Hagiographia · Eastern Orthodox · Roman Catholic

Cosmas and Damian

Two brothers who healed the sick for free and once quarrelled over three eggs. The unmercenary physicians, patrons of doctors and the pharmacy, are the saints the Medici took as protectors. In Serbia their day is Vračevi, 14 November.

Feast day November 14 / 1 November old calendar (Vračevi, Serbian Orthodox; the Asian pair)

Era traditionally the 3rd-4th century; the lives are hagiographic

Region Asia Minor; buried together at Fereman

Status canonical (the unmercenary healers, anargyroi; patrons of physicians)

Patronage physicians, surgeons and pharmacists, the sick; healing, the medical profession (marked in Serbian hospitals)

Primary Sources

The Life of Saints Cosmas and Damian, the unmercenary healers of Asia Minor (Ohrid Prologue / Prologue from Ohrid of Nikolaj Velimirović, 1 November)
Orthodox synaxarion for the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor (1 November / 14 November); the separate commemoration of their mother Theodota
The Catholic Encyclopedia, 'Sts. Cosmas and Damian' (New Advent), on the Western martyr tradition and the later legends
The Gospel of Matthew 10:8 ('freely you have received, freely give')
Serbian church coverage of Vračevi / Sveti Vrači (14 November), on the patronage of healers and the household slava

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Two brothers in Asia Minor practised medicine and would not be paid for it. Cosmas and Damian treated the sick by what they had learned and in the name of Christ, and they took no fee, since they kept a line from the gospel as a rule of the house: freely you have received, freely give. The tradition calls them the anargyroi, the silverless, and it tells one story about them that turns on three eggs.

The unmercenary healers

Cosmas and Damian were brothers, sons of a pagan father who died while they were young and of a Christian mother, Theodota, who raised them in the faith and is herself remembered as a saint. They learned the medical arts and went about healing, and the tradition remembers them above all for refusing money. They asked nothing of the people they cured, and so they are counted among the anargyroi, the unmercenary saints, the ones who healed for free. In Serbian they are the besrebrenici, the silverless, and the vračevi, the healers.

Three eggs

The rule was strict enough to cause a quarrel between the two of them. A woman named Palladia, whom Damian had brought back from the edge of death, pressed three eggs on him in thanks and begged him to take them in the name of the Holy Trinity. He took them out of reverence for the Name, and counted it no payment. But Cosmas, who had held them both to taking nothing at all, was so troubled that he left instructions he was not to be buried beside his brother.

The tradition ends the story as such legends do. After the two had died, a camel they had once healed is said to have spoken aloud and told the people that Damian had done no wrong, and the brothers were laid in the same grave at Fereman. It is a legend of their Life, and the church keeps it for what it measures in two men who could fall out over three eggs.

The pair that died in peace

Here the traditions part. There are three pairs of brothers named Cosmas and Damian in the Orthodox calendar, kept on three different days: a Roman pair, an Arabian pair, and this Asian pair, the sons of Theodota. The Roman and the Arabian brothers were martyred; this pair died in peace and were buried together at Fereman, and it is their day the Serbs keep on 14 November. The Western church, for its part, drew the name together into a single pair of twin martyrs killed under Diocletian, and the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that “a number of fables grew up about them.” The Vračevi of November are the healers who died quietly in their beds.

Did You Know?

Cosmas and Damian are the patrons of physicians and pharmacists, and their cult runs deep in the West as well as the East. The Medici of Florence took them as protectors and filled their churches with images of the two healer-saints, a fit for a family whose name plays on medico, the doctor.

Vračevi

In the Serbian lands their feast on 14 November (1 November on the old calendar) is Vračevi, from vrač, the old word for a healer. It is the day of the medical trade, kept by the doctors and pharmacists and marked in the hospitals, and a day when families with someone ill invoke the two saints for their health. They are the healing saints of the calendar, kept alongside the physician-evangelist Luke as the patrons a Serbian house turns to in sickness.

On an icon of the two, each brother holds the same thing, a small box of remedies open in the hand. They are remembered as two doctors who took no money, and when someone they love is ill, the people who keep the day still ask the silverless brothers for help.

Sources

Bibliography. The same list is held in the article’s frontmatter for the citation tools that read it programmatically.

The Life of Saints Cosmas and Damian, the unmercenary healers of Asia Minor (Ohrid Prologue / Prologue from Ohrid of Nikolaj Velimirović, 1 November)
Orthodox synaxarion for the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor (1 November / 14 November); the separate commemoration of their mother Theodota
The Catholic Encyclopedia, ‘Sts. Cosmas and Damian’ (New Advent), on the Western martyr tradition and the later legends
The Gospel of Matthew 10:8 (‘freely you have received, freely give’)
Serbian church coverage of Vračevi / Sveti Vrači (14 November), on the patronage of healers and the household slava

Common Questions

Who were Cosmas and Damian?

Two brothers, physicians in Asia Minor, raised as Christians by their mother Theodota after their pagan father died. They treated the sick by their medical skill and in the name of Christ, and they refused all payment, which is why the tradition calls them the unmercenary healers, the anargyroi, ’the silverless.’ They are the patrons of doctors and pharmacists, and are invoked for healing to this day.

What is the story of the three eggs?

A gravely ill woman named Palladia, healed by Damian, pressed three eggs on him as thanks and begged him to take them in the name of the Holy Trinity. He accepted them out of reverence for that Name, not as a fee. But his brother Cosmas, who had vowed they take nothing at all, was so troubled by it that he asked to be buried apart from Damian. After both had died, the tradition says, a camel they had once healed spoke aloud and testified that Damian had not sinned, and so the two were buried together at Fereman. It is a legend of the saints’ Life, kept for what it says about them, that they held even three eggs to a high standard.

Were they martyred?

This pair was not. Here the traditions diverge. The Orthodox church keeps three separate pairs of brothers named Cosmas and Damian: the Roman pair on one day, the Arabian pair on another, and this Asian pair, the sons of Theodota, who died in peace and were buried at Fereman, on 14 November. The Western church folded the name into a single pair of twin martyrs killed under Diocletian. So the martyrdom belongs to another telling; the Vračevi kept on 14 November are the healers who died quietly.

What is Vračevi?

Vračevi is the Serbian folk name for the feast of Cosmas and Damian, from vrač, the old word for a healer or physician. It falls on 14 November (1 November on the old calendar), and it is above all the day of the healers: the doctors and pharmacists keep it as their own, and families invoke the two saints for the health of the sick. A summer feast of the same saints falls on 14 July. The customs are kept on the day’s own page.