Most Precious Blood Church Heritage Profile: The Healing Saints, Cosmas and Damian

I Santi Anargiri e Medici, SS. Cosma e Damiano

Saints Cosmas and Damian
at Most Precious Blood Church
Photos by New York Scugnizzo

By Frank Tamburello

Saints Cosmas and Damian, were martyrs and twin brothers. They distinguished themselves as physicians who took no fees for their services, and are often referred to as “The Moneyless Ones” (in Italian “Gli Anargiri.”) Cosmas and Damian were the twin sons of the widow Theodota, and along with their three brothers Anthimos, Leontios, and Eupropios, they were beheaded for their faith at Cyrus in Syria, and were buried there.   

Besides using their skills for the healing of diseases they sought to spread the Christian faith. After many tortures they died about 287 in the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. The fame of their healing miracles spread over the whole world, and there are many churches, sanctuaries, and hospitals erected in their honor. They are usually portrayed as young men dressed in eastern garb with palm branches and other symbols of the medical profession, sometimes wearing the crowns of martyrdom.

There is great devotion to the “Santi Medici” in the various regions of Southern Italy and Sicily, among Catholics of both the Roman and Byzantine-Greek Rites. There are several famous celebrations in honor of the Doctor Saints. The most noted are in the towns of Bitonto, Riace, Alberobello, Sferracavallo, and San Cosmo Albanese. In the United States, the most famous is in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In the Roman Rite their feast falls on the 26/27 of September, and in the Greek Rite, November 1. At Most Precious Blood Church, the Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian is celebrated on the first Sunday in October.

Saints Cosmas and Damian at Most Precious Blood Church   

During the Feast, the statues are
moved to the altar for veneration

Devotion to the Healing Saints, Cosmas and Damian at Most Precious Blood Church is intimately connected to the immigrants from San Cosmo Albanese, a town of seven or eight thousand people near Cosenza in Calabria. It is the original home of the founding parishioners, many of whom could trace their ancestry to the Byzantine Rite Christian refugees who fled Albania between the 15th and 18th centuries as a result of the Ottoman Empire's invasion of the Balkans and forced conversions to Islam.

In 1903, an immigrant parishioner by the name of Cosimo Seremba gave paintings of the saints to the Church, and raised enough money to purchase wooden statues from a Naples supplier. About a meter high, the statues of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Most Precious Blood Church are similar to those still venerated in San Cosmo Albanese. The Society of SS. Cosma e Damiano, plans the annual feast day Mass and Reception at Most Precious Blood Church in October under the guidance of George Minisci.

Shrine Church of Most Precious Blood
113 Baxter Street, New York, NY 10013
www.oldcathedral.org