Temple of Saints Cosme and Damian, San Cosme

Saints Cosmas and Damian get a strange rap in the West. While the Orthodox East celebrates no fewer than three sets of the twin brother saints, six saints in all, in the West it's different. They're primarily remembered for having been hung on a cross, stoned, shot by arrows and finally beheaded, all under one of the persecutions of Diocletian, Roman Emperor from 284 to 305 CE. Three of their brothers are said to have suffered the same fate and at the same time. Like those three brothers, Damian got dropped largely from the memory of the emerging San Cosme neighborhood, though his name lives on at the temple.