Today we celebrate two saints who were brothers and doctors. It's funny that in the Catholic church, we call people brothers and doctors to mean other things, like people who are in a religious order but aren't priests are often called brothers. And St Therese of Lisieux is a "doctor of the church" but she wasn't a medical doctor.
But Cosmas and Damian were actual biological brothers, and they were medical doctors. They practiced medicine in Italy, and did not charge their patients any money. They shared the gospel through healing people. And then a great persecution of Christians came around, and they were martyred. But the authorities tried to kill them three different ways, including crucifixion, and they didn't die. I'm not sure how they survived crucifixion. But they were then beheaded.
Many years later, a man named Justinian had a diseased leg and was about to die. He asked for the intercession of Cosmas and Damian, since they were doctors. He had a dream that the two brothers appeared to him and took off his diseased leg and replaced it with the leg of a "Moor", or African man. When he woke up he had a black leg, and his white, diseased leg was lying near the "Moor." Crazy, right?
But let's take the lesson here - God gave us bodies, and He knows how they work. He called them good... holy, even. He Himself took a human body as His own, and is still IN that body in the person of Jesus. When we have sickness or are injured, remember to ask God for wisdom in treating it. And maybe ask for the intercession of Saints Cosmas and Damian. They know what they're doing. You can read more about them here.
God, thanks for the lives and intercession of these two great saints. Sts Cosmas and Damian, pray for us.
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