🩺Saints Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers and physicians by profession, known as the "anargyroi" or "unmercenaries" because they accepted no payment for their services, practicing medicine as an apostolate. Their charity and the miraculous cures they performed in the name of Christ converted many to Christianity in Cilicia, Asia Minor. During the persecution of Emperor Diocletian, for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods, they were subjected to cruel tortures and finally beheaded around the year 287. Their medical practice, united with their faith, embodied the principle that healing the body should always point to the health of the soul, reflecting the words of St. Basil the Great about them: "Having learned the medical art, (...) they used it not so much to care for bodies, but for the service of souls."
📖Introit (Ecclus 44:15, 14 | Ps 32:1)Sapiéntiam Sanctórum narrent pópuli, et laudes eórum núntiet ecclésia... Let the people shew forth the wisdom of the Saints, and the Church declare their praise. Their names shall live for ever and ever. Ps. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just: praise becometh the upright. ℣. Glory be to the Father…
📜Epistle (Wisdom 5:16-20)
The just shall live for evermore: and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the most High. Therefore shall they receive a kingdom of glory, and a crown of beauty from the hand of the Lord: for with His right hand He will protect them, and with His holy arm He will defend them. And His zeal will take armour, and He will arm the creature for the revenge of His enemies. He will put on justice as a breastplate, and will take true judgment instead of a helmet. He will take holiness for an invincible shield.
✝️Gospel (Luke 6:17-23)
At that time, Jesus coming down from the mountain, stood in a plain place, and the company of His disciples, and a very great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast both of Tyre and Sidon, who were come to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases. And they that were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the multitude sought to touch Him, for virtue went out from Him and healed all. And He, lifting up His eyes on His disciples, said: Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed shall you be when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Be glad in that day and rejoice; for behold, your reward is great in heaven.
🤔Reflections
💭The martyrs, like Saints Cosmas and Damian, are the living embodiment of the Beatitudes, for they lived poverty (healing for free), hungered for justice, and suffered persecution for the love of Christ, finding their reward in heaven. The Epistle describes the "armor of justice" that protected them; this armor is not of metal, but of the virtue that made them invincible in the confession of the faith. St. Augustine explains that the promise to the persecuted is not an earthly prize, but heavenly greatness itself: "He does not say, 'Your reward will be great on earth,' but 'great in heaven.' Rightly did the Apostles exult and rejoice amidst reproaches, because their reward was kept in heaven" (St. Augustine, Sermon on the Song of Songs, 85). Regarding the healing that emanates from Christ, St. Ambrose teaches that the physical healing He performed was a sign of the spiritual healing He offers the soul, a grace of which the holy doctors became instruments and which they attained in its fullness through martyrdom (St. Ambrose, Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, V, 49-51). Thus, the power that healed the multitude in the Gospel is the same that clothed the martyrs, making their suffering fruitful for the Church.
🕊️The Gospel of Saint Luke, with the "Sermon on the Plain," presents the Beatitudes more directly and socially than the "Sermon on the Mount" in Saint Matthew. While Matthew specifies "blessed are the poor in spirit" and "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," Luke simply speaks of "you who are poor" and "you who are hungry now," emphasizing the concrete conditions of suffering. Furthermore, Saint Luke is the only evangelist to contrast the beatitudes with four symmetrical "woes": "woe to you who are rich," "woe to you who are full now," etc., accentuating the radical contrast between the values of the Kingdom of God and those of the world.
⛓️Saint Paul delves deeper into the paradox of the Beatitudes, especially the joy in persecution. In his Second Letter to the Corinthians, he describes his apostolic life as a living testimony to this reality: "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Cor 4:8-9). He also echoes the promise of a heavenly reward, stating that "the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Rom 8:18). The image of the "armor" from the Epistle of Wisdom finds its most explicit parallel in the Letter to the Ephesians, where Paul details the "armor of God," with the "belt of truth," the "breastplate of righteousness," and the "shield of faith," indispensable for the spiritual battle that the martyrs fought victoriously (Eph 6:11-17).
🏛️The documents of the Church corroborate the veneration due to martyrs like Saints Cosmas and Damian, seeing them as perfect models of following Christ. The Council of Trent affirms that "the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer up their own prayers to God for men" and that it is "good and useful suppliantly to invoke them" (Session XXV). The Roman Catechism, derived from the same council, teaches that in honoring the martyrs, we do not diminish God's glory but increase it, for we celebrate the victory that His grace achieved in them. The lives of these holy doctors, who healed bodies to save souls, perfectly illustrate the teaching of Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei, which explains how the liturgy celebrates the saints to propose their virtues for the imitation of the faithful and to show that God is "wonderful in His saints."
🌍See English version of the critical articles here.