Early Church · d. c. 284
Ss Cosmas and Damian
Unmercenary physicians and wonderworkers of Rome
Cosmas and Damian were brothers and physicians who practiced medicine in and around Rome, healing both people and animals. Following the Lord's command 'Freely you have received, freely give,' they accepted no payment from anyone, and for this the Church calls them Unmercenaries. Their skill and their refusal of money drew many to ask about the God they served, and numbers of pagans came to faith through their care. Denounced during the reign of the emperor Carinus, they were brought before him; tradition relates that they healed the emperor himself, who released them. They did not die at the hands of the state: an older physician who had once taught them, consumed by envy at their fame, lured the brothers into the hills on the pretext of gathering medicinal herbs and murdered them. They have been invoked ever since as patrons of physicians and of the sick, and many churches bear their name.
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