON

Physician/Priest and Father of the Poor

Feast day: June 27

d. 530

Also called Samson Xenodochius “the Hospitable,” this latter day Samson was noted not for his physical prowess, but rather for the heroic strength of his character and his compassion. Saint Samson was a doctor renowned for his selfless charity. A physician in Constantinople (modern Istanbul), he went on to become a priest, in order to tend to both the physical and spiritual welfare of his patients. Samson founded a well-known hospital near the Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople. He was revered as “Father of the Poor.”

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SAINT EMILIAN

Physician martyred with his cousin

Feast day: December 6

d. 484

Saint Emilian, a physician in Northern Africa, was flayed alive, along with Saint Tertius, for refusing to convert to the Arian heresy. His cousin, Saint Dionysia, and her son, Saint Majoricus, had already been tortured and burned at the stake.

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SAINT SOPHIA THE MARTYR AND PHYSICIAN

Commemorated May 22  

The Holy Martyr Sophia, the Physician, dies by the sword.

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SAINT ALEXANDER SCHMORELL THE DOCTOR, THE NEW MARTYR

d. 1943

July 13, feast day

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SAINT ZENAIDA OF TARSUS

Commemorated on October 11

d. 100

The Martyrs Zenaida and Philonilla lived in Tarsus in Cilicia during the first century, and were related to Apostle Paul. They were pious Christian women, and both of them shared a love of learning. By whatever means were available to them at that time, they acquired medical knowledge.

The two sisters left home and settled in a cave near the city of Demetriada where they lived in constant prayer and work. The citizens of Demetriada soon learned that there were two women doctors who gladly treated everyone who turned to them for help, yet did not require payment for their services. They also healed people's souls by converting them to Christ.

Late one night, pagans came to their cave and stoned them. Sts. Zenaida and Philonilla suffered martyrdom for Christ, thereby receiving incorruptible crowns of glory from the Lord.