Venerable Cosmas the Hermit (VI)

The Venerable Cosmas the Hermit lived in the sixth century in Palestine, in the desert of Pharan. An account of Saint Cosmas is found in the Spiritual Meadow of John Moschus. The blessed father was a strict faster and a firm defender of the Orthodox faith and the dogmas of the Church; he was deeply versed in Holy Scripture and in the works of the fathers of the Church. Cosmas had a special reverence for the writings of Athanasius the Great, and used to say: “If thou comest across a word of Saint Athanasius and hast no parchment, write it down on thy garment.”