DAMYAN is the young squire in Januarie's household in The Merchant's Tale. He falls in love with May, Januarie's young wife. P.M. Griffith points out that Damyan is named after St. Damianus, the patron saint of physicians, particularly invoked to heal blindness. St. Damianus and his brother St. Cosimus were offered phallic ex-voti made of wax on their feast day and were regarded as patron saints of generative power. Damyan is aptly named because he acts as physician to Januarie, to whom sight is restored when Damyan and May make love in the pear tree. [Januarie: May]

Damyan, the English contraction of Latin Damianus, never appears initially. It occurs sixteen times in medial positions, MerchT 1869, 1875, 1900, 1936, 2002, 2009, 2019, 2093, 2120, 2150, 2152, 2210, 2326, 2352, 2361, 2394; and nine times in final rhyming position, MerchT 1772, 1789, 1866, 1898, 1923, 1933, 1979, 2097, 2207.