Den 42ende internasjonale kongress i Istanbul, 8-11 september 2015, Istanbul University, Convention Center.

1. COSMAS AND DAMIAN, THE
MEDICAL SAINTS FROM THE
EAST
Nina Aldin Thune
kunsthistorie.com
farmasihistorie.com

2. Farmasihistoris
k Museum
Oslo
Roof from
Svaneapoteket, Larvik,
made in 1907

4. Svaneapoteket
i
Larvik
Individuals from The
History of Pharmacy and
among them the saints
Cosmas and Damian

5. Pierre Julien

6. 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

7. Cosmas and
Damian
Icon from Chios
Who were the two holy
brothers?
Where did they come from?
How was the cult?
Is there any connection to
History of Medisin and
Pharmacy?

8. • 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.

9. 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,

10. -
Patronage:
surgeons, physicians, dentists, protectors of
children, barbers, pharmacists,
veterinarians, orphanages, day-care
centers, confectioners, children in house,
against hernia, against the plague.

11. • 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

13. 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.

15. • 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.

16. -
«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 »

17. -
«These Saints came to him here in a vision,
and saved him unexpectedly and contrary
to all human reason and raised him up»

18. -
«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. »

19. -
«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.»

20. 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»

21. 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.»

22. 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»

25. • 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

26. 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.
• Kõrk Dam Altõ Kilise, Cappadocia
• Uzumlu Kilise, Cappadocia
• Icons

31. 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

37. • 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

39. 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.

43. 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'

49. 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

51. 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

62. Profession
• The changes to the iconography were closely
related to the professionalisation of medicine
and pharmacy.
• Costume reflected what physicians wore at the
time

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

64. 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.

66. Rogier van den
Weyden
The Medici Madonna
1460–1464
housed in the Städel,
Frankfurt, Germany

67. 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.

70. • 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

73. Bergen
Limburg
Saint Denise
Cosmas and Damian

74. Pharmacy
Logo from Farmacia Santi Cosma
e Damiano, Torino
Löwen Apotheke, Mainz
Pharmacy Museum, Montpellier
Barmherzigen Brüder, Vienna
French Pharmacists’ Order, Paris
Farmasihistorisk museum.Oslo
Museum of History of Medicine
Zurich
Farmacia Santi Cosma e
Damiano, Torino

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

86. References:
historie.com/fagwiki/Kosmas_og_Damian

87. THANKS!