COSMAS AND DAMIAN, THE MEDICAL SAINTS FROM THE

EASTNina Aldin Thunekunsthistorie.com

farmasihistorie.com

Farmasihistorisk Museum

OsloRoof from

Svaneapoteket, Larvik, made in 1907

Svaneapoteket i

LarvikIndividuals from The History of Pharmacy and among them the saints Cosmas and

Damian

Pierre Julien

Francois Ledermann

• Les saints Côme et Damien, patrons des médecins, chirugiens et pharmaciens, dans le monde et en Suisse

• Die Heiligen Kosmas und Damian in der Schweiz

Cosmas andDamian

Icon from ChiosWho were the two holy

brothers?Where did they come

from?How was the cult?

Is there any connection to History of Medisin and

Pharmacy?

• Cosmas and Damian were born in the 3rd century A.D • They studied science in Syria and became well known for their

skills in medicine. Both of them became doctors and they practiced this profession in Cilicia in seaports of Ayas and Adana, located on the southern coast of Turkey

• They practiced medicine without accepting fees from their patients, called anargyrci "the silverless" or "the unmercenaries"

• The brothers lived during the time of the Roman emperor Diocletian (283-305), one of the most vicious persecutors of Christians

• In this time period, Lysias, the governor of Egea, was under strict orders from Diocletian to neutralize the Christians.

• After their death they performed miracles, counting among the most famous ones the presence of a camel in their funeral to tell the people how they were supposed to be buried, or the transplant of a leg.

• Over 48 miracles were credited to the twins, including, amongst others, the development of remedies against plague, scabs, scurvy, kidney stones and bed-wetting.

They were born in Aigai (Adana, Yumurtal›k) and practiced medicine in the area between Silifke and Adana known in earlier periods and during the Middle Ages as Cilicia,

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Patronage:surgeons, physicians, dentists, protectors of children, barbers,

pharmacists, veterinarians, orphanages, day-care centers,

confectioners, children in house, against hernia, against the plague.

• The oldest testimony to the veneration of Saints Cosmas and Damian relates to the basilica built in their honour at Cyrrhus, north of Antioch in Syria

• Their veneration spread rapidly throughout the Empire; in the East, where the famous Cosmidion was founded at Constantinople in 439

Constantinople• Cosmidion dedicated to Cosmas and Damian• The monastery built in the fifth century became healing

place with a dormitory and bath• The church built by Paulina of Syrian origin before 480• Healing with Incubation, the patient was asleep when the

miracle took place• Incubation also used in the temples of Asklepios• Healing during sleep practiced in the cult of Cosmas and

Damian• Some reported that the saints had visited them during their

sleep and cured them instantly of their illness or disease. Others reported that the pair had prescribed medicines for their recovery.

• When Emperor Justinian I (reigned 527-565) of Constantinople suffered gravely from an illness, he called upon the saints for a cure. His prayers were answered so quickly that he vowed to build a church in their honor. He had their relics removed from Syria, where they had been buried, to Constantinople where he built a cathedral for them. The church soon became a place of pilgrimage.

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«At the far end of the bay, on the ground which rises steeply in a sharp slope, stands a sanctuary dedicated from ancient times to Saints Cosmas

and Damian. When the Emperor himself once lay seriously ill, giving

the appearance of being actually dead »

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«These Saints came to him here in a vision, and saved him unexpectedly

and contrary to all human reason and raised him up»

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«So when any persons find themselves assailed by illnesses which are beyond the control of physicians, in despair of human assistance they take refuge in the one hope left to them, and getting on flat-boats they are carried up the

bay to this very church. »

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«And as they enter its mouth they straightway see the shrine as on an

acropolis, priding itself in the gratitude of the Emperor and permitting them to

enjoy the hope which the shrine affords.»

Procopius of Caesarea c. AD 500 – c. AD 560

«In gratitude he gave them such requital as a mortal may, by changing

entirely and remodelling the earlier building, which was unsightly and

ignoble and not worthy to be dedicated to such powerful Saints, and he beautified and enlarged the church and flooded it with brilliant light and

added many other things which it had not before»

Stephen

«From there(the Church of St. Nicholas at Blachernae) we went farther outside

the city to a field near the sea. The large monastery (there) is in honor of

Cosmas and Damian.»

