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MIRACLE OF THE BLACK LEG TRANSPLANT
Of the many local churches with
fascinating stories St Cosmas and St
Damian at Stretford in Herefordshire is
in a league of its own, as it tells the
fascinating story of two saints from a far-
away country.
The solid sandstone church, nearly as
broad as it is long, with twin naves and candles in memory of the brothers'
chancels and two side aisles, dates back miracle of the Black Leg Transplant. This
th
to the 12 century. It is one of a handful grafting of the black leg of a deceased
of churches in England dedicated to man (said to be Ethiopian) onto the live
Cosmas and Damian, the patron saints body of a white nobleman is depicted in
of physicians and surgeons. many mediaeval and later paintings
Cosmas and Damian were twin brothers Cosmas and Damian were also the
rd
living in 3 century Cilicia, now Turkey. 'protectors and advocates' of the Medici
They practised medicine but refused all family of Florence. Giovanni de Medici
payment, preferring to convert their named his eldest son, born in 1389,
patients to Christianity and earning the Cosimo (after St Cosmas). It is also
nickname 'the silver-less ones'. They rumoured that Cosimo had a twin
cured blindness, paralysis, fevers, even brother, Damiano (after St Damian), who
the plague and scurvy but they were died in infancy. And of course Medici is
arrested, tortured and martyred by the Italian for doctors.
Roman authorities in 283 AD. In Brazil whose oldest church, built in
When Emperor Justinian I of 1535 in Igarassu, is dedicated to St
Constantinople, who reigned from 527 Damian and St Cosmas the brothers are
to 565 AD, was gravely ill, he called upon regarded as protectors of children and
the saints for a cure. His prayers were on their feast day, 27 September, children
answered so quickly that he vowed to are given bags of candy with the saints'
build a church in their honour. He had effigy printed on them. Throughout the
their relics removed from Syria to state of Bahia, where the Candomblé
Constantinople where he built a religion (a mixture of Catholic and
cathedral for them which soon became African rites) is widespread, African gods
a place of pilgrimage. mix with Catholic saints such as St
George and saints Damian and Cosmas.
The twin candelabra close to the late
th
15 century shrine in the church usually So, from the depths of far-away Brazil to
hold black and white candles in a remote spot in Herefordshire, there
reference to the brothers’ most famous are connections with two brave, clever
th
miracle. In the 13 century pilgrims physicians from the Orient. Maybe the
from Leominster Priory used to walk to world has always been a 'global village'!
the church carrying black and white Ros Sargent
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