SAINTS COSMAS AND DAMIAN
Twin doctors who never charged a fee!
Feast Day: September 26 (Tradition: Sep 27; Orient: Nov 1)
Date: circa 300
These two saints are venerated in the East as the “moneyless ones,” because they practiced medicine without ever charging their patients a fee. These twin brothers were born in Arabia and studied medicine in Syria. They practiced medicine on the coast of Cilicia in what is now Turkey, with remarkable generosity and outspoken zeal for their Christian faith. Their widespread reputation proved their undoing, when a persecution against Christians broke out. They were quickly arrested, tortured horribly, and beheaded, along with three of their other brothers.
Many miraculous healings have since been attributed to their intervention. Saints Cosmas and Damian are considered Patrons of physicians and surgeons, as well as of pharmacists. They, along with Saint Luke, are the three physician saints cited in the canon of the Mass.
http://www.fiamc.org/institutional_information/welcome/physician-saints-of-the-catholic-church/
