Euboula of Nicomedia

Holy Righteous Euboula of Nicomedia was the mother of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, commemorated on 27 July. She reposed in peace around 303, before the martyrdom of her son. According to the account we rely on, she departed to the Lord on 30 March in Nicomedia, shortly before the great persecution of Diocletian, in which her son also suffered. The Synaxarion of the day praises her as a woman who was, according to Scripture, an honourable crown to her husband and a mother rejoicing in her child.

Her marriage and her son

Euboula was born to Christian parents and raised in the right faith, but was married to an unbelieving man, the pagan Eustorgius. Her parents hoped that in this way the words of the apostle would be fulfilled in their daughter, that the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife. The spouses were joined in body but divided in spirit. The husband offered rich sacrifices to idols, while she offered to God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving at every hour. When she bore the long-⁠awaited fruit of the marriage, she gave thanks to the Lord and increased in good works, praying day and night. Foreseeing her approaching departure, she wished to dedicate her child to God from the womb. When the boy was born, his father named him Pantaleon, that is, "in all things like a lion," hoping that his son would be a great warrior.

Euboula raised her son in piety, teaching him as far as she could about the One and True God, laying her teachings not so much in his mind as in the hidden places of his heart, in the hope that when the grace of the Holy Spirit came, it would open his mind and recall all that his mother had said. After a few years she drew near her deathbed and called her son for a last counsel. She kissed him, blessed him and, weeping, told him that her body was going to the grave but she would not part from him in soul, that nothing in this world should separate him from the love of God, that he should lift his eyes to heaven, be merciful, and above all strive for almsgiving all the days of his life. Filled with the grace of God, she spoke prophetic words, saying she saw a fierce persecution coming upon the Church, but that God would put the devil's malice to shame and humble it through him. Holding her son in her arms, she was filled with a great light and gave her soul into the hands of God.

After her death

After her death the child grew and was strengthened in spirit. Remembering his mother's words that she would always be near him, Pantaleon tried to live attentively. He was gentle and humble, obedient and hard-⁠working. God did not leave the prayers of His servant fruitless and led Pantaleon to an old man, the priest Hermolaus. When Hermolaus began to speak to him of the Lord Jesus Christ, the young man's heart leapt, for he recognized in the elder's words the words of his mother. At Baptism he received the name Panteleimon, "All-⁠merciful," and stayed seven days with Hermolaus, receiving from his words living water. Then he turned his father Eustorgius to God, brought him to Baptism, and together they destroyed the idols. Eustorgius changed so much that he became simple, gentle and free of malice like a child, and the Lord soon moved him from the temporal life to the eternal, to rejoice with his wife Euboula in their son. Panteleimon suffered much for Christ and completed the struggle of his martyrdom.

Veneration

Her great struggle was motherhood: the pious mother raised an unmercenary physician, healer and great martyr of the Church of Christ. For this she is honoured as a patron of Orthodox mothers. Her troparion says that holy children are God's gift to holy women. She is especially honoured at the Russian Saint Panteleimon Monastery on Athos, where in the nineteenth century a service with polyeleos was composed for her, and where on her commemoration, 12 April, an all-⁠night vigil is celebrated in the order of the patronal feast. In 2003 a church in her honour was built in the monastery and consecrated on 9 November by Archbishop Onuphry of Chernivtsi and Bukovina, now Metropolitan of Kyiv. The late abbot, Elder Jeremiah, used to say that the righteous Euboula is, after the All-⁠Holy Mother of God, the second mother of the residents of the monastery. She is commemorated on 12 April (new style), that is 30 March by the old calendar.