Cosmas and Damian | |
|---|---|
 Cosmas (left) and Damian (right) in theGrandes Heures of Anne of Brittany, c. 1503–1508 | |
| Martyrs | |
| Born | c. 3rd century AD Arabia |
| Died | c. 287 or c. 303 Aegea,Roman province of Cilicia (modern-dayYumurtalık,Adana, Turkey) |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Oriental Orthodox Churches Eastern Catholic Churches Anglican churches Lutheran churches |
| Majorshrine |
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| Feast |
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| Attributes | Depicted as twins, beheaded, or with medical emblems |
| Patronage | Surgeons,physicians,identical twins,twins,dentists, protectors of children,barbers,pharmacists,veterinarians,orphanages,day-care centers,confectioners, children in house, againsthernia, against theplague. |
Cosmas and Damian[a] (c. 3rd century –c. 287 orc. 303 AD) were twoArab physicians and earlyChristian martyrs.[3][4] They practised their profession in the seaport ofAegeae, then in the Romanprovince ofCilicia.[5]
Cosmas and Damian were third century Arabian-born twin brothers who embraced Christianity and practised medicine and surgery without a fee. This led them to being namedanargyroi (from the GreekἈνάργυροι, "the silverless" or "unmercenaries"); by this, they attracted many to the Christian faith.[6] They reputedly cured blindness, fever, paralysis and reportedly expelled a serpent. They were arrested by Lysias, governor of Cilicia (modern-day Çukurova, Turkey) during theDiocletian persecution because of their faith and fame as healers. EmperorDiocletian, who favoured the worship of the Olympian gods, issued a series of edicts that condemned the Christians with the goal of eliminating Christianity from the Roman Empire.[7]
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Nothing is known of their lives except that they suffered martyrdom in Syria during the persecution of the EmperorDiocletian. According to Christian traditions, the twin brothers were born in Arabia and became skilled doctors.[8]
Saladino d'Ascoli, a 15th-century Italian physician, claims that the medievalelectuary, a pasty mass consisting of a drug mixed with sugar and water or honey suitable for oral administration,[9] known as opopira,[10] a complex compound medicine used to treat diverse maladies including paralysis, was invented by Cosmas and Damian.[11]
During thepersecution under Diocletian, Cosmas and Damian were arrested by order of thePrefect ofCilicia, one Lysias who is otherwise unknown, who ordered them undertorture to recant. However, according to legend they stayed true to their faith, enduring being hung on a cross, stoned, shot by arrows, and finally suffered execution bybeheading. Anthimus, Leontius and Euprepius, their younger brothers, who were inseparable from them throughout life, shared in their martyrdom.[5]
The veneration of Cosmas and Damian quickly spread beyond Constantinople; accounts of their martyrdom were rewritten by various authors such asAndrew of Crete,Peter the Wonderworker,Theodore II Laskaris, and a certain Maximusc. 1300. The legends are preserved also in Syriac, Coptic, Georgian, Armenian, and Latin.[12]
As early as the 4th century, churches dedicated to the twin saints were established atJerusalem, in Egypt and inMesopotamia. Devotion to the two saints spread rapidly in both the East and the West.Theodoret records the division of their reputed relics. Their relics, deemed miraculous, were buried in the city ofCyrrhus in Syria. Churches were built in their honor by ArchbishopProclus of Constantinople and by EmperorJustinian I (527–565), who sumptuously restored the city of Cyrrhus and dedicated it to the twins, but brought their purported relics toConstantinople.[8]
There, following his cure, ascribed to the intercession of Cosmas and Damian, Justinian, in gratitude also built and adorned their church at Constantinople,[8] and it became a celebrated place of pilgrimage. At Rome, PopeFelix IV (526–530) rededicated the Library of Peace (Bibliotheca Pacis) as abasilica ofSanti Cosma e Damiano in theForum of Vespasian in their honour. The church is much rebuilt but still famed for its sixth-century mosaics illustrating the saints.
