Cosmas and Damian of Mesopotamia

The Holy Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian of Mesopotamia, brothers and wonderworkers, were healers of body and soul. Some sources count them natives of Asia Minor, others of Mesopotamia, hence the name under which they are honoured here.

Their pagan father died when they were small, and their mother, Saint Theodota, raised them in the faith, reading holy books to them and keeping them pure. Grown into skilled physicians, they received from the Holy Spirit the gift of healing through prayer, and treated people and even animals without taking payment, according to the word of the Lord: "Freely you have received, freely give." For this they were called unmercenary physicians.

Once they were summoned to a gravely ill woman, Palladia, whom all the doctors had given up. Through faith and the fervent prayer of the brothers, the Lord healed her. In gratitude she quietly gave Damian three eggs in the name of the Holy Trinity, and he did not dare refuse. When Cosmas learned of it he was grieved, thinking that his brother had broken their vow. On his deathbed he ordered that Damian not be buried beside him. Damian died soon after, and everyone wondered where to bury him. A camel that the saints had tamed spoke with a human voice and told them not to doubt, since Damian had not accepted the eggs as payment but out of respect for the Name of God. The relics of the two were buried together at Thereman, in Mesopotamia.

Many miracles took place after their death. At Thereman, near their church, there lived a man named Malchus, who went on a long journey and entrusted his wife to the saints' protection. The Enemy took the appearance of a friend of Malchus, went to the woman and told her that her husband was calling her. She followed him, and he led her to a lonely place to kill her. Seeing the danger, the woman called on God with deep faith. Two fearsome men appeared, the devil let her go and fled, falling from a cliff, and the two led her home. She asked who they were, and they answered: "We are the servants of Christ, Cosmas and Damian," and became invisible. The woman told everyone with joy and gave thanks with tears before their icon. From then on the saints were honoured as protectors of the purity and inviolability of Christian marriage and givers of harmony in married life. Their veneration spread from ancient times also to Russia.

They are not to be confused with the Unmercenary Saints Cosmas and Damian of Rome (1 July) or of Arabia (17 October). Those of Asia Minor, or Mesopotamia, are commemorated on 1 November.