The exploits and sufferings of Sschmch. Cosmas of Equal-to-the-Apostles

This truly man of God, teacher and preacher, Cosmas, originally from Aetolia, from one small village called Megadendron, was the son of noble parents. Brought up and instructed by them, according to the apostolic word, in the punishment and teaching of the Lord (Eph. 6:4), when he was twenty, and perhaps more years old, he began to study grammar under the guidance of Archdeacon Anania Dervishan. since at that time the Vatopedi school on the Holy Mountain was in great glory; then Cosmas, with many of his other fellow disciples, moved into it. There he completed his study of grammar under the guidance of the teacher Panagiot Palamas, and then listened to logic from the teacher Nicholas Tsartsulius from Metsovo, who, together with the most learned Eugene 1, ran the local school. Cosmas then still bore the worldly name of Constant, but even in worldly clothes he was already adorned with the splendor of a monastic image, did not spare labor and trained himself to complete asceticism. When, unfortunately, that glorious school, after the removal of the teachers from it, became empty again: then the good Constant, leaving there, went to the holy monastery of Philotheus. There he was first tonsured a monk and with all zeal he succeeded in the labors of monastic life; and then, when a priest was needed for the monastery, at the strong conviction and request of the fathers, he was ordained a hieromonk. The blessed one, while still a layman, had long had in his heart a strong desire, with all that he learned, to serve for the benefit of his Christian brothers and often used to say: “What a great need for God’s word my Christian brothers have! Therefore, scholars should not strive to enter the houses of masters, not to the court of nobles, and not to squander their learning for wealth and fame, but in order to acquire heavenly reward and unfading glory, they are most obliged to teach the common people, who live in great ignorance and rudeness. But with all this desire, although great zeal for the benefit of many burned in his sacred heart, on the other hand, he understood the importance and difficulty of the work of apostolic preaching, and, as a humble and modest man, he did not dare to undertake this undertaking without first understanding God’s will for it. Why, wanting to find out whether this is God’s will, he opens the Divine Scripture and immediately finds before himself the Apostolic saying: let no one seek his own, but every man’s neighbor (1 Cor. 10:24), that is, let everyone seek not only what is useful for himself, but also what is useful for his brother. Finally, having made sure of this, he reveals his intention to other spiritual Fathers, and having received permission from them, he goes to Constantinople to meet with his brother, teacher Chrysanthus, who teaches him the special rhetorical art of correct conversation. And here, having announced his thought to the reverent bishops and teachers, when everyone unanimously began to encourage him to begin this Godly work, he took written permission from Patriarch Seraphim, who was from Delvin. Thus, the blessed one first began to preach the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven in the churches and villages of Constantinople, then he spread to Nafpaktos, Vrahori, Misolongi and other places, from where he again came to Constantinople. Having asked for advice from the then Patriarch Sophrony, and having again received permission and blessing from him, he began to preach the words of the Gospel with greater ardor and zeal. Having visited almost all the principalities, and having taught Christians to repent and do deeds worthy of repentance, he returned from there to the holy mountain in the summer of 1775. Visiting the local monasteries and monasteries, he spoke teachings to the Fathers, and spent a little time reading the divine paternal books. since from the love with which his heart (as he himself repeatedly spoke about this to many Fathers) burned for the benefit of Christians, he could not hesitate any longer; then he departs from the holy mountain, and begins from villages in the vicinity of the mountain, continues to preach in Thessalonica, in Verria and throughout almost all of Macedonia; passes through the regions of Himaru, Acarnania, Aetolia as far as Arta and Preveza; from there he sails to the islands: St. Maura and Cephalonia. And wherever the blessed one passed, everywhere there was a great crowd of Christians, with tenderness and favor they listened to the grace and sweetness of his words; and this was accompanied by correction of morals and spiritual benefit. His teaching, like the teaching of the fishermen, was very simple, calm and meek, which undoubtedly proved that it was filled with the grace of the meek and silent Holy Spirit. Especially on the island of Cephalonia, this sacred teacher