Note 66 — Chapter XXIII · FURTHER PROGRESS OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY IN WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE THIRTEENTH, FOURTEENTH AND A PART OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
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The surgeons Cosmas and Damian were chosen patron saints of the new organization. They were born in Arabia in the third century, and are said to have been educated there. After having practiced medicine for a certain length of time in Sicily, they were tortured and killed, because of their Christian faith, by order of the Emperor Diocletian, 303 A. D. Hence the title “Saints.”