Orthodox Christian Saints
Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries: Saints Cosmas and Damian and their mother Theodota
Cosmas and Damian were unmercenaries and
miracle-workers. They were brothers both in the flesh and in the spirit, born
somewhere in Asia Minor of a pagan father and a Christian mother. After their
father’s death, their mother Theodota devoted all her time and effort to
educating her sons and raising them as true Christians. God helped her, and her
sons matured as sweet fruit and luminaries of the world. They were learned in
the art of medicine and ministered to the sick without payment, not so much
with medicine as by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were called
“unmercenary physicians,” that is, unpaid physicians, for they healed freely
and thus fulfilled the commandment of Christ: Freely ye have received, freely
give (Matthew 10:8). 
So careful were they in healing men free of
charge that Cosmas became very angry with his brother Damian because he
accepted three eggs from a woman, Palladia, and ordered that he not be buried
alongside his brother Damian after his death. In fact, St. Damian did not
accept these three eggs as a reward for healing the ailing Palladia, but rather
because she adjured him in the name of the Most-holy Trinity to accept these
three eggs. Nevertheless, after their death in the town of Fereman, they were
buried together according to a revelation from God. The holy brothers were
great miracle-workers both during their life and after their death. A snake
crawled through the mouth and into the stomach of a certain farm laborer during
his sleep, and the unfortunate man would have died in the greatest pain had he
not, in the last moment, invoked the help of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Thus,
the Lord glorified forever the miracle-working of those who glorified Him on
earth by their faith, purity and mercy.
St. Nikolai Velimirovic, The Prologue of Ohrid –
Volume Two
Source:
http://www.gometropolis.org/orthodox-faith/feast-days/saints-cosmas-and-damian-the-holy-unmercenaries-and-their-mother-theodota
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