From apostolic times and to our days all who truly love Christ give veneration to Her Who gave birth to Him, raised Him, and protected Him in the days of His youth. If God the Father chose Her, God the Holy Spirit descended upon Her, and God the Son dwelt in Her, submitted to Her, and God the Son dwelt in Her, submitted to Her in the days of His youth, was concerned for Her when hanging on the Cross--then should not everyone who confesses the Holy Trinity venerate Her?

Apolytikion (Dismissal) of the feast.

In giving birth thou didst preserve thy virginity; in thy dormition thou didst not forsake the world, O Theotokos. Thou wast translated (metastasis) unto life, since thou art the Mother of Life, and by thine intercessions does thou redeem our souls from death.

We know people who can walk in the midst of noise and the crowds of Athens, who can walk through Omonoia Square (center of Athens, Greece) and the most central streets of the capital with their mind undistracted, free, surrendered to unceasing prayer. This means that the prayer has brought about in their souls the Divine attraction of Christ, the sacred magnetism of Heaven and Heavenly life.

As for the abominable pagan priests and the ineffective doctors, they clung to their disbelief. They went to the emperor and said, "We adjure you by the immortal gods, O emperor, do not let this fellow Pantaleon live another hour longer. Let him begone lest he should eradicate our religion; for the Christians will grow strong against us."

Panteleimon, the glorious Great-Martyr, flourished during the years of emperor Galerius Maximian. Panteleimon hailed from the city of Nicomedia. He was born there circa 284 A.D. He was the son of a pagan physician, named Efstorgios. His mother, named Evoulee, came from Christian lineage. As much as Efstorgios depended on the idols to affect cures, so much was Evoulee's love and eagerness heightened toward the Orthodox Faith. She brought up their child, whom they named Panteleimon (meaning "a lion in all"), not only with what was necessary for the body but more so with what was needful for the soul.

Mother Paraskeve was thirty years old when the pagan emperor of Old Rome was Antoninus Pius (138-161 A.D.). The holy nun preached to both the Greek pagans and the Jews, bringing ma to the knowledge of God. However, in one city, where she proclaimed the Gospel, certain Jews were inimical towards the Christians. When they beheld the Christian community growing, they became antagonistic and outraged at her missionary activities.