Martyr
Unmercenary Cosmas of Arabia
† 287 или 303
Also known as: Косма Киликийский
Unmercenary Martyr Cosmas of Arabia — twin brother of Martyr Damian, a physician who healed the sick without charge, arrested with his brother and three younger brothers by order of the governor Lysias, and beheaded after miraculously surviving the sea, fire, arrows, and stones.
The Holy Unmercenary Martyrs Cosmas and Damian of Arabia (Cilicia) were twin brother-physicians who lived in the late 3rd–early 4th century on the border of Arabia and Cilicia, near the city of Aegae.
Cosmas, together with his brother Damian, healed the sick without payment through the power of Christ and preached the faith, for which both were seized by order of the governor Lysias along with their three younger brothers, Leontius, Anthimus, and Eutropius. The saints were tortured — bound and cast into the sea (an angel freed them and brought them to shore), thrown into fire, shot with arrows, and stoned — yet the arrows and stones miraculously turned back upon their tormentors.
Unable to break the confessors, Lysias ordered all five beheaded by the sword, an event dated variously to 287 or 303 under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian.
The Church commemorates Cosmas of Arabia together with his brother Damian and the three martyrs on October 17/30; the sword used for their beheading is traditionally preserved among the church treasures of Münster, Germany, while portions of their relics rest in Essen, Munich, Bremen, Madrid, and Rome.
NOTE: this is the THIRD canonical Cosmas-and-Damian pair in this database, distinct from the Roman pair (see martyr_cosmas) and the Asia Minor pair (see martyr_cosmas_2).