Ss Cosmas and Damian the Unmercenaries

Cosmas and Damian, commemorated on November 1, were brothers from Asia Minor, raised in piety by their mother Theodota after their father's death. Trained as physicians, they treated the sick without accepting any payment, asking only faith in Christ, in obedience to the Lord's command, 'Freely you have received, freely give.' For this they are honored as Unmercenaries — anargyroi, 'without silver.' Through their prayers God healed diseases judged incurable, and they cared for animals as well as people. The one recorded breach between them came when Damian accepted three eggs from a woman named Palladia who begged him in God's name; Cosmas, grieved, asked not to be buried beside his brother, but after their peaceful deaths a miracle revealed that they were to rest together. Their shrine became a place of healing, and they remain among the most invoked of all healer saints.