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Station at The Holy Martyrs, Cosmas and Damian
Indulgence of 10 years and 10 Quarantines
Violet Vestments
Altar and apse of the Basilica dei Santi Cosma e Damiano in Rome
(Photo taken by iessi, 15 June 2002)
(Photo taken by iessi, 15 June 2002)
View of the Temple of Romulus, from the Palatine Hill
This Thursday takes the name of Mid-Lent Thursday, because it is the twentieth day in the middle of the holy forty days. The Church brings to the following Sunday the sentiments of joy which she wishes to fill our hearts. The Feast of Easter approaches, and we must courageously continue the Lenten fast , already half completed.
It is in a Church, made of two Pagan Temples (of The Holy City and of Romulus), where rest the bodies of the holy martyrs, Cosmas and Damian, who were put to death during the Diocletian Persecution, that this Station is made.
The sick came in crowds to visit the tomb of these two brothers, doctors by profession, imploring them to restore their health. It was thus fitting to say this Gospel relating to the cure of the mother-in-law of Simon Peter and of the sick of Capharnaum. It is also a Mass of dedication, as the words of the Epistle show: Templum Domini est.
The Jews, who possessed the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem, began to believe that respect for the House of God sufficed to sanctify them, and they considered themselves dispensed from observing the spirit of the Law. Wherefore, the Church warns us that our Lent should not only consist of prayers and fasts, but should be accompanied by exercises of Charity and Justice towards our neighbour.
Theodoric The Great, King of the Ostrogoths.
The ancient Roman fabric of the Temple of Romulus was Christianized and dedicated to Sancti Cosma et Damiano in 527 A.D., when Theodoric, and his daughter, Amalasuntha, donated the library of the Forum of Peace (Bibliotheca Pacis) and a portion of the Temple of Romulus to Pope Felix IV.
We must imitate the example of Jesus, and during the whole of Lent follow Him with the holy Liturgy in His ministry of redemption, preaching the Kingdom of God, healing the sick, and casting out devils (Gospel). Let us love to listen to the word of God: It will cure our Souls and banish from them the devil, who seeks to reign therein.
The Catechumens, who were preparing for Baptism, listened specially at this season of the year to the word of God. They also received the imposition of hands, so as to be delivered from evil spirits and to obtain the cure of their Souls.
Entrance to the Basilica
Through the intercession of the holy doctors, Cosmas and Damian, in whose Church today's Solemnities are celebrated, let us ask the Divine Physician that the severe abstinence of the Lenten fast may cool the fever of our passions and assure our salvation (Collect, Epistle, Postcommunion).
The Temple of Romulus was dedicated by Emperor Maxentius to his son, Valerius Romulus, who died in 309 A.D., and was rendered divine honours. It is possible that the temple was in origin the temple of "Iovis Stator" or the one dedicated to Penates, and that Maxentius restored it before the re-dedication.
Pope Felix IV (526 A.D. - 530 A.D.) received the library of the Forum of Peace and a portion of the Temple of Romulus from Theodoric the Great
The Pope united the two buildings to create a Basilica devoted to two Greek brothers and saints, Cosmas and Damian, in contrast with the ancient pagan cult of the two brothers, Castor and Pollux, who had been worshipped in the nearby Temple of Castor and Pollux. The apse was decorated with a Roman-Byzantine mosaic, representing a parousia, the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time. The bodies of Saints Mark and Marcellian were translated, perhaps in the 9th-Century, to this Church, where they were re-discovered in 1583 A.D., during the reign of Pope Gregory XIII.
In 1632 A.D., Pope Urban VIII ordered the restoration of the Basilica. The works, projected by Orazio Torriani and directed by Luigi Arrigucci, raised the floor level seven metres, bringing it equal with the Campo Vaccino, thus avoiding the infiltration of water. Also, a cloister was added. The old floor of the Basilica is still visible in the lower Church, which is actually the lower part of the first Church.
In 1947, the restorations of the Imperial Forums gave a new structure to the Church. The old entrance, through the Temple of Romulus, was closed, and the temple restored to its original forms; with the Pantheon, the Temple of Romulus is the best preserved pagan temple in Rome. A new entrance was opened on the opposite side (on via dei Fori Imperiali), whose arch gives access to the cloister, and through this to the side of the Basilica.
Next to the new entrance to the complex, there are the rooms with the original marble paving of the Forum of Peace, and the wall where the 150 marble slabs of the Forma Urbis Romae were hung. Through the cloister, the entrance to the Church opens on the side of the single nave. The plan of the Basilica followed the norms of the Counter-Reformation: a single nave, with three chapels per side, and the big apse, which now looks quite oversized because of the reduction in height of the 17th-Century restoration, framed by the triumphal arch, also mutilated by that restoration.
The mosaics are masterpieces of 6th - 7th - Century art. In the middle is Christ, with Saint Peter presenting Saint Cosmas and Saint Theodorus (right), and Saint Paul presenting Saint Damian and Pope Felix IV; the latter holds a model of the Church.
The importance of this Basilica, for the history of medicine, is not only related to the fact that the two brothers were physicians and soon became patrons of physicians, surgeons, pharmacists and veterinarians, but also to the tradition, according to which, Claudius Galen himself lectured in the Library of the Temple of Peace (“Bibliotheca Pacis”). Furthermore, for centuries, in this “medical area” Roman physicians had their meetings.
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