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Sacred Calendar

The Roman year ordered for memory, penance, feasts, saints, and the daily pilgrimage of the faithful.

Calendar standard

Pre-1955 Roman usage

The calendar follows the universal Roman year under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X, with the Roman Martyrology preserved as a distinct daily witness.

The day is presented for prayer, recollection, study, and perseverance in the City.

Daily observance

Today in the City of God

The Church keeps this day in holy time. The Pilgrim's Companion gathers the feast, daily quote, Martyrology, meditation, prayer, and related chapters into one daily path through the City.

Daily observance

Ss. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs

Monday, September 27, 2027

Season: Time after Pentecost

The day is set within the Roman year so its feast, Martyrology, daily quote, prayer, and reading path may be received together without blurring their proper sources.

Today's pilgrimage

Ss. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs

Rank: Semi-Double

Color: red

Quote for the day

Holy Scripture

“Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.”

Matthew 7:7, Original Douay-Rheims

The pilgrim's devotional rhythm

Keeping the month and the weekday in prayer

This chosen devotional rhythm does not change the feast, rank, or obligations shown above. It gives the passing days a steady intention, helping the pilgrim honor God, intercede for souls, and carry one Catholic practice into the day. It is a household aid to devotion, not another law of the Roman Calendar.

September intention

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady did not flee the Cross. By remembering her sorrows, the pilgrim learns compassion for the Passion of Christ, patience in affliction, and fidelity when consolation is withdrawn.

Intention

For those crushed by grief, for sinners at the hour of death, and for the grace to carry every cross without abandoning Christ.

A faithful act

Accept sorrows without murmuring and offer them with Our Lady for dying souls.

Prayer

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, keep us faithful beside the Cross of Jesus.

Monday remembrance

The Holy Souls in Purgatory

Begin the working week with an act of mercy toward the faithful departed. Their helplessness calls forth charity, while their purification reminds the living to repent before death.

Intention

For the most abandoned soul in Purgatory and for deceased relatives, benefactors, priests, and those who have no one to pray for them.

A faithful act

Offer the first difficulty of the week for the Holy Souls and pray the De profundis.

Prayer

Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them.

Roman Martyrology

Roman Martyrology - September 27

At 2Egea, during the persecution of Diocletian, - the birthday of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian, brothers. After miraculously overcoming many torments from bonds, imprisonment, fire, crucifixion, stoning, arrows, and from being cast into the sea, they received capital punishment. With them are said to have also suffered three of their brothers, Anthimus, Leontius, and Euprepius. — At Koine, St. Epicharis, wife of a senator, who, in the same persecution, was scourged with leaded whips, and struck with the sword. — At Todi, the holy martyrs Fidentius and Terence, under the same Diocletian. — At Cordova, the holy martyrs Adulphus and John, brothers, who won the martyr's crown in the Arabian persecution. — At Sion, in Switzerland, St. Florentinus, martyr, who was put to the sword with blessed Hilary, after his tongue had been cut out. — At Byblos, in Phoenicia, St. Mark, bishop, who is also called John by blessed Luke. — At Milan, the holy bishop Caius, a disciple of the blessed apostle Barnabas, who passed calmly to rest after suffering severely in the persecution of Nero. — At Ravenna, St. Aderitus, bishop and confessor. — At Paris, St. Vincent de Paul, priest, and founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Daughters of Charity, an apostolic man and a father to the poor. His feast is celebrated on the 19th of July. — In the same city, St. Eleazar, count. — In Hainaut, St. Hiltrude, virgin.

Read and verify the full entry

Highlighted saint

Ss. Cosmas and Damian

Brother physicians and martyrs under Diocletian.

The Martyrology honors Cosmas and Damian as brothers who overcame bonds, imprisonment, fire, crucifixion, stoning, arrows, and the sea before receiving capital punishment.

Their witness joins healing mercy to martyrdom. Christian care for the body must remain subject to Christ, for the physician's art is noblest when charity and faith govern it.

Virtue to practice

Charity toward the suffering.

Error to resist

The medical materialism that treats the body while forgetting the soul and God's law.

For the pilgrim in exile

Let Cosmas and Damian teach Catholic mercy toward the sick. Healing is holy when it serves the whole person and remains obedient to Christ.

Imitate today

  • Pray for Catholic physicians and nurses.
  • Serve the sick with reverence for the soul.
  • Keep bodily mercy under Christ's law.

Sources

  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, September 27.
  • Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, September 27.

From Matins

Healing freely given and confession sealed by martyrdom.

Matins - Second Nocturn - Ss. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs

Roman Breviary and St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Proper lessons for Ss. Cosmas and Damian and the Common of Many Martyrs

“They freely owned themselves Christians and the Christian faith needful to salvation.”