produced great spiritual fruit by sowing divine teaching. But God also helped him from above and confirmed his word with subsequent signs and wonders, just as he once confirmed the preaching of his sacred Apostles with similar miracles. On this island there was one poor tailor, whose right hand had been dry for a long time and had no function. Finally, he came to the saint and asked him to heal him. The blessed one gave him such advice that he should come and listen to the sermon with reverence, and then God would have mercy on him. Sukhoruky listened to this advice, and barely listened to the saint’s sermon when the next day he was completely healed. Another paralytic, having heard about this extraordinary incident, ordered that during the sermon of the blessed one they bring him there on his bed, and after a few days he became completely healthy, glorifying God and thanking the saint. And in the fortress of Asse there was one noble man who suffered from a severe illness in his ears, and for a long time was almost deprived of hearing; He, having come with reverence and faith to where the saint taught, soon began to hear clearly, and from that time on he no longer felt sick. There is a village in Kefalonia called Kourouli. The saint, passing through this village in the summer, felt thirst on the way and asked for water from a waterless well located nearby; The residents said that there was no water in the well, but out of obedience they went and took some dirt and earth with water from the bottom of the well, and brought it. The saint, taking it into his mouth, drank a little, and from that time on, this well, to his surprise, began to exude pure water, and was always full both in winter and summer, and even became healing from many ailments. Due to the small number of people who could not fit into any church, Cosmas, of necessity, preached outside the villages in the fields. Therefore, he had the custom of saying in advance where he wanted to stop and preach a sermon; there they prepared and erected a larger wooden cross; then, Cosmas established the department at the tree of the cross, ascended to it and taught; at the end of the sermon, he took the pulpit with him, where he went next; and the cross remained in place as a constant reminder of his preaching. And where these crosses were placed, there God subsequently showed many miracles. Thus, among the Argostol marketplace, on the same island of Cephalonia, at one cross left by the saint, a miraculous spring opened, never running low in water. From Cephalonia the blessed one crossed to the island of Zakynthos, accompanied by more than ten ships filled with reverent Cephalonians. But here this blessed one did not have success, which is why he taught the doctrine for a short time, and returning again to Cephalonia, he went to Corypha, where he was received with honor by everyone, especially by the local Prince. And how a great crowd from other villages gathered there and listened to the saint’s sermon; then the authorities in the city, fearing that envy of him might be aroused in others, began to ask him to leave quickly; and therefore, in order not to be the cause of temptations and confusion among the people, Cosmas moved from there to the opposite region of Sterea or Arvanitia, called: the forty saints; and there he began to teach Christians, visiting places where there was more gross ignorance, piety and Christian life were in danger of being completely lost, because people indulged in many bad deeds, murders, theft and thousands of other iniquities, and with their vices they gradually became even worse and wicked. In such wild and hardened Christian hearts, the sacred Cosmas sowed the seed of the word of God, and, with the assistance of God's grace, cultivated many great fruits; He made the fierce meek, the robbers kind, the ruthless and merciless merciful, the irreverent reverent, the ignorant and those who did not understand anything divine, he taught and encouraged them to go to holy services, in a word, he brought those stubborn in sins to great repentance and correction. Therefore, everyone began to say that a new Apostle appeared in their time. According to his instructions, schools were established everywhere, in large and small villages, in which children were freely taught the sacred writings, and through this they were confirmed in faith and piety, and were guided to a virtuous life. According to his conviction, the rich bought more than four thousand large copper fonts, and as a permanent remembrance, they distributed them among the churches for the decent baptism of Christian children in them. Likewise, Cosmas and everyone who had the means convinced them to buy fatherly books, Christian teachings, rosaries, small crosses, head coverings, combs; and he gave books as gifts to those who knew how to read or promised to learn; He provided women with veils (of which over forty thousand