Collection: Sts. Cosmas and Damian

Artist: Jean Bourdichon – c. 1503 – 1508

Little is known of the lives of these two saints except that they suffered martyrdom in Syria during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. Being prominent practitioners of medicine, it would have been hard for them to have remained unnoticed.

A church erected on the site of their burial was enlarged by the emperor Justinian. Devotion to the two saints spread rapidly in both East and West, and a famous basilica was erected in their honor in Constantinople. Their names were placed in the Roman Canon probably in the sixth century.

Legend says that they were twin brothers born in Arabia who were both skilled doctors. They were among those who are venerated in the East as the “moneyless ones” because, purportedly, they did not charge a fee for their services.

Their feast day is September 26.