Saints Cosmas and Damian

Martyrs, Holy Unmercenary Physicians
(died c. 287)

Saints Cosmas and Damian are among the most universally venerated martyrs of the early Church and are honoured in both East and West as the patron saints of physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists. They are numbered among the Holy Unmercenary Physicians, those saints of the early Church who practised medicine without charging fees as an apostolic witness to the free gift of God's healing grace. According to their Acts they were twin brothers, born in Arabia, who practised medicine in the Syrian city of Aegeae and treated all who came to them without accepting any payment.

Their medical practice, given freely to all regardless of ability to pay, was itself a form of evangelisation, and they are said to have brought many to the faith through the combination of physical healing and spiritual witness. They suffered martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian around 287, subjected to various torments before being beheaded. Their cultus spread rapidly throughout the Christian world, and churches dedicated to them were built in Rome, Constantinople, and Jerusalem in the earliest centuries.

The great basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian in the Roman Forum, built in the sixth century by Pope Felix IV, is one of the first examples of a pagan building being converted into a Christian church, and its magnificent apse mosaic depicting the two saints is one of the masterpieces of early Christian art. A relic of the two martyrs was placed in this church, and it became one of the principal healing shrines of Rome.

They are invoked in the ancient Roman Canon of the Mass alongside the other great early martyrs, testimony to the esteem in which the Roman Church held them from the earliest centuries. Their feast is celebrated on September 26th, and they are invoked by physicians, surgeons, and all those who work in the healing professions.