Saints Cosmas and Damian

[Fabio Lins]

Hi!

Here in Brazil there is a great devotion to Ss. Cosmas and Damian. But even the Catholic images of them do not resemble the ones we see in icons. The ones venerated here are always depicted as twin children boys or twin young men. I understand that there were more than one set of "Cosmas and Damians" in the past so can it be they are simply different brothers?

Here are the images:

http://www.radiodiocesana.com.br/imagen/santos_g/s_cosm_damiao.jpg

http://www.soniamoura.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/cosme-e-damiao.jpg

On a sidenote, they are so associated with childhood that in the suburbs of Rio there is a tradition of, on their feast day, September 27, children go around the neighborhood searching those good souls who will give them candies. It's like Halloween but without the goblins and tricks. It's an old tradition albeit not so common today as it was in the past.

In Christ!
Fabio L. Leite

[Olga]

From memory, there are three pairs of saints by the name of Cosmas and Damian venerated by the Orthodox Church. In all three cases, the two saints were brothers.

Cosmas and Damian of Rome, 3rd century, feast day July 1
Cosmas and Damian of Arabia (or Cilicia), feast day October 17
Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor, feast day November 1.
Fabio wrote:



Here in Brazil there is a great devotion to Ss. Cosmas and Damian. But even the Catholic images of them do not resemble the ones we see in icons.

It must be remembered that Roman Catholic religious art is not truly iconographic (expressing the liturgical and doctrinal position of the Church) in nature, it is merely illustrative. All the Orthodox icons I can remember seeing of these saints show them as bearded men, not boys.

[Nina]

There was a deviation from iconography after the Great Schism of course. For instance there is a wonderful Byzantine Orthodox mosaic from Ravena (which of course was made before the Great Schism; financed by Emperor Justinian) and which is found today in the Bodemuseum in Berlin. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Ravenna_Bode_Berlin_1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravenna_Bode_Berlin_1.jpg&usg=__aaWormpwfI_1-AgwtdnPa824sPM=&h=1179&w=1656&sz=678&hl=en&start=47&um=1&tbnid=aOYoX-6Lz0RgZM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbode%2Bmuseum%2Bbyzantine%26ndsp%3D20 %26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D40%26um%3D1

Therefore these Saints were not depicted as in the religious art we see in the first post. Although the Saints in this mosaic were removed, I do not remember when.