were purchased) so that they could walk with their heads covered; he gave combs to those who promised not to shave their hair 2 and to live virtuously and Christianly; rosaries and crosses (of which more than fifty thousand were purchased) were deprived of the common people, ordering everyone to pray for the investors. Blessed Cosmas was accompanied by up to forty or fifty priests. When he intended to move from one region to another, he first ordered Christians to confess, fast, and perform a vigil with many burning lamps. For this purpose, he had wooden candlesticks, of which up to a hundred candles could be placed on each; These candlesticks were taken apart, and he carried them with him from one place to another. Candles were distributed freely to everyone, the priests blessed the oil, all Christians were anointed, and in conclusion, Cosmas preached a sermon. And since the people followed him in large numbers, two and three thousand people each, in the evening he ordered that several bags of bread and cauldrons of boiled wheat be prepared where the people were to gather; then they set off there; and thus everyone enjoyed the prepared food and prayed for the living and for the dead. God, in Albania, as in other places, performed many miracles through the blessed one. Some official Turks, prompted either by the Jews or by the demon, developed such hatred for the saint that one day, mounting a horse, he set off after him with the intention of catching up and doing him harm; but the horse, while running, threw the Turk to the ground, and he broke his right leg; Returning home, he found his son dead; therefore, he repented, sent a letter to the saint and asked him for forgiveness. The first Aghas from the Faliates went to see the saint and hear his sermon; and as it was summer then, they stopped for the night in the middle of a field, and at about five o’clock at night they saw that heavenly light, like a cloud, was covering the place where the saint was staying. They themselves told Christians about this. And in the morning they came to the saint, not only with their lips, but with all their hearts, they asked him to pray for them. Also, one official Turk suffered from a severe stone disease. Hearing about the saint, he sent his servant to invite Cosmas to come and pray for him; for he hoped that through the prayer of the saint God would heal him. The saint did not agree to go, saying that he was a sinful man. Another time the Turk sent a slave with a vessel of water and ordered to ask the saint to bless the water. Then the saint, seeing the Turk’s great reverence, gave him two commandments: not to drink vodka, and to give a tenth of his wealth to the poor; the Turk promised to fulfill this, Cosmas blessed the water; the sick man began to drink it, and in forty days he was completely healed; and after that he gave great alms. Opposite Fanari, in a place called Lukurisi, the Turk who owned this place, seeing a cross erected by the saint according to the custom mentioned above, because he was preaching there, saw, I say, this cross, took it and carried it to his house with the intention of making two legs out of it for a bed in the gatehouse of his vineyard. Suddenly, lo and behold! Some kind of terrible shock is happening to the Turk; unable to stand on his feet, he falls to the ground, struggles for a long time, sharpens the foam, grinds his teeth like a madman. Finally, two passing Turks picked him up; and when he came to his senses, he realized that he had suffered from God’s wrath for the daring attempt to take and carry away the honorable cross. Therefore, he went and put him back in the same place where he had stood before, and every day he came to kiss him with great reverence. When the sacred teacher Cosmas passed by that place another time, the Turk came to him to worship, told a miracle in the presence of everyone, and humbly asked for forgiveness. Because the saint denounced women who wore dresses, and urged, in his teachings, to put aside all decorations; then some began to wear a black dress. One rich woman in Cinnamon had a son and dressed his head with many silver coins and other unnecessary clothes. The saint repeatedly advised this woman to share all these clothes among the poor children if she wanted her son to live; but the woman did not listen. Finally, Cosma tells her: “if you don’t take off the child’s clothes, you will soon lose him.” since this time she did not obey the saint; then the next day she found her son dead in bed; and then she already learned that God punished her for disobedience. The saint, wherever he did not come, taught Christians everywhere not to trade on Sundays, not to do work, but to go to church and listen to the holy service and God’s word there; and those who did not obey the saint in this, God admonished with various punishments. So, in a place called Chalkiada, one hour's journey from Arta, one