Russian Anonymous

«You go east from Blachernae: there is a monastery of Cosmas and Damian

where the gold- covered heads of Cosmas and Damian repose»

• Reliquary Pendant in The British Museum, London

• Inscribed: reverse: + Η • ΒΕΒΑΙΑ • ΣΩΤΗΡΙΑ • ΚΑΙ • ΑΠΟΣΤΡΟΦΗ • ΠΑΝΤΩΝ • ΤΩΝ • ΚΑΚΩΝ (Secure deliverance and aversion [from] all evil); edge of lid: + ΤΩΝ • ΑΓΙΩΝ • ΚΩΣΜΑ • ΚΑΙ • ΔΑΜΙΑΝΩΥ (of Sts. Cosmas and Damian)

• Might stem from the proximity of shrines dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to Cosmas and Damian around Blachernae, Constantinople

• This reliquary was a type of medical amulet, intended to protect the wearer from illness

East• Orthodox icons of the saints depict them

vested as laymen holding medicine boxes. Often each will also hold a spoon with which to dispense medicine. The handle of the spoon is normally shaped like a cross to indicate the importance of spiritual as well as physical healing, and that all cures come from God.

• Kork Dam Alto Kilise, Cappadocia• Uzumlu Kilise, Cappadocia• Icons

Thessaloniki

• Church of Agios Georgios• Built in 306 AD on the orders of the

tetrarch Galerius,• Cosmas and Damian among other Saints• Not twins, but brothers in ornant position

• Trained and skilled as physicians, they received from God the gift of healing people's illnesses of body and soul by the power of prayer

• They even treated animals• The gift of healing from God in a

manuscript Menologion of Basil II (Fol. 152) 10-11 century

Basilica of Saints Cosmas and Damian

Rome• Santi Cosma e Damiano was the first church to be founded in the Forum. In 527, Pope Felix IV (526-30) converted a rectangular apsed hall in the Forum of Peace into a church by the simple addition of an apse mosaic.

• Claudius Galen lectured in the Library of the Temple of Peace ("Bibliotheca Pacis").

• The mosaics are masterpieces of 6th- and 7th-century art. In the middle is Christ, with Saint Peter presenting Saint Cosmas and Saint Theodorus (right), and Saint Paul presenting Saint Damian and Pope Felix IV; the latter holds a model of the church.

Santa Maria Antiqua, Roma

• built in the 5th century in the Forum Romanum

• partially destroyed in 847, when an earthquake caused parts of the imperial palaces to collapse and cover the church.

• The Chapel of Physicians or 'Chapel of Medical Saints'

West• From the sixth century, the saints have been

remembered in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In the First Eucharistic Prayer the priest reads the names of those whom “we venerate,” first listing the apostles, then five Popes: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, and Cornelius. Next Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, is listed, followed by Lawrence, a deacon, and then five laymen: Chrysogonus, John and Paul, Cosmas and Damian.

• Iconographical cycles of the life and work• Sculpture, paintings, manuscripts illumination,

stained-glass• Jacobus de Voragine (1275). The Golden Legend or

Lives of the Saints

Saint Mark Altarpiece, Fra Angelico

• The Healing of Palladia

• Before the Proconsul Lysias

• Cosmas and Damian rescued from the Sea by an Angel/Lysias Attacked by Demons

• Burning

• Lamentation,

• Crucifixed and Stoned

• Beheading

• Burial of Cosmas and Damian,

• The Healing of Justinian

Profession

• The changes to the iconography were closely related to the professionalisation of medicine and pharmacy.

• Costume reflected what physicians wore at the time

Filippo Lippi

• , Madonna and Child Enthroned with SS. Francis, Damian, Cosmas and Anthony of Padua (Novitiate altarpiece), Uffizi, Florence, ca. 1445.

Pesellino

• Nativity, Beheading of Cosmas and Damian, Miracle of Anthony of Padua preaching at the Miser’s Funeral, Uffizi, Florence; Miracle of the Black Leg, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, Louvre, Paris, after 1442.

Rogier van den WeydenThe Medici Madonna

1460–1464 housed in the Städel, Frankfurt, Germany

Rogier van den Weyden

Cosmas dressed as an academic physician of the 15th century Netherlands,

holding a urine flask

Damián as a pharmacist as indicated

by the ointment jar in his other hand.

• Painting by one of the masters of Nürnberg created for St. Augustine's altar in the church of St. Veit in the city of Nürnberg 1487

• Book of Hours of Our Lady of Hennessy by Simon Bening ( 1483/1484–1561) Bruges 1530

• Pharmaziehistorisches Museum Amsterdam 1540

Bergen LimburgSaint Denise

Cosmas and Damian

PharmacyLogo from Farmacia Santi Cosma e Damiano, Torino

Löwen Apotheke, Mainz Pharmacy Museum,

MontpellierBarmherzigen Brüder, ViennaFrench Pharmacists’ Order,

ParisFarmasihistorisk museum.Oslo

Museum of History of Medicine Zurich

Farmacia Santi Cosma e Damiano, Torino

• St. Michael's Church, Munich might containing the alleged skulls of Cosmas and Damian

References:

http://kunsthistorie.com/fagwiki/Kosmas_og_Damian#Litteratur

THANKS!