Life of Kosmas the Aitolos
By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos
By Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos
Kosmas the Aitolos, a monk, was a teacher and enlightener of the Nation, a national martyr and a saint of the Church. No personality of the years of slavery has occupied scientific study, literature and theology as much as Patrokosmas (Father Kosmas), as he became known by the broad masses of the people. He belongs to the enlightened figures who prepared the Nation for its rebirth. His appearance coincided with a critical period in the history of the slavery of the Nation. In the 18th century, the reconstruction of Hellenism in all sectors took place. Within the protective framework of the nationally ruling Church, it maintained its integrity and was able to survive in the particularly difficult 16th and 17th centuries.
1. Biography
He was born in 1714 in Mega Dendro (according to others in Taxiarchis), in the province of Apokorou in Aetolia. Mega Dendro is accepted as his place of origin by his first biographer and contemporary, Nikodemos the Hagiorite. He learned his first letters at the Lytsikas seminary in Sigditsa of Parnassos, and at the Monastery of Saint Paraskevi in Vraggiana, Agrafa. He taught as an assistant teacher in Lobotina of Nafpaktia, and in other villages. Wishing to receive a higher education, he went to the Athoniada School (Vatopaidi Monastery) around 1750, where his teachers were Panagiotis Palamas, Eugenios Voulgaris and Nikolaos Tzartzoulis.
On Mount Athos he devoted himself to asceticism and the study of Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers. "Studying the holy and sacred Gospel," he said in a sermon, "one finds in it many and various meanings, all of which are pearls, diamonds, treasure, wealth, joy, gladness, eternal life." Although the content of his education is not easy to determine precisely, it is deduced from his sermons that he had a deep ecclesiastical knowledge and an adequate general "secular" education. He knew Greek well, learned foreign languages (Hebrew, Turkish, French) and shows some comfort in the use of ancient Greek literature. Besides, even after his studies at Athoniada, as a monk he was able to continue his training "in private" ("I wasted my life in study for forty to fifty years... I searched the depths of wisdom," he would confess). In 1759 he became a monk at the Monastery of Philotheou. At that time he changed his secular name Konstas to the monastic name Kosmas.
In the place of his repentance he was burning with the desire to help the enslaved Nation, contributing to his enlightenment according to God. “Hearing, my brethren,” he would say later, “those sweet words, where our Christ says that we should also care for our brethren, that word ate away at my heart for so many years, like a worm that eats wood... Hence I left my own prosperity, my own good, and went out to walk from place to place and teach my brethren.” And elsewhere he will add: "Because our nation has fallen into ignorance, I said: 'Let Christ lose me, one sheep, and gain the others.' Perhaps the mercy of God and your prayers will save me too."
At the end of 1760, he went to Constantinople and received permission and a blessing from the Ecumenical Patriarch Sophronios II to begin his missionary work, which he continued for about twenty years and sealed with his martyrdom.
Kosmas made four, or according to others, three, tours throughout Greece. His routes cannot be precisely defined. Various "memories" of ecclesiastical books, local traditions and his letters confirm that he toured parts of Constantinople, Thrace, Mount Athos, Central Greece, Achaia, Thessaly, Macedonia, Epirus, the Aegean and Ionian islands, parts of Serbia and Northern Epirus, where there was a Greek element. He preached in cities and villages, in mountainous and isolated areas, defying toil and dangers. Despite the mildness and paternal nature of his preaching, which found a great popular response, there was no shortage of reactions. His words provoked the wealthy and all kinds of powerful individuals that the "the wrong be returned;" many of the local notables were affected by his call for justice - the Venetians and the Ionian aristocracy - and return to the Romaic tradition, which he represented; and finally, the Jewish community was impacted by his actions to move the bazaar from Sunday to Saturday, as well as by the popular anti-Jewish traditions that he utilized.
