St. Pantaleon

19th century
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St. Pantaleon is pictured as a beardless young man holding a long, thin instrument and a box of what appear to be medicaments. His vita says he had been physician to the Emperor Maximian before his Christian faith was discovered. The instrument could be a "couching needle," which was used in cataract surgery (Pantaleon was said to have cured a blind man) or possibly just a long spoon for dispensing medicaments from the box. In this painting what he holds is undoubtedly a spoon.

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Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.