Feast Day of Saints Cosmas and Damian

Oopsy, almost missed the Feast Day of Saints Cosmas and Damien, patron saints of physicians and pharmacists, who are named in the Litany of Saints. 

"Saints Cosmas and Damien were twin brothers born in Arabia (modern day Syria) around 270 A.D. They had three younger brothers; their father died, so their mother, Theodota, was left to raise all five of them herself. Cosmas and Damien were educated in science and medicine, and became physicians that were quite skilled and enthusiastic about their work."

The brothers worked in the south central coast of present-day Turkey.

"Cosmas and Damien saw in every patient a brother or sister in Christ.... Yet no matter how much care a patient required, neither Cosmas nor Damien ever accepted any money for their services. For this reason, they were called anargyroi in Greek, which means "the penniless ones."  Every chance they had, the two saints told their patients about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ...Cosmas and Damien often brought health back to both the bodies and the souls of those who came to them for help."

"When Diocletian's persecution of Christians began in their city, the saints were arrested at once.... They were tortured, but nothing could make them give up their belief in Christ. They had lived for him and had brought so many people to his love. So at last, they were put to death in the year 303."

They were martyred, but it wasn't easy!  St. Cosmas and Damien were what the authors of The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living call "Terminator saints," as hard to kill as the Terminator.

"Roman Proconsul Lysias ordered them to be chained together and thrown into the sea, but an angel brought them ashore. Then they were tied to a post to be burnt alive, but the flames flared up against their executioners. Lysias tried to have the brothers stoned, but the stones all fell short. Finally they were both beheaded."

Wow.  I love these stories. 

There are, of course, many early Christian mosaics and medieval paintings of these brothers, many gorgeous masterpieces from the Age of Faith.  This painting depicts the "miraculous transplantation" of the leg of an "Ethiop" (click to enlarge).  The ulcerated leg of a Christian verger was painlessly amputated (?!) and substittuted with the undiseased leg.  This oil painting is attributed to the Master of Los Balbases, Burgos, Spain, c. 1495.