The plotting of the Jews against him became his greatest danger: “Pray to Him (Christ),” he said, “to keep me from the snares of the Devil and especially of the Jews, where they spend thousands of purses to kill me.” On March 2, 1779, he wrote to his scholarly brother Chrysanthos: “Ten thousand Christians love me and one hates me. A thousand Turks love me and one not so much. Thousands of Jews want my death and one does not.” The Jews slandered him for allegedly being an instrument of Russia and inciting revolution. While preaching in the village of Kolikondasi in the Berat region, he was arrested by order of Kurt Pasha on 23 August 1779, and the next day he was hanged from a tree on the banks of the Apsos River, without any trial or conviction. His body was stripped naked and thrown into the river, from where it was retrieved after three days by the village priest and buried in his church.
2. Activities
Kosmas chose the apostolic way of action, obeying the orders and broader plan of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The beginning of missionary activity almost simultaneously with Kosmas by the learned preacher of the Patriarchate, Dorotheos Voulismas, reinforces this version. Patrokosmas's tours aimed to strengthen popular unity within the ecclesiastical tradition, which was also national. His primary goal was to stop the Islamizations, which had intensified in the 18th century. Patrokosmas' preaching was able to find resonance and therefore have a lasting effect, because Kosmas could speak in a way that was understandable to the people, unlike other learned preachers of his time. His speech reveals his popular mentality. He used the linguistic code of communication of the popular strata, so that his speech could resonate. He punctuated his sermon with a free rendering of hagiographic and patristic passages, with which the people were familiar in their liturgical life. However, Patrokosmas' "demotism" was not artificial, but natural and effortless. He did not seek, after all, to impress the people, but to advance their spiritual development. In the simplified form of his speech, the Greek linguistic richness is preserved intact, within a natural and unpretentious rhetoric, which in many places exhibits rare literary power. Patrokosmas is not possessed by any linguistic monism. He knows the Greek language throughout its entire history. That is why he comfortably uses various linguistic forms, depending on the circumstances. One need only compare the language of his sermons with that of his correspondence.
Kosmas’ love for the people is often evident in his sermons. “Those who study have a duty,” he notes, “not to run to the mansions and courts of great men and to waste their studies in order to acquire wealth and position, but rather to teach the common people, where they live with great illiteracy and barbarity.” His role models in this approach to the people, which he attempted, were certainly Frangiskos Skoufos (1644-1697), Elias Miniatis (1669-1714) and Vikentios Damodos (1700-1752). The same tradition would be followed by someone who was younger than Kosmas, Nikephoros Theotokis (1730-1800).
Patrokosmas' sermons and teachings were reflected in his famous Didaches, which show their patristic and traditional nature. In his simple and unpretentious speech, the entire patristic tradition is summarized. The philological problem of the Didaches was examined extensively by Ioannis Menounos in his dissertation. Patrokosmas' speech does not have much variety. It is a basic teaching, the "skeleton" of which remained basically the same, with corresponding adjustments according to circumstances. Its theological scheme is: creation by God - fall - salvation in Christ - method of appropriating salvation in Christ (redemptive means of the Church: asceticism - mysteries). Ioannis Menounos distinguishes five types of Didaches (a total of 26 texts) of Kosmas, from the last years of his activity. Nothing written by him has survived. His sermons were recorded by his listeners.
Kosmas followed a specific course in his preaching. In each place he gave a first sermon in the evening, because his movement from place to place took place during the day. In the morning he gave a second sermon. In the first he spoke about creation and the fall, in the second about salvation. On the second evening he gave a third sermon on the subject of the resurrection and the spread of faith, until the Second Coming.
The broader theme of his sermons aimed to respond to the immediate needs and concerns of the Nation. Three points could be distinguished here:
A) The Orthodox Faith and Tradition
He aimed at the revival of patristic thought, for the rediscovery of the existential foundations of the Nation. For this reason, he constantly appealed to the Orthodox conscience of the people: "I learned," he said, "how by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and God there were no Greeks (i.e. pagans), there were no impious heretical atheists, but there were pious Orthodox Christians, believing and being baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and there were sons and daughters of our Christ...". His own (enlightening) effort was radically different from that of the Western-minded Enlightenment thinkers of the time and sought to protect the people from the confusion of the various propagandas, which flooded their conscience: "All faiths," Patrokosmas said in a sermon, "are false, counterfeit, all of the Devil. This I have understood to be true, divine, heavenly, correct, perfect, and through my word and through your word, that only the faith of pious and Orthodox Christians is good and holy." His sermons, though centered on the Trinity, often focus on the person of Christ, since what was "at risk and at stake" was the Christian (Orthodox) essence of the Nation. Christ is for Kosmas “the sweetest ruler and master.” Chrysostomic exaggerations in his speech are frequent: “Perhaps, my brethren, if it were possible for me to ascend to heaven, to cry out with a great voice, to proclaim to the whole world that my Christ alone is the Son and Word of God, the true God and the life of all, I would do it."
