His Beatitude: To receive healing, we need to repent of our sins

On August 9, 2026, on the feast day of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Onufriy led the divine service at the Panteleimon Convent in Kyiv's Theophania, and addressed the faithful with a sermon.

The Primate recalled that on this day the celebration of the glorious Resurrection of Christ is joined with the commemoration of the great healer and servant of God Panteleimon, who lived during the era of persecution of Christians.

The Metropolitan also recalled the miracle after which the saint received baptism: having seen a child lying dead on the road from a snake bite, the young man asked the Lord to resurrect him – and his prayer was heard.

The Primate enumerated the tortures the saint endured – a wheel with knives, molten tin, a stone around his neck in the depths of the sea – and recalled that many of those who witnessed his courage themselves confessed Christ and were executed. Before the execution, the sword in the warrior's hands bent like wax, and after the beheading, milk flowed instead of blood and an olive tree became covered with fruit.

His Beatitude recalled that the greatest part of the relics of the Great Martyr rests on Athos, in the St. Panteleimon Monastery, where the saint's head is also kept, while a particle of the relics is present in the convent in Theophania: «Everyone can venerate them and ask him for mercy, for health of soul and body».

The Primate expressed the central thought of his sermon at its conclusion.

«The cause of our illnesses – both spiritual and physical – is our sins. And in order to receive the mercy of healing, one must repent of one's sins. Then the prayer of the holy Great Martyr Panteleimon will be beneficial to us and will bear good fruit», – emphasized Metropolitan Onufriy.

He also drew attention to the fact that the feat of the martyrs bears witness to the action of grace: «We marvel at the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which strengthens a person and makes him so strong that no sorrow, and not even death itself, can overcome him».

In conclusion, His Beatitude prayed for peace: «We pray that the Lord, through the prayers of the holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, may help us all, and that the Lord may bless our land with peace».

The UOJ previously reported that, according to Metropolitan Onufriy, the legalization of sin will not solve humanity's problems.

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