A jewel among ascetics, martyrs and priests, most wise one; in your life you showed the true rule of virtue, revealed yourself as a citizen of heaven; a pattern of a life made doubly firm, O rightly named.
(Troparion of Ode 1 of the Canon)
In 1714, in the village of Megalo Dendro, deep in the mountains of Aetolia in central Greece, a boy was born who would become known to all the world as Saint Cosmas, Equal to the Apostles. His life’s feat was a remarkable one: he saved the Orthodox faith in the Balkans when it was on the brink of being forgotten altogether.
Cosmas grew up in a difficult age. For several centuries Greece had lived under Ottoman rule, which proved a stern trial for the Orthodox. Christians were not allowed to ride on horseback, to bear arms, to build churches or to ring bells. Their overlords did all they could to make them feel like a conquered race. Thousands upon thousands turned their backs on the faith of their fathers and wandered lost, lacking purpose. Many fled to the high, remote mountains, where lawlessness flourished and cruelty and ignorance reigned. Villages were left without churches or schools; some even forgot their mother tongue. No one seemed to care for their faith, their language or their sense of who they were.
Monastery of Saint Cosmas of Aetolia in Megalo Dendro, the village where he was born
From his earliest years, Cosmas thirsted for learning. He took every chance to study and serve his fellow Christians with what knowledge he gained. His homeland held many monasteries that were centres of learning and spiritual life, such as Saint Paraskevi’s in Mandra, Saint John the Baptist’s in Dervikista, and the Dormition of the Mother of God in Katafigio. The young man would walk many miles from home, climb to distant mountain abbeys, study ancient texts, listen to the monks’ talks, and follow the counsel and teaching of the elders. All the while, his heart ached with sorrow for his people and with love for his neighbour: ‘The word spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ, that a Christian — whether man or woman — must care not only for their own salvation, but equally must watch over their brothers so they do not fall into sin. From the moment I heard it … it ate at my heart like a worm eats at wood, and I wondered, not knowing what to do.’
Signature of the Venerable Cosmas of Aetolia
Cosmas was a bright and able student, and by the age of twenty he was made a teacher in one of the local communities. It was quite usual in those days for the best pupils to teach others while continuing with their own learning. In winter he would hold his classes in the church; in summer they would gather in the shade of the trees. He knew all his books by heart and could teach for hours without a single glance at a page.
The wish to touch the spiritual store of the ancient Fathers of the Church drew the future saint to Athos. In that era the mountain was the heart of Orthodox spiritual, cultural and social life across the Balkans. There he met learned ascetics — monks, scholars and church writers — who left a deep mark on him. At the Philotheou Monastery the Venerable received the monastic tonsure, taking the name Cosmas, and later became a priest-monk. On Athos, Cosmas of Aetolia not only gained the learning he needed but also grew firm in his resolve to give himself to the work of teaching the people.
In 1760, after ten years of ascetic labours on the Holy Mountain, Cosmas made his way to Constantinople. His chief motivation for leaving the monastery was concern for his fellow countrymen and a powerful call to serve as the apostles did: ‘What great need for the word of God have my brethren, the Christians! Therefore learned men should not seek to scatter their learning in the houses of lords, at the court of magnates, or for wealth and renown; but to gain the heavenly reward and unfading glory they should above all teach the common people, who live in great ignorance and coarseness.’ This choice did not spring from any disappointment with the monastic life: ‘You may say, “But you are a monk — why then are you in the world?” And I, brothers, am acting wrongly, but since our people have become illiterate, I said: “Let Christ lose only me … but gain the rest. Perhaps, by the mercy of God and your prayers, I too may be saved.”’
The Sermon of the Venerable Cosmas of Aetolia
Once in Constantinople, the Venerable laid out his thoughts to Patriarch Seraphim and other high-ranking churchmen, who gave him their blessing. It is believed the Patriarch had a hand in planning the route for Cosmas’s first mission and welcomed the preacher’s work with open arms.
Cosmas’s work as a missionary was many-sided. On the one hand, he worked to bring those who had fallen away from Orthodoxy back into the fold of the Church; on the other, he aimed to revive the purity of Christian life, spread the patristic tradition and strengthen the unity of the people. In his sermons Saint Cosmas spoke to all Orthodox Christians who lived under Ottoman rule. He preached in Bulgaria, Serbia, Asia Minor, and on the Ionian and Aegean islands. He placed special care on regions where the people faced heavy pressure to turn to Islam and give up their Orthodox faith and ways, where Christian piety had been almost lost among people who had grown rough and hard.
Little by little, word of the unselfish preacher of Orthodoxy went out, and tens of thousands came together to hear him. Cosmas gave himself fully to his work, preaching without pause through bitter cold and blazing heat, through rain and storms, through blizzards and the scorching sun.
The crowds grew so great that no church could hold them, so Cosmas often took to preaching out of doors. He let it be known in advance where he planned to stop and speak. In that place they set up a great wooden cross, and at its foot they put a bench. Once he had finished, the holy man would take the bench with him but leave the cross behind. In later years the Lord granted many miracles at these sites, and a few of these crosses remain to this day.