His preaching was not colorless moralizing, but theology, patristic in its essence and dogmatic despite its simplicity. He promoted the Orthodox patristic ethos through the realism of salvation in Christ. He called for purity of heart, so that the Divine seed could germinate (cf. Luke, 8:5 ff.) and participation in the mysteries of the Church. That is why he erected a wooden cross (many of them have been preserved) and taught in its shadow, calling the people to the mysteries (Unction, Confession, Divine Eucharist). From the Orthodox tradition, he advanced to the Orthodox ethos, highlighting the trinity of virtues: humility, forgiveness, love, as the foundation of ecclesiastical sociability. He asked God to “plant and take root in the hearts (of his listeners) peace, love, harmony, meekness, fervent faith, correct confession.” He thus built the link between individuality and sociability within the ecclesiastical body.
B) Genuine Education
Patrokosmas was an apostle not only of the Orthodox faith, but also of Greek education. At this point, there was no shortage of contradictory judgments and even ideological uses of his words. He combined education with the enlightenment of man and therefore considered indifference towards it a sin: "You sin greatly by leaving them (=children) illiterate and blind, and not only do you take care to leave them riches and properties, and after your death they eat and drink from them and slander you (accuse; defame). It is better to leave them poor and literate, than rich and illiterate." However, the education that he recommends is the education of the Nation, Greek. He is not moved by any nationalistic chauvinism in this request, but by the history of the Nation. He speaks of the education of the Fathers, which as a genuine search for truth (philosophy) opens the way to the Gospel, the word of salvation. “Our Church,” he says, “is in Greek. And if you do not study Greek, you cannot understand what our Church confesses.” In order to limit and eliminate from the Greeks the use of the Vlach or Arvanite linguistic idiom, he will go so far as to declare: “Any Christian, man or woman, who promises in his house not to speak Arvanite, let him rise up and tell me, and I will take all his sins on my neck from the time he was born until now, and I will make all Christians forgive him.”
The education that Patrokosmas spread aimed at the rebirth of the Nation. As he wrote to the people of Parga, the Greek school that they would establish had to contribute “to the preservation of the faith and the freedom of the fatherland.” It was an education that responded to the immediate needs of the enslaved Nation and was radically different from that of the Westernized and the “godless letters” of some Enlightenment thinkers. His authentic patristic thinking is captured in his words: “Many Churches neither preserve nor strengthen our faith, as much and as they should, if those who believe in God are not enlightened by the old and new Scriptures. Our faith was not strengthened by ignorant Saints, but by wise and educated ones, who explained the Holy Scriptures to us accurately and sufficiently enlightened us through divinely inspired words." Based on similar positions of Saint Kosmas, it appears that the view had been formed that he demolished churches in Himara in order to establish schools. However, it is not impossible that he designated ruined and abandoned churches to be converted into schools. The school of Kosmas, however, was an extension of the church: "From the school we learn, to the best of our ability, what God is, what the Holy Trinity is, what angels are, what archangels are, what demons are, what paradise is, what hell is, what sin is, and what virtue is. From the school, we learn what Holy Communion is, what Baptism is, what Holy Unction is, an honorable marriage, what the soul is, what the body is, everything we learn from the school." He therefore viewed the school as a temple of true knowledge and theocentric education. The enlightenment of Father Kosmas was centered on Orthodoxy. His educational model was the God-man, not the worldly wise, but the deified. He completely identified with his contemporaries, the Kolivades. As an enlightener of the Nation, he cannot be placed alongside the Western-oriented, but rather alongside Voulgaris and Nikodemos the Hagiorite. His zeal for the education of his compatriots is evident from his own works. He wrote to his brother Chrysanthos (1779) that he established 10 Greek schools and 200 for common letters (elementary) in the 30 provinces he had visited.
