September 26 is the feast day of Saints Cosmas and Damian, brothers, twins, physicians, and martyrs. They lived extraordinary lives, sharing a passionate love for Jesus Christ and eventually giving their lives for him through an excruciating death. Let us discover together who they were and what they still have to say to doctors... and not only to them!
Who Are Saints Cosmas and Damian?
Born in Turkey, they had three other brothers: Anthimus, Leontius, and Euprepius. All five grew up in the faith, raised by their mother, and all died as martyrs in 303 AD in the city of Cyrus, in Antioch, or perhaps in Aegea, during the terrible persecution of Diocletian.
Cosmas and Damian studied medicine in Syria and practiced as physicians in Aegea, Cilicia, where they became highly renowned because they treated the sick not only in body, through their knowledge, but also in spirit by bringing them the Word of the Gospel.
A Surprising Request Instead of Money
Eastern people call them “people who ask for nothing,” since they care for the sick without asking for any payment. Instead of demanding money, they ask to talk a little about Jesus Christ. Their unshakable faith and desire to make the Gospel known make them evangelizing physicians, happy to care for both the body and soul of their patients. By treating men, women, and children, Cosmas and Damian also manage to convert many to Christianity.
A Most Painful Martyrdom
Their work of evangelization causes them no small amount of trouble, and Lysias, the governor of Cilicia, forbids them to continue spreading the word of Jesus. He fails to stop them and decides that they must die. The martyrdom of Cosmas and Damian is among the bloodiest and most terrible described by the martyrologies. They are said to have been martyred not once, but five times.
Lysias then has them thrown into the sea, but an enormous wave casts them back onto the beach safe and sound. Lysias next orders that they be burned alive, but instead of touching them, the flames turn against the pagan torturers who torment them. Finally, the physician brothers are beheaded because they remain faithful to Jesus Christ.
A miracle during the burial as well!
Among the miracles attributed to the two saints, one concerns Cosmas’s wish not to be buried with his twin brother, after the latter had accepted three eggs as a gift from a peasant woman whom he had miraculously healed.
Jacopo da Varazze’s Golden Legend recounts their burial: the dromedary carrying Saint Damian’s remains suddenly began to speak with a human voice and said: «Let them not be separated in burial, for they are not dissimilar in merit». Thus Cosmas and Damian were buried beside one another.
They did not stop healing even “after death”
Miraculous healings began to occur beside their tomb; even Emperor Justinian of Constantinople, after turning to the two martyrs, was inexplicably cured of a serious illness that the doctors had been unable to treat.
The Golden Legend also tells of a man on the verge of death because of gangrene in one leg. He was the sacristan of the basilica dedicated to Saints Cosmas and Damian in Rome, and he invoked them to end the excruciating pain. He fell into a deep sleep and saw the two saints approaching him, one with a knife and the other with a tray of medicines and dressings. He heard them speaking, and one suggested to the other that they replace the diseased leg with a new one, taken from the body of an Ethiopian who had been buried that day in the cemetery of Saint Peter in Chains. When the man awoke, he was no longer in pain, and his healed leg was black as pitch!
The extraordinary events in the lives of these champions of the faith should not distract us from the focus that guided every action, every word, every healing: their boundless love for Jesus Christ. And through their intercession, let us be healed of those wounds of the heart that we have never told anyone about.
