Holy Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian, Martyred in Rome (+284)
The holy unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian were blood brothers and lived in the city of Rome. Their Christian parents brought up their children in the fear of God and had them master the art of healing. The Lord rewarded Cosmas and Damian, distinguished by their piety, with the gift of miraculous healing. They treated the sick without payment and told them: “We do not heal the sick by our own powers, but in the name of the Lord. Believe in Christ and you will be healed.” When they received a rich inheritance from their parents, they began to sell the property and help the poor. By their kindness, mercy and unselfishness the saints converted many to the law of Christ.
The God-pleasing life of Cosmas and Damian and their standing among the people drew the attention of the Roman authorities, and soldiers were sent to seize the physicians. When they could not find the brothers, the soldiers arrested other Christians. Then Cosmas and Damian gave themselves up to the soldiers on condition that the prisoners be set free. In Rome the Lord’s chosen ones were first thrown into prison and then brought before the tribunal. They boldly confessed their faith before the emperor.
By God’s providence the Emperor Carus (282–283) was struck by an illness and became convinced of the Lord’s almightiness by his own example. The proud autocrat asked the holy brothers for help and vowed that he would follow Christ. Cosmas and Damian treated the emperor, after which both of them were set free.
What the hatred of the pagans and the cruelty of the Roman authorities could not do, envy accomplished: the aged physician, the teacher with whom the brothers had studied medicine in their time, was filled with envy at their fame; he lured his pupils into the forest, as if to gather rare medicinal herbs. There, his mind darkened by the evil one, he treacherously killed the brothers and gave their holy bodies to the river. (The saints of this day, Cosmas and Damian, should be distinguished from the saints of the same names whose memory is kept on 17 October and 1 November.)
