PANTALEONE, saint, martyr. — He is commemorated in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum on 28 July; in the Roman Martyrology and the Greek Synaxaria, on the preceding day.
Highly venerated in antiquity and the Middle Ages, in both East and West, he is regarded as the patron of physicians. His cult is attested by reliable documents, but the Passio is fairly legendary: born in Nicomedia and having studied medicine, he is said to have been summoned to the court by the emperor Maximian. Having converted to Christianity and been accused by his colleagues, Maximian is said to have had him subjected to terrible tortures, from which P. emerged unharmed, until he was beheaded.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Julii, VI, Parigi 1868, pp. 397-429; C. Hulsen, Le chiese di Roma nel medioevo, Firenze 1927, pp. 410-12; Martyr. Hieronymianum, p. 400; A. Pazzini, I santi nella storia della medicina, Roma 1937, pp. 178-82; Martyr. Romanum, p. 308. Agostino Amore