Transcript of Fr. Hewko's Sermon: St. Pantaleon 7/27/20

This Mass would be said, St. Pantaleon same Epistle, same Introit, same Collect, same Gospel, everything. The same. We could go to the 1500's during the council of Trent, same Mass. You could go all the way to the 1000's, 900's, 800's, 700's, 600's, 300's. Well that's about the time he was martyred. So this shows how ancient this Mass is. And the very texts you see the reverence Mother Church has for Her tradition, for everything that's passed down and inspired by the Holy Ghost. It's the Holy Ghost who formed and properly developed everything around the Catholic Mass. So that by the Council of Trent, it was a perfect diamond that you can't cut anymore. There's a point where if you cut a diamond, one more cut, the jeweler will shatter his diamond. So the Council of Trent, sealed and said, this is the perfected work of the Holy Ghost, the Tridentine Mass and let no one dare no one that includes the Pope, dare to change this Mass. So let's look at the life of Saint Pantaleon. It's also today, the feast of the Seven Sleepers, but we won't talk about them here, but Saint Pantaleon, he, his name is a Greek word. That actually means the all-compassionate, because he was a doctor. He was a physician that took care of patients.

Here's the, here's the account. He was a son of a pagan father, Eustorgius of Nicomedia. So that's around modern day Turkey. He was brought up in the faith by his Christian mother. Her name was Eubula. He became learned in medicine and was a physician to the emperor, Galerius Maximian at Nicomedia. For a time, he failed under a temptation, which is sometimes more dangerous than the severest trials or fierce torments, bad example, which if not shunned, insensibly weakens and at length destroys the strongest virtue. So he was, he was a Catholic at this time. He fell away because of bad example, bad example, probably of fellow students and fellow doctors. Pantaleon being perpetually obsessed by it in a wicked and idolatrous court and deceived by often hearing the false wisdom of the world applauded, fell into apostasy.

But a zealous Christian called Hermolaus, by his prudent admonitions, awakened his conscience to a sense of his guilt and brought him again into the Church. When Diocletian's persecution broke out at Nicomedia in the year 303, Pantaleon distributed all this possessions among the poor Christians and was shortly after denounced to the authorities by some jealous fellow physicians. He was arrested together with Hermolaus and two others. So here you can see, uh, many, many who fall away do come back. That's why we should never give up prayer for those who do fall away. And we also need to be watchful, lest ourselves, fall away. It's a grace to be faithful. It's a grace to persevere and St. Pantaleon learned this lesson. Someone had to be praying for him, probably his mother, and he fell away by bad example, and just think of the poor youth today, immersed in bad example, everywhere displayed on, on bad sites on the internet, bad example of fellow pagans today.

Just think of so many fall away from bad example. St. John Bosco said, this is a reason why many, many boys go to hell. And that's the same with girls bad example, peer pressure. It's the, it's the way everybody's doing, the way everybody's going. So here he recovers and he recovers the Catholic Faith. And he comes before the emperor during the persecution, the emperor wished to save him and urged them to apostasize. Just burn a little incense, and you'll be okay, Pantaleon. But Pantaleon refused. And miraculously cured a paralytic as a sign of the truth of the Faith. After suffering many torments, they were all condemned to lose their heads, but St. Pantaleon suffered the day after the rest of them were martyred. He was subjected to six different attempts to kill him here. They are being, being burnt alive, liquid lead poured over his body and down his mouth, drowning, holding them upside down and holding them into a well of water.

This is what they did to many saints. And right before they're about to gasp their last breath, they lift them up and then he's panting for air. And they say, just renounce the Faith or too many martyrs in Spain, just to say 'Death to Christ the King' or in Mexico to like little Juan Jose Sanchez, the 12 year old martyr. That's one of the tortures. They went, they put him through, they didn't show that in the movie "For Greater Glory," they didn't show this torture, but he went through that torture and it must be quite awful. So it needs the help of the Holy Ghost, just the total grace of the Holy Ghost to persevere through these insane sufferings. It's a grace and God will give it if we persevere and pray, if we ever have to go through these things, drowning, wild beasts, trying to tear him up.

And many of the times they lick their feet. The wheel, the wheel, which is one of the tortures where they, if I understand it correctly, it's just basically stretch them and stretch them and stretch them. And the finally not being able to make him lose the Faith and apostasize and burn incense. Finally, the sword. Kill them with the sword, all of these, with the help of the Lord, under the appearance of Hermolaus, he frustrated till that life, he permitted himself to be beheaded. There poured from his severed veins milk instead of blood. And they olive tree to which he was tied, sprang into fruit.

So this is described of several saints, Saint Christopher St. Paul. It has said his, his blood also came out like milk and his head bounced three times. St. Pantaleon is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and is honored in the East as the great martyr and miracle worker. And one of the holy moneyless ones who treated the sick as a doctor without payment. And you'll find this with many good doctors. If you can still find them today, there are still are, who will treat patients who are absolutely poor, but treat them freely. In the past, he has been almost as famous in the West. Alleged relics of his blood are preserved at Constantinople, Madrid and Ravello. And these are said to liquefy on his feast day exactly as does that of St. Januarius of Naples. So today his blood is liquefying, and this is a miracle God grants for numerous saints, that their blood is dry during the year.

It just dry, then today on the feast of Saint Pantaleon, it's liquid. So these are some of the early martyrs and let's pray to them. The tortures they went through is quite incredible. And it's a Mark of the Catholic Church that She's suffered persecution as they will, as they persecuted Me, Christ said, so they'll persecute you. And that has been the history of traditional Catholicism for the last 53 years. And that is, always persecution. And from the very ones you least expect from our Holy Father, from the bishops and from, from Rome, this is a great mystery, a great darkness that has invaded Rome. Archbishop Lefebvre, how clearly he spoke in his Declaration. 'We adhere with all our heart to Catholic Rome, Eternal Rome, the Mistress of True Doctrine, and the True Sacraments, but we reject, we don't submit at all to this Conciliar, Modernist and Protestantized Rome.

This we fight. And we, uh, we refuse to have our faith diminished by a New Mass, by New Sacraments, by a New Code of Canon law in 1983. And the whole new doctrine of uncrowning Christ the King. So let's pray to these saints. Let's pray to these martyrs. Let's beg the Virgin Mary to persevere to the end. It is a great grace. And just think how many in the last, since 2012, even how many have fallen away from the Faith, how many have fallen away? So let us also in a healthy way, tremble and fear and turn to the Blessed Mother, wear Her scapular, keep Her Rosary, beg every day, the grace to persevere, perseverance cannot be merited, says the Council of Trent. It cannot be merited. We have to pray for it every single day. And that's what we do, every the latter, half of the Hail Mary, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death, Amen. We're praying for perseverance for the grace to die professing the Catholic Faith, faithful to our vows and in the state of grace. And may God give you such a happy death through Saint Pantaleon. Oh Mary, conceived without sin, (pray for us); Oh Mary conceived, without sin (pray for us); Oh Mary conceived without sin, (pray for us). In the name of the Father and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.