merchant dared to trade on a Sunday, and suddenly his hand was paralyzed. When he came to the saint and asked him for forgiveness of his sin, he was healed for several days. Similarly, in Parga, one worker wanted to sell his work on Sunday, and for this he lost the use of his hand. Having confessed his sin to the saint and heard instructions from him, along with forgiveness he received healing of his hand... Blessed Cosmas clearly said many times in his teachings that he was called to preach the Gospel by Jesus Christ himself, and that out of love for the Lord he would shed his blood. Finally, his prediction came true. And it was as follows. This apostolic teacher, neither in Thessaly, nor in Kastorea, nor in Yannina, nor in other countries where there were Jews, never opened his mouth against them, but taught only Christians to maintain truth and obedience to those authorities that God gave. The Albanians themselves, coming to where the saint taught in the open fields, heard this from his lips and proclaimed him a man of God. Therefore, Kurt Pasha, when good rumors reached him, demanded Cosmas to come to him, and Pasha liked the saint’s conversation so much that the very pulpit, which, according to what was said above, the saint had built for himself in order to teach the people from it, he ordered to be upholstered with velvet. But just as in previous centuries, this evil race of Christ-hating Jews always showed extreme anger towards Christians; So now the God-hating Jews living in Yannina, not tolerating the fact that the faith and Gospel of Jesus Christ were being preached, told Pasha that the sacred Cosmas had been sent and was deceiving the Turkish subjects, inviting them to go to Russia. God's Providence saved Cosmas this time from such a deadly slander: but the Christians suffered significant damage to their estates. From his time, Saint Cosmas began to expose the wickedness and irreconcilable hatred of Jews towards Christians. And how clearly it was proven that everything that the Jews accused the saint of before the Pasha was pure invention and obvious slander; then he came again to Yannin. And firstly, he convinced Christians to move the day of general trading from Sunday to Saturday, and this caused a great loss to the Jews. Secondly, he proclaimed the Jews to be open enemies, ready to do any evil to Christians at any time. Thirdly, he forbade Christians to wear long tassels and everything like that they bought from Jews on their heads, and inspired that deicides desecrate everything they sell to Christians, and therefore they should not buy anything from Jews. The Jews, irritated by this, went to Kurt Pasha, gave him many bags of money, and asked him to take the saint’s life. Pasha, having consulted with his hotzoi 3, decided to kill Cosmas through him. This is how it happened. The saint had a custom, as soon as he arrived somewhere, to first take permission from the local bishop and his governors, and also send one of the Christians to the civil authorities for permission; and after this he preached without hindrance. So, having come to one Albanian village called Kolikontasi, he took permission from the local bishop; having scouted out the whereabouts of the civil leaders, and having learned that the main local ruler, Kurt Pasha, was in a village called Berati, twelve hours away, and that Hotza Pasha lived close, he sent to the latter to ask his permission, and began to teach. However, not content with this, he sought an opportunity to see Hotzu himself and ascertain his disposition. The Christians kept Cosmas from this for a long time, saying: “You have never done this before and you yourself did not go to the Hagaryan leaders to ask them for permission,” however, they could not restrain him. The saint, saying that he will not change his intentions, takes with him four monks and one priest who could serve as a translator, and goes to the hotza. Hotza pretends that he has a letter from Kurt Pasha, but who is ordered to send Cosmas to Pasha for an interview, and therefore gives orders to his people to keep the saint in custody, and until he is sent to Pasha, not to allow him to leave the courtyard. Then this blessed teacher realized that they intended to kill him, and for this he glorified and thanked his apostolic sermon to crown him with martyrdom. Turning to his fellow monks, he says in the words of the psalm: I walked through fire and water, and brought you to rest (Ps. 65:12). And all night long praising the Lord in psalms, he does not even show a sign of sorrow that he must lose his life, but looks with a joyful face, as if going to joy and rejoicing. How soon the day came - seven people of Hagaryan took him and put him on a horse under the pretext of presenting him to Kurt Pasha. But after two hours of travel they lead him to a large river and announce to him the order of Kurt Pasha to put him to death. The saint listened