Sts Cosmas & Damian, Tried & Martyred For Being Christian

September 26 is the Feast Day of Saints Cosmas and Damian, patrons of physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists and patron saints of twins.

The twins were born in Cilicia, known as Arabia in the third century. Cosmas and Damian were the first children born in a family of seven boys. The twins studied medicine and are credited for being the first to attempt a limb transplant on a human being. They devoted themselves to the rich and poor alike, accepting no payment for their medical services, thus earning their title, "The Silverless Ones". These miraculous patrons of medicine were accused of being Christians by two fellow doctors and arrested by Lisia, the governor of the city of Aega. They were tried in a court of Ceasar's and sentenced to death by torture.

 

The martyr twins are invoked in the Canon of the Mass in the prayer known as the Communicantes (from the first Latin word of the prayer): "In communion with the whole Church, they venerate above all others the memory of the glorious ever-virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ, then of blessed Joseph, husband of the Virgin, your blessed Apostles and Martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, ...John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian and all your Saints: grant through their merits and prayers that in all things we may be defended by the help of your protection." They are also invoked in the Litany of the Saints, and in the older form of the Roman rite, in the Collect for Thursday in the Third Week of Lent, as the station church for this day is Santi Cosma e Damiano.

Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian along with their younger brothers Anthimus, Leontius and Euprepius, were martyred during the Diocletianic or Great Persecution because they would not renounce their faith.

While Emperor Nero is often depicted as the architect of early Christian martyrdom due to the brutal ways in which he sought to eliminate the fledgling religion, Christian persecution started with the crucifixion of Jesus as foretold in the Gospel of Matthew, and is still going on

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household.” - Matthew 10:34

Early Christians were persecuted at the hands of both Jews, from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Romans who controlled many of the early centers of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Three decades after Christ’s crucifixion, Emperor Nero began the Roman Empire’s persecution of the early Christians. It all culminated with executions in Nicomedia almost 300 years later. Emperor after emperor tried to stifle the Christian faith with prohibitions, extreme torture, and monstrous methods of execution. But it didn’t help much. Roman governors reported that condemned Christians seemed almost elated at the prospect of becoming Christian martyrs


Not sure if Cosmas and Damian along with their younger brothers Anthimus, Leontius and Euprepius, were elated to be martyred during the Diocletianic or Great Persecution that extended several years beyond the reign of Diocletian, where as many as 3,500 Christians were executed under the authority of Imperial edicts. Yet, this pales in comparison with the 19th-century Korean persecutions of Catholic Christians where nearly 10 000 Koreans were martyred, mostly laypeople. As Tertulian prophesiedno: “We spring up in greater numbers the more we are mown down by you: the blood of the Christians is the seed of a new life.
Tertullian , born c. 155/160, Carthage was an early Christian theologian and moralist. He became impressed by the courage, morality, and uncompromising monotheism of Christian martyrs, that he converted to Christianity.


Cosmas and Damian were physicians and early Christian martyrs. They practiced their profession in the seaport of Aegeae, then in the Roman province of Syria. Cosmas and Damian were third century Arabian-born twin brothers who embraced Christianity and practiced medicine and surgery without a fee earning the name anargyroi (from the Greek Ἀνάργυροι, 'the no money" or 'unmercenaries') doctors; bringing many to the Christian faith

They were arrested by Lysias, governor of Cilicia, modern day Çukurova, Turkey during the Diocletian persecution because of their faith and fame as healers. They stayed true to their faith, enduring being hung on a cross, stoned and shot by arrows and finally suffered execution by beheading. Anthimus, Leontius and Euprepius, their younger brothers, who were inseparable from them throughout life, shared in their martyrdom

As early as the 4th century, churches dedicated to the twin saints were established at Jerusalem, in Egypt and in Mesopotamia. Devotion to the two saints spread rapidly in both East and West. Theodoret records the division of their reputed relics - Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus (Greek: Θεοδώρητος Κύρρου; c. AD 393 – c. 458/466) was an influential theologian of the School of Antioch, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus -  Their relics, deemed miraculous, were buried in the city of Cyrrhus in Syria. Churches were built in their honor by Archbishop Proclus and by Emperor Justinian I who restored the city of Cyrrhus, dedicated it to the twins. Justinian brought their relics to Constantinople, where after his cure, ascribed to the intercession of Cosmas and Damian, Justinian, in gratitude also built and adorned their church at Constantinople

Prayers to Saints Cosmas and Damian

We suffer from bodily diseases and mental disorders, from physical disabilities and emotional disturbances, from impure desires and from demonic attacks. Help us, Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, for we are in urgent need of your holy medicine and sacred ointment. With faith in the Almighty and Merciful God, and with hope in your medical aid from Heaven, we call upon you in this manner:

Deliver us, for you are brothers in flesh and in spirit.

Deliver us, for we are distraught in body and in mind.



Deliver us, for you are physicians by training and by the will of God.

Deliver us, for we are stricken by illness and by the stress of society.

Deliver us, for you are gifted with cures and prayers.

Deliver us, for we are perishing with maladies and sins.

Deliver us, Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, holy brothers and merciful healers of the afflicted.