The Church remembers the silverless and wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian of Asia and their mother, the Venerable Theodotia

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The Holy silverless Cosmas and Damian were brothers. Their homeland is Asia. This was the name of a part of Asia Minor in ancient times. Neither the time of their birth nor the time of their death is known. What is certain is that they lived no later than the fourth century. This must be thought of, firstly, because in the first half of the fifth century, under Emperor Theodosius the Younger, holy temples were built in their name, and secondly, because the Copts, who separated from Orthodoxy since the time of the Council of Chalcedon (431), recognize them as saints, whereas those who lived after They do not accept saints from this time on.
Their father was a Greek and a pagan, their mother was a Christian, named Theodotia. At an early age, they lost their parent, but this served to their happiness. The mother could more freely engage in the upbringing of children. Having decided to remain a widow for the rest of her life, she zealously fulfilled the Christian law; renouncing all the joys of life, she only cared to please the Lord.
The Holy Church canonized her, named her venerable, and creates her memory together with her children. It is possible to understand what kind of upbringing children received under the guidance of such a mother. From infancy, she tried to instill in them the fear of God and the love of virtue. And as soon as the children began to come of age, she gave them to a God-fearing husband to teach them to read and write. Here, of course, the main science was Divine Scripture, but at the same time, driven by love for suffering humanity, they studied medical science, learned the healing properties of herbs and plants.
The Lord blessed their good intentions and gave them a special grace – the gift of healing and miracles. The illnesses stopped as soon as Cosmas and Damian began to treat them. This, of course, attracted a lot of patients of all kinds to them.
The blind, the lame, the relaxed, the possessed surrounded the miracle workers. But the saints were not burdened by this. Moreover, in order to be more accessible to the sick, they themselves searched for them and for this they moved from city to city, from one weight to the whole, and all patients, without distinction of gender and age, rank and condition, were given healing.
And they did this not in order to enrich themselves or become famous, but with the purest, highest goal – to serve the suffering for God's sake, to express love for God in love for their neighbors. Therefore, they never accepted any reward for their labors from anyone, not even any signs of gratitude for their own benefits. 
They received grace from God for free, and they gave it away for free. They asked only one thing of those who were healed by them: that they firmly believe in Christ, live holily in Christ; if the patients were not yet enlightened by the light of the Gospel, then they tried to convert them to the Christian faith. Thus, while they were healing bodily ailments, they were also healing mental ailments.
For this selfless service to suffering humanity, for these miraculous cures of incurable diseases, the Holy Church calls them silverless and miracle workers.
But the healing power of the holy doctors did not only extend to people. They did not forget the dumb animals either. The righteous man has mercy on the souls of cattle, says the word of God (Prov.12:10). Faithful to this commandment, they went to houses, deserts and forests, found sick animals themselves and gave them healing. The grateful animals felt their benefits, knew their benefactors, and as soon as these appeared in the deserts, followed them in whole herds.
One day they happened to go to a deserted place. Here they found a barely alive camel. The devil drove him here and defeated him here; the saints took pity on the animal, healed him and released him healthy to his place. After that, as we will see, the animal did not remain ungrateful to them.
In such works of mercy, the whole life of the holy silverless was spent. The brothers never parted from each other, prayed together, walked together, and healed together. And they did it for a reason. Having vowed never to take anything from anyone, they were afraid that someone secretly from each other would not take any gifts from the healed. All their lives they kept their vow, and only at the end of it did the Lord allow one of them to break it.
In those days there was a certain wife named Palladia. After suffering from a serious illness for several years, without receiving relief from any doctors, and already feeling death approaching, she suddenly heard about holy doctors who heal all kinds of diseases.
With faith in their miraculous power, she sent to ask them to come to her. The saints fulfilled her request, and as soon as they entered her house, the sick woman was healed and stood up completely healthy. In gratitude for the healing, she was ready to give them all her possessions, offered them rich gifts, but the saints did not accept anything.
Then she came up with a way to get at least one of them to accept a paltry gift from her. Taking three eggs, she secretly came to Saint Damian and conjured him in the name of God to take these three eggs from her in the name of the Holy Trinity. Damian refused for a long time, but for the sake of his wife's oath, for the sake of God's name, he yielded to her request.
Cosmas found out about this, was very upset and at the same time made a will so that after their repose, Damian's body would not be placed with him, as he had broken a vow to the Lord, who took a bribe for healing. That same night, the Lord appeared to Cosmas and said: "Why are you grieving for the sake of the three eggs you took? They were taken not for the sake of a bribe, but for the sake of a wife's oath in My name..." Kosma was comforted, but did not tell anyone about his vision. Having performed many more signs and wonders after this, Saint Cosmas rested in peace.
Some time after his death, Saint Damian also rested in peace. People who honored their memory surrounded Damian's body and wondered where to put it. Kosma's will was in everyone's fresh memory, they were afraid to break it.
And so, when they were standing at the holy body in perplexity, a camel suddenly came up to them. The people were silent, and the camel spoke. "Men of God," the wordless one began his speech, "who have enjoyed many signs and wonders from Saints Cosmas and Damian, and not only you, but also us, animals, given to you by God for service. As a servant, I have come to tell you the secret of the Cosmos, so as not to separate them from each other, but to put them together."
This camel was the one that had once been healed by the saints. The people surrounding the body of the saint thanked the Lord, who had so miraculously revealed His secret, and, putting the holy relics of the silverless in one shrine, buried them in a place called Fereman (now defunct, destroyed by the Turks). Judging by the descriptions of the originals, they died in middle age.
Soon, a wonderful and glorious church was built at the place of their burial, as their biographer says. All kinds of sick people flocked to this church from near and far countries.
Seeing such a vast and inexhaustible wealth of saints, the sick constantly surrounded their temple. After this, one can judge how many miracles were performed by the saints without silver. No wonder their biographer says that it is easier to measure the sea and count the stars than to tell all the miracles of the saints. 
In our Fatherland, the silverless Saints Cosmas and Damian (of Asia) are mainly considered the patrons of children. They are resorted to with prayer at the beginning of learning to read and write, so that they strengthen the still weak children's forces and promote their proper development.
Of course, such a belief in our people was formed for a reason. The basis for it could be partly their very life, partly their church service: first, in their lives there is a legend about how they were taken by their mother to learn to read and write. This incident from their life is depicted on icons, secondly, in church services they are glorified as wise doctors, secretly taught picturesque words, filled with all reason and wisdom, which give knowledge to everyone.
The Orthodox people, seeing on icons, reading in their lives the legend of learning to read and write themselves, hearing in churches that they give knowledge to everyone, could not but come to the conclusion that they especially patronize students. And the grace of the holy silverless is infinite, as the Holy Church sings. They are not only wise doctors, but also wise mentors; helping everyone who comes to them with faith, can they refuse children?
Concluding the description of the life of the holy silverless, who are from Asia, it is impossible not to mention the word of praise for them, which was placed in ancient lists after the description of their lives, and which, of course, was read in their memory during worship. Its origin, as scientists think, is Russian, because at the end it mentions the faithful prince. After an ornate introduction, it contains praise or magnification of the holy silverless, set out in the form of an akathist, and at the end a prayer address is made to them.

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