Saint Damian

Cosmas and Damian (c. 3rd century – c. 287 or c. 303 AD) were two Arab physicians and early Christian martyrs. They practised their profession in the seaport of Aegeae, then in the Roman province of Cilicia. Cosmas and Damian were third century Arabian-born twin brothers who embraced Christianity and practiced medicine and surgery without a fee. This led them to being named anargyroi (from the Greek Ἀνάργυροι, "the silverless" or "unmercenaries"); by this, they attracted many to the Christian faith. They reputedly cured blindness, fever, paralysis and reportedly expelled a serpent. They were arrested by Lysias, governor of Cilicia (modern-day Çukurova, Turkey) during the Diocletian persecution because of their faith and fame as healers. Emperor Diocletian, who favoured the worship of the Olympian gods, issued a series of edicts that condemned the Christians with the goal of eliminating Christianity from the Roman Empire. Nothing is known of their lives except that they suffered martyrdom in Syria during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. According to Christian traditions, the twin brothers were born in Arabia and became skilled doctors. The healed through incubation, curing their patients miraculously in sleep. Saladino d'Ascoli, a 15th-century Italian physician, claims that the medieval electuary, a pasty mass consisting of a drug mixed with sugar and water or honey suitable for oral administration, known as opopira, a complex compound medicine used to treat diverse maladies including paralysis, was invented by Cosmas and Damian. During the persecution under Diocletian, Cosmas and Damian were arrested by order of the Prefect of Cilicia, one Lysias who is otherwise unknown, who ordered them under torture to recant. However, according to legend they stayed true to their faith, enduring being hung on a cross, stoned, shot by arrows, and finally suffered execution by beheading.