Sts. Cosmas and Damian

Sts. Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers, Arab physicians who practised medicine without fee — the anargyroi, "the silverless" — and were martyred at Aegeae in Cilicia (modern southern Turkey) around 287, together with their younger brothers. They are invoked in the Roman Canon and the Litany of the Saints. The Basilica of Santi Cosma e Damiano in Rome, built by Pope Felix IV around 526-530, preserves their 6th-century apse mosaic. Patrons of physicians, surgeons, pharmacists, dentists, and twins.