On September 26, the Church commemorates Saints Cosmas and Damian, twin brothers whose faith, charity, and medical service left a lasting mark on Christian history. Born to Christian parents in Arabia during the third century, the brothers became physicians renowned not only for their extraordinary skill but also for their refusal to accept payment from those they treated. Their generosity earned them the title Anargyroi “the silverless” or “those without money” a recognition of their dedication to both healing bodies and witnessing to the Gospel.
Cosmas and Damian lived near the border region of modern-day Turkey and Syria, an area where Christian communities were still small but growing. Their practice of medicine became a profound expression of their faith. By healing without charge, they reflected Christ’s call to serve freely, drawing many to embrace Christianity. Patients, impressed by both their knowledge and their compassion, often encountered the faith for the first time through their care.
The brothers’ fame, however, made them targets when Emperor Diocletian’s brutal persecution of Christians swept through the Roman Empire in the late third century. In 287, Cosmas and Damian were arrested and commanded to renounce Christ. They refused. What followed was a harrowing ordeal: the brothers endured multiple tortures including crucifixion from which, according to tradition, they miraculously remained unharmed.
Frustrated by their steadfastness, their captors finally executed them by beheading. Their martyrdom, far from extinguishing their influence, only deepened devotion to them among the faithful.
Cosmas and Damian quickly became revered as patron saints of physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists. Their cult spread widely across both East and West, and their names are invoked in the Canon of the Mass and in the Litany of the Saints. Churches dedicated to them appeared throughout the Roman Empire, most famously the Basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Rome, built in the sixth century.
Their witness highlights two central themes of Christian life: service without seeking worldly reward, and fidelity to Christ even in the face of death. To this day, doctors and medical workers continue to look to them as models of selfless care, while the faithful invoke them for healing of both body and spirit.
On this feast, the lives of Saints Cosmas and Damian remind us that healing is not only an act of science but also an act of love and that true charity always reflects the mercy of God.