On 14 November 2017, the day of commemoration of the holy unmercenaries and wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian of Asia and their mother, Venerable Theodotia, the rector of Saint Alexius Cathedral, Priest Igor Babakov, celebrated the festal Liturgy.
The All-Night Vigil was served in the church on the eve.
"The holy martyrs and unmercenaries, the brothers Cosmas and Damian, lived in the third century after the Nativity of Christ in Rome, during the persecutions raised against Christians by the pagan emperors. By the feat of their lives the saints showed a truly Christian use of human talent: talent is a gift of God, to be used not for gain but for the service of God and people.
Saints Cosmas and Damian were orphaned early. Widowed while still young, Theodotia raised her sons in Christian piety. The brothers' chief occupation was medicine, in which they became highly skilled. The holy brothers Cosmas and Damian considered themselves servants of God who healed people according to their faith. They took no payment for their work. The unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian combined healing with preaching the word of God: they explained to the sick that they performed healings by the grace-filled power of Christ, and called them to faith in Christ the Savior, which opens the way to true recovery, the salvation of the soul.
The holy brothers Cosmas and Damian were slandered by envious people and summoned to Rome before the Emperor Carinus. The emperor demanded that they renounce Christ and acknowledge the pagan gods, to which the saints gave a resolute refusal. When the emperor began to threaten them with torture, the saints, wishing to bring him to his senses, called upon God. Suddenly the emperor's neck became twisted so that he could not turn his head. Then the fear of God came upon Carinus and many witnesses. The emperor repented before the brothers, confessed his faith in Christ before all, and was immediately healed. Saints Cosmas and Damian were set free at once. After returning to their village near Rome they continued their former God-pleasing work.
Lofty was the feat of the holy healers, but it pleased God to exalt them still higher through innocent martyrdom. They suffered from the envy of a physician who had once been their teacher. This physician lured them into the mountains and killed them there. After their death, the holiness of the unmercenary physicians Cosmas and Damian (+ 284) was confirmed by many miraculous signs of God's mercy."
At the end of the festal Liturgy Fr. Igor congratulated all present on the feast and said:
"The day of Saints Cosmas and Damian is a feast of love and mercy. We need to learn patience and compassion; we need to learn to listen to those who come for help. And this concerns not only priests but all of us."
After the service the Akathist to the holy martyrs and unmercenaries, the brothers Cosmas and Damian, was read.
