The Teacher of the Slaves: Saint Cosmas the Aetolian

Saint Kosmas is a New Hieromartyr and is Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Living during the 18th century, Saint Kosmas became a monk and then a priest at Philotheou Monastery of Mount Athos, Greece.  After a while he felt a calling for missionary work in Greece, a country suffering Turkish Oppression for over four centuries.

Apart from the hunger and persecutions, the people were harassed,  troubled by their illiteracy and the shortage of Churches and priests. This lead to most of the adults being unbaptised. Holy Communion was completely unknown in some areas of the country. The majority of the people were buried without a funeral service. There were no priests to bless the dead or the new-born children. Ruined country chapels sometimes had illiterate priests do a secret, night service, far away from the attention of the conqueror. There were no schools, only a few ‘Secret Schools’ created by a few educated priests. It is during this dark period of Greece’s history, to which Saint Kosmas’s heart yearned to teach and instruct his fellow man.

Saint Kosmas undertook four missionary journeys throughout Greece. As soon as he arrived in a village, he asked the villagers to make a large wooden Cross in the village square. He would stand on a bench next to the Cross and teach the villagers about Christ and the Orthodox Faith. He was considered a holy man during his life due to his preaching, prophecies, countless miracles and his saintly life. Eventually, he was martyred by the Muslims in 1779 who hung him in Albania. Saint Kosmas’s prophecies are countless. These include prophecies of the telephone, airplanes and aerial bombings.

Saint Kosmas’s life reminds us what an incredible and astounding difference one person can make.