Alberobello and its Saints
Recently the Saints Medici Cosma and Damiano were celebrated in my native town, Alberobello, particularly revered throughout Puglia.
Miracles concerning unexplained healings have been attributed to this pair of brothers, many connected to the Family of the Counts of Acquaviva for centuries regents of the Murgese town.
Scientific hagiography
The spiritual historian Pierre Pourrat, dealing with the Hagiography of the modern era and with the transformations from the 16th to the 19th century, maintained in his study Biographies spirituelles that the authors, especially at the beginning of the period examined, made use of legendary facts aimed at edification of the saint and neglected the historical truth. Hagiography (life and legends of the Saints) was born and established itself as a science in 1643 by the Belgian Jesuits engaged in the edition of the Acta Sanctorum, The Bollandists, so called from the name of the scholar Jean Bolland (1596-1665), who succeeded in the direction of the great hagiographic work to its first inventor, Father Hèribert Rosweyde (1569-1629).
The merit of the recognition of the archives, of the exploration, of the research and of the revision of the documents of the written testimonies, of the sources, dossiers, of the topical dates must be attributed to the Bollandists. The Jesuit scholars themselves are worthy of praise for having published various publications in increasing numbers, achieving much popularity and constant authority up to the 20th century. In even closer times, aware authors, referring to the healthy current of the Bollandists, wanted to create a more scientific hagiography.
Scientificity in Hagiography
A controversial issue.
More homonymous couples?
In the Sinassario Costantinopolitano, work and study by Delehaye, published in 1902 in Brussels, the author reported the existence of three couples called Cosma and Damiano, differentiated:
- . the first pair as Vita Asiatica
- . the second Passio Romana
- . the third Passio Arabica
Who practiced the art of Medicine, did not take money and are solemnized on November 1st, July 1st and September 27th.
The First Pair ( Asian Life )
With regard to the first, the mother Theodota, literally "gift of God" (this name was the testimony of the profound faith professed by the head of the family during the period of persecution), initiated her children into the Christian creed and they died a natural death and were buried in a locality of the Phereman. The Church honors them on November 1st.
The Second Pair (Passio Romana)
The second couple lived in Rome during the empire of Marcus Aurelius Carinus (257-285), with his miraculous actions he converted Caesar himself and his ministers; out of envy of their master, she was taken up a mountain on the pretext of gathering herbs and stoned to death.
Neither family nor mother nor country are mentioned. The thaumaturges are denounced, to the Emperor Carino, of malice, magical practices and offenses perpetrated against the official divinities. The inhabitants of the anonymous village hide them in a cave. To prevent imperial vengeance from befalling the small community, the Saints spontaneously present themselves to the Emperor, who obviously tries to soothe them; then he threatens them with the intention of leading them to abjure.
At this point he is struck by the twisting of his head. The crowd, which witnesses the prodigious event, is converted. Cartino himself begs for healing, which he obtains on condition that he converts and renounces the persecutory action. The first part ends with the acquittal of the thaumaturges and the triumph of the Christian faith.
But the devil does not give up. He instigates the master against the former disciples with the tragic end described above. Both saints are glorified on July 1st.
The Third Pair ( Passio Arabica )
The third couple, originally from Arabia, is remembered by "our" liturgy and we exalt them on 27 and 28 September.
Cosma and Damiano were born in Egea, in Cilicia, corresponding to the natural region of the same name, on the border between the Anatolian plateau and Syria, of Christian parents, who were also saints, like the other three brothers martyred on the same day, Antimo, Eupreprio and Leonzio. In a Christian way, they helped the needy with their medical arts and the Lord manifested himself through the healings that they themselves performed without ever claiming any compensation.
Anàgiri, i.e. without money, is the attribute that sometimes accompanied and supported their names. Their fame spread everywhere and when, under the Emperor Diocletian, persecutions broke out, they were victims of the prefect Lisia, an inhuman and ruthless man towards Christians. Firm and determined bella defe in Christ, they were subjected to atrocious torments; first scourged, then, tied hand and foot, they were thrown into the sea, subsequently thrown into the fire, and still arrowed, but safe until the decapitation which took place on September 27 of the 283 (presumably).
Their bodies were buried outside the city and then transferred to Rome, where San Felice Pope erected a basilica for the two martyrs in the Roman Forum, incorporating it into the Templum ramuli. Of their bodies, the Alberobello community had, in 1803, two fragments which are still placed in the reliquary between the two statues.
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An “animal” legend
The Asian Life couple and the camel
It is also interesting to mention a strange healing attributed to St. Cosmas, in the definition of the couple in the Asian Life. Somewhere he came across a camel, debilitated due to limbs dislocated by a demon. Immediately applied the therapy, restored his health.
Happily performed, both in solitary and crowded places, many healings with undoubtedly miraculous interventions, Cosma died. Welcomed into the list of saints, in the celestial kingdom he received the crown. While his body lay lifeless, a large crowd kept watch: it was necessary to deliberate (and openly discuss) in which place and how to bury him.
Suddenly the stone appeared, in that place agreed in a hurry, which, with a human voice, pronounced the following words:
You, men, have copiously participated in the miraculous divine beneficence. Not only you, but also us animals, entrusted by God to your service. Therefore I too, together with all the others, to express gratitude, have come here to announce to you what the Lord has manifested to his servant Cosmas, that is, this will of his. That these two brothers are not buried separately, but both in the same grave.
Those present, spiritually prepared to celebrate the funeral, decided to bury both brothers in the same tomb, in the place called Phereman.
The Church of Rome : no copy of the pair
The church of Rome has never wanted to recognize the existence of the three pairs of saints, it has always commemorated them on September 27, the day of the consecration of the Basilica dedicated to them by Pope Felix IV in the Roman Forum; the date was considered by all to be that of martyrdom.
With the Reform of the Liturgical calendar, which was accepted in 1973, the dies natalis, i.e. the day of death on earth and birth in heaven, was brought forward to 26 September; contrary to the official celebrations, the date of 27 September remains unchanged in Alberobello, perhaps due to the special authorization of the then bishop, Mons. Antonio D'Erchia.
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