Saints Kosmas and Damianos of MesopotamiaToday in the Holy Orthodox Church we commemorate Saints Kosmas and Damianos, the holy anargyroi and wonderworkers of third-century Mesopotamia. Among the most celebrated saints of Syria and of the Arab world, the brothers Kosmas and Damianos embody the selflessness and social concern of the Early Church toward the poor and sick. Their cultus is universal, but – these two saints being from Cilicia in Asia Minor and buried in Mesopotamia – has its centre in the Patriarchate of Antioch.
Saints Kosmas [Gk. Κοσμάς, L. Cosmas, Ar. Quzmâ قزما] and Damianos [Gk. Δαμιανός, L. Damianus, Ar. Damyân دميان] were twin brothers, born in the province of Cilicia, probably in the city of Ægeæ (modern-day Yumurtalık), in the third century, to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Theodotē. The Roman hagiography states that they were the eldest of seven brothers from this marriage. Even so, their father died when they were quite young; as a result, they were raised by their mother. Saint Theodotē took care to read to them from the Scriptures, to teach them the præcepts of the Christian life, and kept them in purity of life. The two boys in particular were impressed by the following commandment from Christ in the Gospel of Saint Matthew: ‘Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.’
Evidently, this is exactly what they did – to the very letter. When they grew to adulthood, full of righteousness and virtue as well as a formidable learning and training in the arts of medicine, the two brothers Kosmas and Damianos went out and healed the sick – paying special attention to the poor, who could not afford to pay another physician for a cure. They cured all manner of ailments of the body, as well as those of the spirit, and they even cured animals that were brought to them. Among the hundreds of wonders they performed: they restored sight to the blind, cooled fevers, enlivened the joints of the paralysed, and destroyed parasites such as intestinal worms. They also set broken bones and, in one famous incident, performed a leg replacement surgery on a Syrian man using the requisite limb of a black Ethiopian man who had recently died. Following precisely the commandment of Christ, they did not ask, nor did they receive, any manner of payment for their services.
There was one exception, and it very nearly cost Damianos the friendship of his brother. The two physicians were called to treat a woman named Palladia, who was deathly ill. None of the other doctors nearby would treat her, as her condition was deemed hopeless. The two physicians came to her and prayed with her and treated her, and by a wonder of God her illness was cured. Palladia rose from her bed in fullness of health, giving praise to God. As the two saints were making ready to leave, the woman quietly approached Damianos and handed him three eggs, telling him: ‘Take this small gift in the Name of the Holy Life-Creating Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’ Upon hearing the name of the Holy Trinity, Damianos – who had never taken payment for any work of healing he had done – did not dare to refuse the eggs from Palladia’s hand.
When Kosmas heard of what his brother had done, he was grievously upset, for he believed that his brother had broken their vow. He fell ill sometime later, and on his deathbed he gave very stern instructions that Damianos’s body was to be buried someplace far off from his own. Damianos himself reposed in the Lord shortly after this, and the faithful were left in a quandary as to how to arrange the burial of the two saints. While they were discussing, a cow camel which Kosmas had treated for distemper walked over to them and began speaking in a human voice, saying: ‘Kosmas and Damianos cured not only you men, but also we dumb animals. Therefore I, in gratitude to them, come to tell you that the Lord wills it, that you bury them together.’
It came out thereafter, as the men were investigating Saint Damianos’s acts, that he had not accepted the eggs from Palladia out of greed, but because she had pronounced the Name of the Lord in Three Persons and he sought to honour the Name. Thus the relics of the two saints were buried together side by side in tombs at Thereman in Mesopotamia. A church was built up over their relics.
Many wonders are attributed to the relics of Saints Kosmas and Damianos, but one in particular is mentioned in their hagiography. A certain man named Malchos lived near the church of Saints Kosmas and Damianos, and he knew that soon he would have to undertake a long journey, leaving his wife behind. Before he left, he went into the church and prayed over the relics of the two holy unmercenaries, entreating them to watch over his wife and pray to Christ God for her protection.
One of Malchos’s friends, under the design of the Evil One, plotted to kill Malchos’s wife. Waiting for some time after Malchos had gone, he approached the woman, telling her that Malchos had sent him to bring her home with him. Because he was a familiar face, the woman agreed to go with him, and the two of them set off. But instead of taking her to his house, the wicked man took her into a deserted place and attacked her. In fright, and in deadly peril of her life, the woman called upon the name of the Lord to protect her.
At once two fearsome-looking men appeared. Seeing them, the wicked one let go of the woman and fled, and the two men gave chase such that he fell off of a cliff. The two men then led the woman back to her own home; and once she had reached there safely she turned to them, bowed deeply, and asked them: ‘My saviours, to whom I shall be grateful for the rest of my days: what are your names?’
The two men replied to her: ‘We are the servants of Christ. Our names are Kosmos and Damianos.’ And once they had spoke, they vanished from sight. Joyfully the woman told everyone around her what had happened to her and how she was delivered from death, and then she went into the church, found the icon of the two holy unmercenaries, and revered it with tears and prayers of thanksgiving. From that time forward, Saints Kosmos and Damianos have also been regarded as the protectors of the wholeness and harmony within marriage, and couples seeking help call upon their intercessions. Very early on their cultus spread into Russia, with the earliest centre of their veneration being at Velikii Novgorod, where the temple in their honour dates back to 1271.
There are two other pairs of saints by the names of Kosmas and Damianos: one of these pairs was martyred in Rome and are venerated on the first of July, and the other was martyred in Ægeæ under Diocletian and are venerated on the seventeenth of October. The Saint Kosmas and Saint Damianos whom we venerate today are always portrayed in the garb of laymen; they usually have an attribute of a medicine-box on their icon, and they are shown holding spoons for the medicine. These spoons have handles in the shape of a cross, to show that all cures are ultimately from God. Holy and wise unmercenary physicians Kosmos and Damianos, friends of the poor, healers of the sick and defenders of those without any defence, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!
Apolytikion to Saints Kosmas and Damianos, Tone 8:
Holy unmercenaries and wonderworkers, Kosmas and Damianos,
Heal our infirmities.
Freely you have received; freely you give to us.
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