Fra Angelico, The Healing of Justinian by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, 1438-1440.
Cosmas and Damian were prominent Arab twins who converted to Christianity and traveled about Persia, freely giving their medical services to the needy. Unfortunately, however, the brothers were tortured and beheaded during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (303 A.D.), though they subsequently became the patron saints of barber-surgeons as the legends of their medical and surgical accomplishments grew in time. They became famous following their legendary transplantation of the leg of a Moor. It seems that a Christian Roman deacon, Justinian, had a malignant growth on his leg and fell asleep while praying for a cure in the Church of Cosmas and Damian in Rome. In his dreams, the saints amputated the diseased limb and transplanted the leg of a Moor who had been brought to the church for burial. The patient awoke and gratefully observed a now healthy leg, though black in color. ∞