with joy to such a definition, and, bending his knees, began to pray to God, thanking and glorifying Him for the fact that, as his soul had always desired, out of love for the Lord he was now sacrificing his life to Him. Having completed the prayer, he stands up, blesses all four countries of the world in the form of a cross, and prays for all Christians to keep his instructions. The torturers sit him near a tree and want to tie his hands; but the saint does not allow them to do this, saying that he will not resist, but will hold his hands cross to cross, as if tied. Then he placed his sacred head on the tree; the tormentors tied a rope around his neck and strangled him, and his holy soul soared into heaven. Thus, blessed Cosmas, this worthy adornment of the world, both as an Equal-to-the-Apostles and as a Hieromartyr, was honored to receive a special crown from the Lord, in the sixty-fifth year of his life. The Hagarians, having uncovered his honest relics, dragged him and threw him into the river with a large stone around his neck. The Christians, having learned about this, soon came to find the relics, lowered nets into the river, and used other methods, but they could not find the relics. Three days later, one reverent priest named Mark, from the Ardevuz monastery of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located near the village of Kolikontasi, on a single-sail boat, having created a cross, went in search, and soon - lo and behold! He sees that the holy relics are floating on top of the water, and the monk, as if alive, is standing in an upright position. Mark immediately approaches the relics, embraces them and removes them from the water. When he raised the relics, a lot of blood flowed into the river from the honey-flowing lips of the saint. The priest, covering the relics with his cassock, transferred them to the above-mentioned monastery of the Mother of God, and honestly buried them behind the holy altar. After the death of the saint, the following happened. Kurt Pasha, having repented a lot about the fact that he had been deceived and, for the sake of vain self-interest, had killed an innocent and peace-loving man, ordered the monks who accompanied the saint to be released to the above-mentioned monastery of the Mother of God, where he appointed them to stay. The monks, having arrived there, found the saint’s relics already buried, and in order to be more certain of his painful death, together with other priests and Christians, they dug up the coffin and found that although the relics had been in the river for three days, like Jonah in the whale’s belly, they nevertheless had no signs of decay and were fragrant, and the saint seemed to be resting. Having reverently kissed these holy relics, they again gave them over to burial. It happened at that time that a demon-possessed woman was there, who had followed the saint from distant places during his lifetime and wanted healing for herself. As soon as she saw that the saint’s tomb was open, the demon shook her greatly, and soon she was completely healed, glorifying God and the saint. One of the Hagarians, at the place where they killed the saint, took his kamilavka, and returning to the hotza, put it on his head and made the saint laugh; suddenly he became possessed, threw off his clothes, and ran around shouting that he had killed an ascetic. Why, Pasha, having learned about this, ordered him to be thrown into bonds, and there he gave up the ghost in agony. The saint, having delivered his last sermon in the above-mentioned village of Kolikontasi, left there, according to custom, a cross planted in the ground. After his death, Christians saw every night the heavenly light shining over this cross. Why, on the day of the erection of the Holy Cross, the priest and the people came there with a procession of the cross, and, taking this cross, placed it behind the altar near the saint’s tomb as a constant reminder of the miracle. When the saint’s disciples, having received complete freedom from the Pasha, discovered the saint’s relics, then some of them took parts of these relics with them and carried them to different places, and from those holy relics many sick people received healing. Especially, on the island of Naxia, when two disciples of the saint, who came there with the news of his suffering to the head of the local school, the priest Chrysanthos, the brother of the holy martyr, brought with them several hairs from the saint’s braid, one woman, in the so-called new village, who was in the most serious and fatal illness, having received this hair with reverence, suddenly felt a supernatural power in herself, and Soon she received perfect health, through the prayers of the holy martyr Cosmas. Through His prayers may we also be worthy of the heavenly kingdom! Bulgar, who later was the Archbishop of Ekaterinoslav and Kherson (from 1775 to 1779). You might be interested in: