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Saints Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor

The first of the month, Memory of the Holy Unmercenaries and Wonderworkers COSMAS and DAMIAN

Saints Cosmas and Damian were brothers according to the flesh and came from the region of Ephesus in the Province of Asia. Some time after they were born, their father, a pagan of noble lineage, embraced the Christian faith; but his early death left the two children in the sole care of their devout mother Theodora, who had been a Christian since childhood. She made every effort to bring up her sons in piety by her own virtuous example. Cosmas and Damian were educated in the various

branches of learning of their day, but turned away before long from all vain knowledge to devote themselves to the art of medicine, that they might free their neigh-bours from every sickness and infir-mity.

Like the Apostles sent forth by Christ (Matt. 10), they were given the power to cast out unclean spirits and to heal all manner of sickness with no other remedy than their prayer. Having freely received the grace of the Holy Spirit, these new Apostles freely gave; they tended the rich just as they did the poor, and strangers as their own relatives, asking nothing in return. Their charity was such that their charity extended even to animals. So closely did they link the preaching of the Gospel of Salvation that, although they were qualified in medical science, they used by way of remedy neither lancet nor plaster, but only the lifegiving Name of Christ, so that the Saviour Himself was the Physician who, working in them, healed souls and bodies. Patients made their way from all quarters to their dwelling, and each one found healing and comfort according to the measure of his faith.

Saint Damian, the younger brother, was the first to fall asleep in peace, followed some time later by Saint Cosmas. Thereafter crowds of Christians came in a constant stream to the church built over their tomb, at a place called Fereman. Their precious relics and their icon were an abundant source of healing for the sick, who were allowed to spend several days in the church, surrounded by prayers and supplications. No one left without obtaining either a cure or the strength to bear with patience and hope, the illness permitted by God for the salvation of his soul.