Feast day: September 26

Sts. Cosmas & Damian

Martyrs · d. c. 287

Patron of Physicians, pharmacists

Twin brothers, physicians in Syria, who treated the sick without ever taking payment and were martyred together in the persecution of Diocletian.

Cosmas and Damian were, by tradition, twin brothers, born in Arabia, who practised medicine in the province of Cilicia in Asia Minor during the late third century and were martyred for their faith in the persecution of Diocletian, about the year 303.

They were famous in their own day not only as skilled physicians but for a remarkable practice: they refused all payment for their services, treating the sick freely for the love of God. From this they earned the Greek nickname 'Anargyroi' — 'the silverless,' those who take no money — and through their gratuitous healing, the accounts say, they brought many of their patients to the Christian faith.

When the persecution came, the brothers were arrested, ordered to renounce Christ, and, refusing, subjected to a series of tortures from which — their legend says — they were repeatedly delivered, before being at last beheaded together. Their fame spread rapidly through the whole Church; the emperor Justinian, believing himself cured by their intercession, magnificently rebuilt their church in Constantinople.

Honoured in both East and West, Cosmas and Damian are among the most celebrated patrons of physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists — the model of medicine practised as a work of charity rather than a trade. Their names are spoken in the ancient Roman Canon of the Mass.

Called 'the moneyless ones' for treating patients free of charge, they are named in the Roman Canon of the Mass and are patrons of doctors and pharmacists.

Image: Jean Bourdichon (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/04403e.htm