STS. COSMAS AND DAMIAN (NOV. 1ST)

Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Unmercenary Physicians, Imagined in Oriental Garb

Edited by Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

On the 1st November, the Church honors the Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, of Mesopotamia, and their mother, St Theodota (3rd c.).

Cosmas and Damian were unmercenaries and miracle-workers. They were brothers both in the flesh and in the spirit, born somewhere in Asia Minor of a pagan father and a Christian mother. 

After their father's death, their mother Theodota devoted all her time and effort to educating her sons and raising them as true Christians. God helped her, and her sons matured as sweet fruit and luminaries of the world. They were learned in the art of medicine and ministered to the sick without payment, not so much with medicine as by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.They were called "unmercenary physicians," that is, unpaid physicians, for they healed freely and thus fulfilled the commandment of Christ: Freely ye have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8). 

The Miraculous Amputation and Fitting of a Wooden Leg

So careful were they in healing men free of charge that Cosmas became very angry with his brother Damian because he accepted three eggs from a woman, Palladia, and ordered that he not be buried alongside his brother Damian after his death. In fact, St Damian did not accept these three eggs as a reward for healing the ailing Palladia, but rather because she adjured him in the name of the Most-holy Trinity to accept these three eggs. Nevertheless, after their death in the town of Thereman, they were buried together according to a revelation from God. 

The holy brothers were great miracle-workers both during their life and after their death. A snake crawled through the mouth and into the stomach of a certain farm laborer during his sleep, and the unfortunate man would have died in the greatest pain had he not, in the last moment, invoked the help of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Thus, the Lord glorified forever the miracle-working of those who glorified Him on earth by their faith, purity and mercy.

THE COLLECT FOR SAINTS COSMAS & DAMIAN

ALMIGHTY God, who calledst brothers Sts. Cosmas and Damian, who healed the sick in body and soul as Unmercenary Physicians for the glory of Thy Holy Name: May it please Thee that, by the wholesome intercessions delivered by them before Thy throne, that all the diseases of our bodies and souls may be healed; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

From ‘The Prologue of Ohrid: Lives of Saints, Hymns, Reflections and Homilies for Every Day of the Year’ by St Nikolai Velimirović. Collect by the Anglican Vicariate of the Orthodox Archdiocese of America. 

The "Twins" in a Traditional Byzantine Icon