These two brother physicians
helped patients in the Roman province,
and they did not ask for money,
in return for their medical help.

They were badly persecuted for their
Christian beliefs and for their way of life,
and they suffered death with the decree
of Roman political leaders,
near the turn of the century, 300 A.D.

Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian
became Christian martyrs,
but while they were living, upon the Earth,
they helped some people live longer,
and live with less pain during their lives.

The average life expectancy at birth,
in Ancient Rome, during the first three
centuries A.D. was very low,
and many children passed away
from diseases soon after birth.

There are about 300 census records
filed in Egypt, during the first three centuries, 
that scholars have studied, in modern times.
The classical scholar R. S. Bagnall 
and the political scientist B. W. Frier
studied these records that showed
life expectancies at birth of between
22 and 25 years of age.

Kyrie Eleison

Some Ancient Roman persons who came to 
the age of 20, were able to live into their 60s,
and even 70s, like the Roman emperor, Augustus,

but the average life expectancy,
in 100 A.D. in Ancient Rome,
was much lower than it is today.

Christe Eleison

By 500 A.D., the general average
life expectancy of the Ancient World
had improved, and during the Middle Ages,
the average life expectancy came to be
between 30 and 40, years of age.

And saints prayed,
and physicians saw how the body
healed with medicine that was real,
and Jesus prayed, and still we pray
for the intercession of Saint Mary Magdalene,
and Saint Blessed Virgin Mary,
the daughter of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne.

And pharmacists from South India
can read about Dioscorides now,
in small towns and in larger towns too.

And the bush hopper butterfly, 
Ampittia dioscorides, named after the man,
Pedanius Dioscorides, was seen in India,
and traveled southeast toward Indonesia.