C) Orthodox Sociability
Patrokosmas aimed with his preaching to save the existential foundations of the Nation in the dimensions of Romaic sociability. He aimed not only at the rebirth of the human person, but also of society as a whole. He saw sociability as a horizontal religiosity. He preached equality and brotherhood of all people (“from one man and one woman we were born and we are all brethren”). However, he did not fail to add: “We are all brethren, only faith divides us,” showing his patristic foundation here. The super-ethnic brotherhood of humanity stemmed from the Romaic ecumenicity of his mindset, which was founded not on shared blood, but on shared faith, on shared orthodoxy. Simultaneously, however, he preached the equality of men and women and the sanctity of marriage, yet within the functional distinctiveness of the sexes and their missions in the social body (he regarded the man "as a king" in the family and the woman "as a vizier"). He advocated for practical justice, the avoidance of "theft and injustice" and that "the wrong be returned," to whomever had suffered injustice ("... those who have wronged Christians, or Jews, or Turks").
It is particularly impressive that Patrokosmas showed significant interest in collective-social behavior and organization, in common-community existence and cooperation: "What is my reward? For you to sit down for five or ten minutes to discuss these divine meanings, to put them into your hearts, so that they may bring you eternal life." In every place he visited, he recommended the formation of a brotherhood for the collective activation of the social group, but within the limits of a common and nationally beneficial goal. He prescribed the election of those responsible on a democratic basis (“with the opinion of all Christians”). According to the testimony of the prelate of Lefkada, which he had received from the Saint’s spy, the archon Mamonas, Patrokosmas prevented the inhabitants of Preveza from attending church in those parishes that had not been formed into a brotherhood. It is obvious that the coenobitic model of the Athonite monk Patrokosmas was transplanted to secular parishes and communities.
He based social unity on the mutual respect of “rulers and those under their rule.” He urged the faithful to honor priests more than kings and angels, but also prelates and elders, without “disrespecting anyone... that God has us all as equals.” The Roman Orthodox roots of his social theory are revealed by his position on prelates: “Whatever the fortunes of the country need, they seek from the prelates, and you sleep carefree...” In this context, Patrokosmas’s position towards the conqueror is significant. He recommends loyalty to the people, but not servility: “I go about teaching the Christians to keep the commandments of God and to be obedient to the royal decrees according to God” (Acts 5:29). He recommended obedience to those who "do not resist the Gospel".
In his position against the Turks, he remained faithful to the tactics already established by Patriarch Gennadios II Scholarios. Short-term cooperation and appeasement of the "beast" and the qualification of the Turk, as less dangerous to the "soul" than the Frank: "And why did God not bring another king, since there were so many kings nearby to give it to them, but only brought the Turk through the Red Apple Tree and granted it to him? God knew that the other kings harm our faith, and the Turk does not harm us. Give him silver (money) and ride him by the head." Thus he gave an answer to the Western-minded unionists. However, he did not hesitate, when necessary, to expose the enemies of the faith and the Nation: "One of the antichrists is the Pope and the other is the one who is in our head. Without saying his name, you understand."
