Miraculous ophthalmological therapies in Byzantium

A series of cures for ophthalmological diseases practised by saints are described, particularly the Saints Cosmas and Damian and the Saints Cyrus and John, the famous Anargyroi. In the xenones of the Byzantine churches and in the hospitals connected to these, therapeutic regimes, cures and surgical interventions took place at night during incubation, following the example of the ancient Asclepieia. This conclusion stands in spite of the fact that the authors describing the lives of the saints were often clergy who frequently cloak the true therapeutical cures by presenting them in a supernatural manner in order to stress the divine intervention of the saints. From the operations mentioned, it is clear that cataract surgery was among the operations most frequently practised.