Today, on August 24th, we venerate our beloved patron saint and one of the Kollyvades Fathers, Saint Kosmas the Aitolos. In his time, he was well-versed in all intellectual fields and learned from the preeminent scholars of his time and geographical location. He studied and taught at Vrangianon Agrafon, founded by Saint Eugenios Aitolos. He was knowledgeable enough to instruct in philosophy, ancient Greek, mathematics, theology, medicine, and spoke several languages. He was a polyglot who spoke Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, and French. He continued his intellectual pursuits at the Athoniada Academy at Vatopaidi on Athos, where he learned from Panagiotis Palamas, Nikolaos Tzartzoulion, and Saint Eugenios. Despite the extensive education he had, the true fulfillment of his labors was within the life of the Church. He himself stated, “I studied about the sacred and about unbelievers, heretics, and atheists. I searched the depths of wisdom, but all the faiths are false. I learned this to be true, that only the faith of the Orthodox Christians is good and is sacred: to believe and to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…. Rejoice that you are Orthodox Christians and weep for the impious and heretics who walk in darkness” (First Teaching).
While he pursued the monastic life at Philotheou, where he received the name Kosmas, he felt compelled to come to the aid of the Greek people. He saw that, due to the exploitation of the Turkish yoke and foreign interests, his people needed his guidance. The Turks already incentivized Greeks to convert to Islam and speak Turkish, but the Greeks in different regions foresook speaking Greek for Vlach, Arvanite, and Slavic languages as well. Western influences, those bringing Enlightenment thought and Papal, Lutheran, and Calvinist missionaries, threatened to exploit the situation of Greeks and lead them astray from the true faith and their ancestral tongue. Saint Kosmas received permission from Patriarch Seraphim II of Constantinople to enlighten the Greeks. He traveled through Constantinople, Thraki, Makedonia, Thessalia, the Peloponnesos, Epeiros, and the Aegean and Ionian islands. His efforts aided in the construction of schools, and he encouraged wealthy sponsors to aid in this and pay for church fonts. He was an erudite preacher who strengthened the Greek people in their faith. He encouraged them in prayer, confession, and fasting.
Saint Nikodimos the Hagiorite describes the holiness of the Saint in his humility and gentleness, “He cooperated with divine grace, and he produced many and great fruits, so that he tamed the wild, calmed the bandits, soothed the ruthless and unmerciful, showed mercy to the irreverent, made the illiterate to be reverent, taught those who were ignorant divine things, and he caused them to run to the Divine Services. And simply all sinners he brought to great repentance and correction, so that all said that in their time there appeared a new Apostle." It is no wonder that we, as KTE, chose Saint Kosmas as our patron saint. He was a beloved enlightener of Greeks when they were most vulnerable, and pressure to abandon Orthodoxy and Hellenism was at its greatest. May he intercede for the Hellenic people that Christ our God may preserve us in the faith and be unified as a people.
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