Cosmas of Aetolia did more than preach. He also started many schools, where children could study the Holy Scriptures at no cost, learn to read and write, grow in faith and goodness, and begin a more upright life. By his work more than a thousand schools were opened; some still serve.
Saint Cosmas kept in touch with people from many towns, villages and even other lands. His messages mattered not just as sound advice for daily life but also as a blessing from a saint they held in such high regard — so much so that these writings are still kept with the greatest care.
Saint Cosmas urged men of means to buy the books of the Fathers for the teaching of God’s people, as well as prayer ropes, neck crosses, headscarves and combs. Books went to those who could read or promised to learn. Scarves were given to women to cover their heads. Combs went to those who vowed not to cut their hair in the Muslim fashion and to live well. Prayer ropes and crosses he gave to commoners, asking all to pray for their benefactors and for each other. Moved by the saint’s strong words, the wealthy bought over four thousand large copper fonts for baptisms in churches.
As the saint’s good name grew, so too did the number of his enemies. He had spoken out against the abuses of the nobility and of money-lenders. He had also caused huge losses for rich Jewish merchants by the new arrangement of market days. All these groups came to wish for the preacher’s end. Seeing how well his words were being received, the enemies of the Orthodox faith stopped at nothing to destroy him. Cosmas himself, knowing how many stood against him, often told his listeners that he was ready to accept a martyr’s crown.
The martyrdom of Venerable Cosmas of Aetolia
The saint’s twenty-five years of apostolic work closed with his martyrdom in August 1779 in Albania. At sixty-five he was betrayed to the Turkish authorities and strangled. His body was cast into a river, but three days later a priest named Mark found it and laid it to rest near the village of Kalikontasi, at the Monastery of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God. Soon after, a small chapel, known as the Little Church of Saint Cosmas, was built on the spot where his remains were discovered. His relics were later transferred to the city of Ioannina.
Soon after Cosmas’s passing, many churches were built and icons painted to honour his memory. We know from old records that the building of Saint Cosmas’s monastery was finished in 1806, and that by 1814, ‘through the labours of all devout Christians, the clergy and the people’, a splendid church was built in his honour. Even while he lived, the texts of Cosmas’s sermons were widely known, and after his martyrdom their spread grew to a breadth not seen before. So beloved were his sermons and letters among the people that they were often read aloud during church services. In nearly every village where Saint Cosmas had preached, a story or memory about him remains. He also left behind prophecies that are astonishing for how clearly they seemed to predict the course of human events.
Some of these sayings told people in certain areas how to act during wars and terrible events: ‘When the tree falls, go to the mountains; many people will be saved there. Take nothing with you; save yourselves; the calamity will last no more than twenty-four hours.’ Those who heeded his counsel, it is said, were saved from the Turks. He spoke, too, of the eventual freedom of Greece and of Constantinople.
Many prophecies concerned technological advances and inventions that in the eighteenth century were beyond all imagining:
‘A carriage without horses will rush faster than a hare.’
‘The time will come when people will speak with each other over long distances, as if they were in two neighbouring rooms.’
‘The time will come when the whole world will be girded by a single thread.’
Although Saint Cosmas of Aetolia was a teacher himself, and had taught many others to read and write, he opposed the European Enlightenment. He cautioned that without a life rooted in the Church, without God, such learning could bring about spiritual decay, and he offered this prediction:
‘In schools such things will appear that your mind will not contain.’
‘Your troubles will come from the learned.’
‘The suffering you must bear will be brought upon you by well-read people.’
‘The springs will fail, and the rivers will grow foul.’
‘Your plates will be full to overflowing, yet the food on them will be unfit to eat.’
‘We shall see our land become as Sodom and Gomorrah.’
Much of this is coming true even now, before our eyes.
Commemoration of Venerable Cosmas in his homeland
Like a good shepherd, Saint Cosmas of Aetolia calls us to a faith that does not falter, to a love that is real, and to a true change of heart. His preaching sets the main task of his prophecies: he labours to keep Orthodox Christians from abandoning their beliefs, always encouraging them to keep faith and hope in God, knowing that with His aid any trial can be overcome.
Let us praise Cosmas, the Equal of the Apostles, that ardent keeper of the chosen vessel of Paul, the first of the Apostles; for he gave neither sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids, until he had lifted high the word of the Gospel among the people. He pulled the hearts of believers from the abyss of falsehood, filling their minds with the fire of his message, and with the light of the Trinity he drove out the darkness of demons, bringing in its place the sweetest heavenly light. Through his prayers, may we too find light for our souls and be set free from the enemy’s traps.
(Stichera on the Praises, Tone 2)
This text was prepared by the team of obitel-minsk.ru
Images from the internet
Sources:
1. Posthumous veneration and miracles of Cosmas of Aetolia, Equal-to-the-Apostles / Pravoslavie.ru
2. Hieromartyr Cosmas of Aetolia | Church of St Olga
3. The time will come / Pravoslavie.ru
4. Life and works of Saint Cosmas of Aetolia. Part 1 / Pravoslavie.ru
5. Equal-to-the-Apostles Hieromartyr Cosmas of Aetolia. Lives of the holy, glorious and all-laudable apostles
