Venerable Martyr Cosmas, Equal to the Apostles (+1779)

The Venerable Martyr Cosmas, Equal to the Apostles (in the world Constantine), was from Aetolia. He was first educated in his homeland under the guidance of the archdeacon Ananias Dervisanos, and then went to the school of Vatopedi on Mount Athos.

After finishing the school the saint remained on Athos, in the monastery of Philotheou. Here he was first tonsured a monk with the name Cosmas, and then ordained hieromonk. Burning with the desire to strengthen his brethren in the faith, the ascetic asked his spiritual fathers for a blessing and went to Constantinople to preach.

Saint Cosmas’s apostolic labours ended in martyrdom in 1779: at the age of sixty-five he was slandered by the Jews and handed over to the Turks, who strangled the saint and threw him into a river. Three days later the priest Mark found the blessed one’s body and buried it near the village of Kolikontasi, in the monastery of Ardenitsa, in the church of the Entry of the Most Holy Mother of God into the Temple. Later the hieromartyr’s incorrupt relics were laid in various places.