Saints Cosmas and Damian

Saints Cosmas and Damian (Κοσμάς και Δαμιανός) (died ca. 303) were twins and early Christian martyrs, born in Cilicia, or in Arabia (CE), who practiced the art of healing in the seaport of Ægea (modern Ayash) in the Gulf of Iskanderun, then in the Roman province of Syria. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, they accepted no payment for their services, which led them to be nicknamed anargyroi or The Silverless. It is said that by this, they led many to the Christian faith. Cosmas' name is rendered as Côme in French, as Cosimo in Italian, as Cosme in Portuguese, as Kuzma in Croatian language, as Козма (Kozma) in Serbian and Bulgarian, Kozma' in Albanian or as Kozman in Coptic.

During the persecution under Diocletian, Cosmas and Damian were arrested by order of the Prefect of Cilicia, one Lysias who is otherwise unknown, who ordered them under torture to recant. However, according to legend they stayed true to their faith through a series of gruesome tortures that did not harm them, and finally suffered execution by beheading. Anthimus, Leontius and Euprepius, their younger brothers, who were inseparable from them throughout life, shared in their martyrdom.

Their most famous miraculous exploit was the grafting of a leg from a recently deceased Ethiopian to replace a patient's ulcered leg, and was the subject of many paintings and illuminations.

As early as the 4th century, churches dedicated to the twin saints were established at Jerusalem, in Egypt and in Mesopotamia. Theodoret records the division of their relics. Their relics, deemed miraculous, were buried in the city of Cyrus in Syria (CE). Churches were built in their honor by Archbishop Proclus and by Emperor Justinian I (527-565), who sumptuously restored the city of Cyrus and dedicated it to the twins, but brought their relics to Constantinople; there, following his cure, ascribed to the intercession of Cosmas and Damian, Justinian, in gratitude also built and adorned their church at Constantinople, and it became a celebrated place of pilgrimage. At Rome Pope Felix IV (526-530) rededicated the Library of Peace (Bibliotheca Pacis) as a basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano in the Forum of Vespasian in their honour. The church is much rebuilt but still famed for its sixth-century mosaics illustrating the saints.

Their skulls are venerated in the convent of the Clares in Madrid, where they have been since 1581, the gift of Maria, daughter of Emperor Charles V. They had previously been removed from Rome to Bremen in the tenth century, and thence to Bamberg (Matthews). Their skulls are also enshrined in the church St. Michael in Munich. According to the inscription, the shrine was manufactured in Bremen around 1400 and brought with the relics to St. Michael in 1649 by Maximilian I of Bavaria (born about 100 years later in 1756).

Their feast day in the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints was 27 September but has been moved to 26 September as an optional commemoration. The Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate the feast of Saints Kosmas and Damian on 1 July, 17 October, and 1 November, and venerates three pairs of saints of the same name and profession. Cosmas and Damian are regarded as the patrons of physicians and surgeons and are sometimes represented with medical emblems. Little is known of the non-Roman Kosmas and Damian except that they lived similar lives to those in Rome or Cilicia.

In Brazil, the twin saints are regarded as protectors of children, and 27 September is commemorated by giving children bags of candy with the saints' effigy printed on them. In Isernia, near Naples, they served as phallic saints and were invoked for fertility.