Wednesday, 1 July 2026

Unmercenary Wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian

Wednesday of the 5th week after Pentecost

80 days after Pascha · Tone 3 · Black squigg (6-stich typikon symbol) · Fast

Saints commemorated

★ Holy wonderworking unmercenary physicians Cosmas and Damian at Rome

Saints Cosmas and Damian were born at Rome, brothers by birth and physicians by profession, who suffered martyrdom during the reign of the emperor Carinus (283-284). Brought up by their parents in the rules of piety, they led strict and chaste lives and were granted by God the gift of healing the sick. By their generosity and exceptional kindness to all, the brothers converted many to Christ. Since they accepted no payment for their treatment of the infirm, they were called the unmercenary physicians.

Their active service and their great spiritual influence on the people drew many into the Church and so attracted the attention of the Roman authorities. Soldiers were sent in search of them, but the holy brothers came out of hiding and surrendered, asking that those who had been arrested on their account be released. Brought before the emperor, they were ordered to deny Christ and offer sacrifice to idols. Through the prayer of the saints, God suddenly struck Carinus blind. The people and the emperor himself implored the saints to heal him, and after his confession of Christ they restored his sight.

Their former teacher, however, envying their renown, lured them into the mountains under the pretext of gathering medicinal herbs and there murdered them, throwing their bodies into a river. They are distinguished from the unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian of Asia Minor (1 November) and of Arabia (17 October).

Holy martyr Potitus of Sardinia

Saint Potitus suffered for Christ in the second century during the reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius. From his earliest youth he was instructed in the Christian faith, and although his father was a pagan, the boy refused to renounce Christ. Tried, scourged and imprisoned, Potitus remained firm and was granted by God the gift of working miracles. He cured Cyriake, a woman afflicted with leprosy, after she accepted holy Baptism and believed in Christ; healed the daughter of the emperor who was tormented by an unclean spirit; and confounded those who tried to persuade him to offer sacrifice to idols. After many torments he was beheaded at a place called Valeriana while still a young boy of about thirteen, and so received the unfading crown of martyrdom.

Saint Leontius of Radauti

Saint Leontius was born at Radauti in Moldavia in the fourteenth century. He received the monastic tonsure with the name Laurence and in time was found worthy of ordination to the holy priesthood. He founded a monastery near Radauti, which later became known as Saint Laurence's Monastery, and there he laboured as abbot, gathering a brotherhood and guiding them in the ascetic life. He became renowned throughout Moldavia for his gentleness, his gift of healing, and his protection of the suffering and the poor. Towards the end of his life he received the great schema with the name Leontius, and upon his repose he was buried in his monastery, where his relics worked many miracles. He was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.

Venerable Peter the Patrician of Constantinople

854

Saint Peter was born into a patrician family at Constantinople at the end of the eighth century. During the reign of the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros (802-811) he was commissioned as an officer and took part in the campaigns of the Greek army against Bulgaria. Captured in battle, he spent many years in confinement, calling continually upon the saints to deliver him. One night, while he was praying, the holy Evangelist John the Theologian appeared to him in a vision together with Saint Joannicius the Great, and released him from captivity. Having returned to Constantinople, Peter renounced the world and withdrew to a monastery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor, where he was tonsured a monk under the guidance of Saint Joannicius. There he passed thirty-four years in constant ascetic effort, observing strict fasting and unceasing vigil, wearing a prickly hair shirt and going barefoot. Towards the end of his life he settled in a quiet cell in Constantinople, where he reposed in 854 in the seventieth year of his life and was buried in his monastery.

Also commemorated: Unmercenary Wonderworkers Cosmas and Damian

Daily readings

Epistle

weekly cycle

Romans — Romans 15.7-16

⁷Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. ⁸Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: ⁹And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. ¹⁰And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. ¹¹And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people. ¹²And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust. ¹³Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. ¹⁴And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. ¹⁵Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, ¹⁶That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

Gospel

weekly cycle

Matthew — Matthew 12.38-45

³⁸Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. ³⁹But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: ⁴⁰For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. ⁴²The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. ⁴³When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. ⁴⁴Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. ⁴⁵Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.