Twin brothers invented Opopira, considered a miracle drug back in the day, a pasty mass consisting of a drug mixed with sugar and water or honey suitable for oral administration. This complex compound drug was used to treat diverse maladies including paralysis.
The Patron of Physicians, Surgeons, Pharmacists and Barbers
Posted on September 26, 2020 by Editor-in-Chief (Medical Executive Post)
SOURCE: medicalexecutivepost.com/2020/09/26/patron-of-physicians-surgeons-pharmacists-and-barbers/
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Nothing is known of their lives except that they suffered martyrdom in Syria during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. According to Christian traditions, the twin brothers were born in Arabia and became skilled doctors.
Saladino d’Ascoli, a 15th century Italian physician, claims that the medieval electuary, a pasty mass consisting of a drug mixed with sugar and water or honey suitable for oral administration, known as opopira, a complex compound medicine used to treat diverse maladies including paralysis, was invented by Cosmas and Damian.
During the persecution under Diocletian, Cosmas and Damian were arrested by order of the Prefect of Cilicia, one Lysias who is otherwise unknown, who ordered them under torture to recant. However, according to legend they stayed true to their faith, enduring being hung on a cross, stoned and shot by arrows and finally suffered execution by beheading. Anthimus, Leontius and Euprepius, their younger brothers, who were inseparable from them throughout life, shared in their martyrdom.
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SOURCE: www.bookofdaystales.com/cosmas-and-damian/
Nothing definitive is known about their lives except that they suffered martyrdom in Syria during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian. According to Christian traditions, the twin brothers were born in Arabia and became skilled doctors. Saladino d’Ascoli, a 15th century Italian physician, claims that the medieval electuary (a pasty mass consisting of a drug mixed with sugar and water or honey to make it palatable) known as opopira magna, a complex compound medicine used to treat diverse problems including paralysis, was invented by Cosmas and Damian.
There is a legend that they were able to replace an ulcerous leg of a Roman with a healthy leg from a recently deceased ‘Ethiopian’ (or a ‘Moor’ in other versions), which found its way into many images over the years, no doubt because the idea of a white man with one black leg was aesthetically and physically unusual. One has to be skeptical that this actually occurred. An oddity also lies in the fact that it was considered sacrilegious to desecrate a corpse by removing a leg, but the Ethiopian was probably a slave, so the removal of his leg was not considered a desecration, because in some quarters it was believed that a slave did not possess a soul.
Sts Cosmas and Damian are regarded as the patrons of physicians and surgeons and are sometimes represented with medical emblems. Cosmas and Damian are depicted as supporters of the arms of the guild of barber-surgeons carved into a capital, 15th century, from the Carmes monastery in Trie-sur-Baïse in southwestern France. The inscription reads, “Saints Cosmas and Damian pray for us”.