What are said to be their skulls are venerated in theConvent of Las Descalzas Reales of theClares inMadrid, where they have been since 1581, the gift of Maria, daughter of EmperorCharles V. They had previously been removed from Rome toBremen in the tenth century, and thence toBamberg. Other skulls said to be theirs were discovered in 1334 byBurchard Grelle,Archbishop of Bremen. He personally "miraculously" retrieved the relics of the holy physicians Cosmas and Damian, which were allegedly immured and forgotten in the choir of theBremen Cathedral.[13]
In celebration of the retrieval Archbishop andChapter arranged a feast at Pentecost 1335, when the relics were translated from the wall to a more dignified place.[14] Grelle claimed the relics were those ArchbishopAdaldag brought from Rome in 965. The cathedral master-builder Johann Hemeling made a shrine for the relics, which was finishedc. 1420. The shrine, made from carved oak wood covered with gilt and rolled silver is considered an important mediaeval gold work.[15]
In 1649 Bremen's Chapter, Lutheran by this time, sold the shrine without the heads toMaximilian I, Elector of Bavaria. The two heads remained in Bremen and came into the possession of the small Roman Catholic community. They were shown from 1934 to 1968 in the Church of St. Johann and in 1994 they were buried in the crypt.[16] The shrine is now shown in theJesuitchurch of St Michael inMunich. At least since 1413 another supposed pair of skulls of the saints has been stored inSt Stephens's Cathedral inVienna. Other relics are claimed by theChurch of San Giorgio Maggiore inVenice.
The martyr twins are invoked in theCanon of the Mass[8] in the prayer known as theCommunicantes (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 theLitany of the Saints, and in the older form of the Roman rite, in theCollect for Thursday in the Third Week of Lent, as thestation church for this day is Santi Cosma e Damiano.
Theirfeast day in theGeneral Roman Calendar, which had been on 27 September, was moved in 1969 to 26 September because 27 September is thedies natalis ("day of birth" into Heaven) ofVincent de Paul, now more widely venerated in theLatin Church.[17][18] In Canada it has been moved to 25 September (as 26 September is the Feast of the Canadian Martyrs in Canada).[19]
Sts Cosmas and Damian are regarded as the patrons of physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists and are sometimes represented with medical emblems. They are also regarded as the patron saints of twins.
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InBrazil, the twin saints are regarded as protectors of children, and 27 September is commemorated, especially inRio de Janeiro, by giving children bags of candy with the saints' effigy printed on them and throughout the entire state of Bahia where Catholics and adepts ofCandomblé religion offer typical food such ascaruru. The ritual consists of first offering the food to seven children that are no older than seven years old and then having them feast while sitting on the floor and eating with their hands. For adepts of Candomblé andUmbanda, the saints aresyncretised with theIbeji. TheChurch of Saints Cosmas and Damian, inIgarassu, Pernambuco is Brazil's oldest church, built in 1535.
In the UK, Damian is thedexter side supporter in thecoat of arms of theBritish Dental Association.
Cosmas and Damian are venerated every year inUtica, New York, at St. Anthony's Parish during the annual pilgrimage which takes place on the last weekend of September (close to the 27 September feast day). There are thousands of pilgrims who come to honor the saints. Over 80 busloads come from Canada and other destinations. The two-day festival includes music (La Banda Rosa), much Italian food, Masses and processions through the streets of East Utica. It is one of the largest festivals honoring saints in the Northeastern United States.
TheMiracle of the Black Leg is a medieval transplant where Saints Cosmas and Damian allegedly replaced a white man's diseased leg with one from a deceased Black man.[20] The saints, who were traveling physicians in third-centurySyria, performed this miracle in the 6th century, long after their deaths.[21]
According to the legend, averger inMedieval Rome with a cancerous leg received a nighttime visit from the saints in a dream. They surgically removed his diseased limb and replaced it with one from a recently deceasedEthiopian man.[22] Upon awakening, the verger discovered his diseased leg had indeed been replaced with a Black leg. When people checked the Ethiopian donor's tomb, they found the verger's white leg attached to the deceased man's body.[23]
This transplant miracle, documented in the Golden Legend, has inspired numerous artistic depictions.[24]
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In theEastern Orthodox Church,Eastern Catholic Churches, and theOriental Orthodox Churches, Cosmas and Damian are venerated as a type of saint known asUnmercenary Physicians (Greek:ἀνάργυροι,anargyroi,"without money"). This classification of saints is unique to the Eastern Church and refers to those who heal purely out of love for God and man, strictly observing the command of Jesus: "Freely have you received, freely give", (« Δωρεὰν ἐλάβετε, δωρεὰν δότε... »Matthew 10:8) While each of the Unmercenaries has his ownfeast days, all are commemorated together on the first Sunday in November, in a feast known as theSynaxis of the Unmercenary Physicians.
The Orthodox celebrate no less than three different sets of saints by the name of Cosmas and Damian, each with their own distinctfeast day:
Orthodoxicons of the saints depict them vested as laymen holding medicine boxes. Often each will also hold a spoon with which to dispense medicine. The handle of the spoon is normally shaped like a cross to indicate the importance of spiritual as well as physical healing, and that all cures come from God.
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