Doctrine taught

  • The Breviary honors Cosmas and Damian as brothers whose medical service was given without price and ordered to Christian charity.
  • Their endurance through chains, imprisonment, fire, water, crucifixion, stones, arrows, and the sword places bodily healing beneath eternal fidelity.
  • Their witness teaches medicine as merciful when it serves the person under divine law and refuses to purchase safety through apostasy.

For the pilgrim in exile

Pray for healers who remember the soul. Cosmas and Damian join skill, generosity, courage, and obedience to God.

Full Breviary lessons

Fourth Lesson - Physicians Confessing the Faith Needful to Salvation

Cosmas and Damian, who were eminent physicians in the time of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, were brothers, and Arabs by race, but born in the city of Ægæ [in Cilicia.] Not more by their knowledge of medicine than by the power of Christ they healed diseases which had been hopeless for others. When the Praefect Lysias learnt to what faith they belonged, he commanded them to be brought before him, and questioned them as to their way of life, and the confession of their religion; and then, forasmuch as they freely owned themselves Christians and the Christian faith needful to salvation, he commanded them to worship the gods, under threats of torments and a most cruel death.

Fifth Lesson - Witness Borne through Torment unto Death

But when he found that it was but in vain to lay such things before them, he said: "Bind their hands and feet together, and put them to the sharpest of the question." And he was obeyed, but nevertheless Cosmas and Damian abode still of the same mind. Therefore they were cast into the depth of the sea, bound as they were, but they came forth again, whole and unbound. The Praefect, therefore, who would have it that it came to pass so by force of art magic, cast them into prison. On the morrow he haled them forth again, and bade cast them upon a great fire, but the flame turned away from them. He was pleased then to have them tormented in divers and cruel sorts, and, lastly, smitten with the axe. Thus did they bear witness for Christ JESUS even until they grasped the palm of their testimony.

Sixth Lesson - From the Common of Many Martyrs

But some man will say: "And who is he that can tread in the footsteps of the blessed Martyrs?" To such an one I answer that, by the Lord's help, we are able, if we so will, to tread in the footsteps, not of the blessed Martyrs only, but even of the same Lord Himself. Hearken, not to me, but to the same Lord, Who crieth unto all men: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." (Matth. xi. 29.) Hear also with what words the Apostle Peter warneth us: "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps." (1 Pet. ii. 21.)

Sources

  • The Roman Breviary, translated by John, Marquess of Bute, 1908, vol. IV, Autumn, Second Nocturn for Ss. Cosmas and Damian, proper lessons iv-v, printed p. 589, with lesson vi from the Common of Many Martyrs, printed p. 387.
  • Bute 1908 is used here as an accessible pre-Pius X Breviary witness and is cited distinctly from the 1936-1937 Benziger / Burns Oates edition.

Breviary Witness

Healing charity crowned by martyrdom.

Matins - Ss. Cosmas and Damian

Breviary witness

  • The Martyrology honors Cosmas and Damian as brothers who endured bonds, imprisonment, fire, crucifixion, stoning, arrows, the sea, and finally capital punishment under Diocletian.
  • Their witness keeps medical charity under Christ: the body is served rightly when the soul, divine law, and eternal life are not forgotten.

For the pilgrim in exile

Pray for healers who remember the soul. Bodily care becomes most merciful when it remains obedient to God.

Sources

  • Roman Breviary, Matins remembrance for September 27, Ss. Cosmas and Damian.
  • Roman Martyrology, 1916 Baltimore edition, September 27.

Meditation

Growth After Pentecost

The Time after Pentecost is the long school of the Holy Ghost. The fire given at Pentecost must become doctrine believed, worship guarded, commandments kept, homes ordered, tongues governed, and charity practiced without novelty or disorder.

Prayer

The day should become prayer.

O Lord, place this day beneath Thy Providence. Keep my mind in truth, my heart in charity, and my work in obedience until evening.

Thought for the pilgrim

The faithful soul receives the day before it spends it.

Practice

The day should become obedience.

Begin ordinary labor with deliberate recollection and return to God whenever distraction scatters the mind.

Source notes

Universal Roman Calendar under the rubrics of Pope St. Pius X

Fasting and abstinence according to the laws observed in 1952

Daily quotations and pilgrimage excerpts ordinarily come from eligible Catholic sources issued no later than December 31, 1954: Scripture, Fathers, Doctors, saints, Roman Pontiffs, traditional catechisms, approved devotional works, and received liturgical texts. Legitimate additions promulgated under Pope Pius XII may be retained when identified precisely; this does not adopt the reformed Holy Week or later rubrical changes.

The Roman Martyrology, Baltimore, 1916, published by John Murphy Company; the local 1916 text is displayed and traceable to its source lines.

  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Liturgical Calendar, pp. xvii–xxviii.
  • St. Andrew Daily Missal, Dom Gaspar Lefebvre, O.S.B., 1953 edition; proper Mass or devotion named in this entry.
  • Luke 2:34-35 and John 19:25-27, Douay-Rheims.
  • Psalm 129 and 2 Machabees 12:43-46, Douay-Rheims.
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