3) Vision
Patrokosmas's ambitious actions have been the subject of many interpretations, various purposes have been sought and corresponding goals have been identified. He was considered a "nationalist", "social revolutionary", "democracy activist", etc. However, these positions do him some injustice, because his patristic nature is clearly evident. Saint Kosmas belonged entirely to the Orthodox patristic tradition, he had a broad patristic spirit and his goals and means were determined by the life and practice of the Church. He aimed at the rebaptism of the Nation in the patristic tradition, as it is preserved in the reality of the Church. He envisioned a Greek society "the dwelling place of God, the dwelling place of the angels." Nothing less or more, that is, than what Saint Chrysostom said when he said: "We will make heaven on earth." His preaching, assuming the chaos of the times, led to a Christ-centered society, to a classless brotherhood, within freedom and justice: “Let (people) live well, peacefully and lovingly here too, and then go to heaven to rejoice forever.” Outside of any utopia, he moved in the spiritual realism of Orthodoxy, within the limits of “real Christianity”, as preserved in the monastic brotherhoods and parishes. A Greece without Christ, without Orthodoxy was unthinkable for him. His patriotism was governed by the bipolarity of the temporary - the eternal, with an emphasis of course on the latter:
a) “My homeland, false, earthly and vain, is from Agia Artis and from the province of Apokorou.” But he added:
b) “We, my Christians, have no homeland here (Heb. 13:14). For this reason God has set our minds on things above, so that we may always contemplate the heavenly kingdom, our true homeland.”
Within this framework, his national aspiration must also be seen, which must not be separated from the Roman ecumenicity, which, as in the Kolyvades, was also preserved in Patrokosmas. He spoke of the Romaic (“this will one day become Romaic”). The resurrection of the Nation was oriented towards Constantinople and the Greek Orthodox empire of Romania. This restoration of the Nation was also hinted at by his great prophecies. With allusions and symbolic phrases, moreover, he tried to inspire in the souls of the slaves the desire for rebirth and to maintain hope for the arrival of that "which is desired." And as the only means for this strengthening of the collective consciousness, he considered persistence in faith: "Let them burn your body, let them fry it; let them take your things, do not begrudge them. Give them. They are not yours. You need your soul and Christ. These two things, even if the whole world falls, they cannot take from you, unless you give them of your own will. Keep these two, do not lose them." After the failures of the Russo-Turkish conflicts (1774 onwards), Kosmas must have realized the need for internal sowing within the popular soul, so that it could find the path to freedom on its own, with the reawakening of its self-consciousness.
4. The Impact
Patrokosmas' preaching had an enormous impact on the people. In every place he visited, he caused an earthquake in consciences, accompanied by repentance. Enemies were reconciled, thieves returned their stolen goods, robbers were converted, rich women offered their gold for philanthropic works, etc. According to his biographer Nikodemos, he distributed a total of "more than five hundred thousand crosses." His sermons were attended by thousands (at least 6,000 were his listeners in the village of Mavro Mandili near Preveza according to Mamonas' spy). Even today, all of northwestern Greece retains the memory of his presence. In many parts of Thessaly, Macedonia, Agrafa and Sterea, the revolution began with the couplet: “Help us, Saint George, and you, Saint Kosma / to take the City and Hagia Sophia.” The notorious Ali Pasha of Ioannina, whose future Kosmas had prophesied, had a special respect for the Saint. That is why he erected a magnificent church at the place where the Saint was buried. He also ordered a silver case to be made for his coffin, which he brought to Ioannina many times to venerate. When some mocked him for this act, he replied angrily: “Bring me a Muslim like this Christian and I will kiss his feet too.”
Patrokosmas also had the gift of miracles, widely known to the people, who thus had confirmation of his illumination by the Holy Spirit. Examples of his holiness were his prophecies, many of which came true. He said, for example, "That which is desired will be fulfilled in the third generation. Your grandchildren will see it." Indeed, the generation of 1821 was the third from the time of Kosmas. "When will that which is desired be fulfilled?" - they asked him in Tsaraplan in Epirus. "When these are united," he replied, pointing to two small trees, which indeed grew and united in 1912. The people honored him for this as a Saint even before his martyrdom, after which he was awarded the honors of a martyr of the faith. This act was taken into consideration by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which by its act ranked him among the Saints of the Church, on April 20, 1961, emphasizing that "he traveled throughout his homeland, preaching the word of God in a missionary manner, founding many schools, healing the sick, upholding his holy church, showing himself a model of humility, self-denial, virtue and self-control, even to the point of enduring martyrdom." His memory is honored on August 24, the day of his martyrdom.
Saint Kosmas was called "the greatest Greek after the fall" and the father of the modern Greek Nation. Perhaps it should be added that he was a model of modern Greek ethics and a restorer of the authentic Greek Orthodox ideal.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
