St. Cosmas of Aitolia

The Life of
THE PRIEST-MARTYR

ST. COSMAS OF AITOLIA
EQUAL-TO-THE-APOSTLES

By SAPHEIROS CHRISTODOULIDES of Grammos


ST. COSMAS OF AITOLIA
1714—1779

Commemorated August 24

Icon by Photios Kontoglou


This Life of a great Saint of modern times, bere translated from the Greek, was written by one of his faithful disciples, who was thus himself a witness to the life and teaching he describes.

The Life was first printed as a synaxarion together with the service to the Saint in Venice in 1814.

THIS TRUE MAN OF GOD, COSMAS, the teacher and preacher of the Divine Gospel, was from Aitolia, from a small village named Mega Dendron. The son of pious parents, by whom he was reared and taught in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, according to the word of the Apostle, he began taking general studies in about his twentieth year. When the school of Vatopedi (Mount Athos) began functioning with great fame in those days, he went there together with not a few of his fellow students. There he finished his general studies.

The Saint was still a layman, Constance by name; yet, even though he was in layman's attire, he appeared adorned with the modesty of the Monastic Habit, and disciplining himself in all things, he exercised himself in perfect asceticism.

When through misfortune that famous school was deserted, the teachers having departed, then also the good Constance departed from there and went to the Sacred Monastery of Philotheou. There he was tonsured monk at first, and he advanced most eagerly in the labors of the monastic life. After this, since the monastery had need of a priest, he was ordained priest-monk at the great urging and supplication of the fathers. From the beginning the blessed one had a great longing in his heart, even while yet a layman, to benefit his fellow Christians with those things which he had learned. And many times he would say that our fellow Christians have great need of the word of God, and that those who study ought not to run to the houses of the powerful and the courts of the great, and thus for the sake of acquiring wealth and honors render their education useless; but rather that they should teach the common people who live in great ignorance and barbarism, and thus acquire a heavenly reward and unfading glory.

Yet, even though he had great longing, and much zeal burned within his sacred heart to benefit the many, nevertheless he would bring to mind how great and difficult is the undertaking of apostolic preaching, and humble-minded and meek as he was, he did not dare to attempt it of himself without first knowing what the Divine Will was. Hence, desiring to test if this was the will of God, he opened the Divine Scripture and – O, the wonder! – there before him was the word of the Apostle which says, Let no man seek bis own, but let every man seek the other's good (I Corinthians 10: 24).

Being, therefore, informed by this, he revealed his purpose to other spiritual fathers as well, and when he received their consent, he went to Constantinople to meet his brother, the teacher Chrysanthos,; who taught him some elements of rhetoric, so that he might be able to speak with clarity. When, therefore, he had revealed his purpose to the more pious hierarchs and teachers there, and found them all to be in agreement and exhorting him to this divine labor, he received written permission from Seraphim of Delvine, who was patriarch at that time.

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1. Chrysanthos, the brother of St. Cosmas, was also the instructor of St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain.


THUS THE BLESSED ONE began preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of the Heavens, at first in the churches and villages around Constantinople. From there he went to Navpraktos, Vrachorion, Mesolongion and other places, and again back to Constantinople. After having been counseled by the then Patriarch Sophronios, he received anew permission and blessing from him, and began again to preach the word of the Gospel with more fervor and zeal. And indeed, after he had passed through almost the whole of the Dodecanese and taught the Christians to repent and do works worthy of repentance, he returned from thence to the Holy Mountain in the year 1775. While there he went about to all the monasteries and sketes, and having taught the fathers there, he remained for a little time reading the divine works of the Fathers.


AN EARLY PORTRAIT OF THE SAINT

Yet, not being able to endure because of the love that burned within his heart to benefit the Christians, as he himself often said to the fathers – he departed from the Holy Mountain. Beginning with the villages just outside of the Holy Mountain, he went preaching on the way to Thessalonika, Verroia, and to almost the whole of Macedonia. He proceeded to the parts of Chimaera, Acarnania, Aitolia, and even to Arta itself and Preveza. From thence he sailed for Aghia Mavra (the island of Lefkas in the Ionian Sea) and Cephalonia. Wherever the thrice-blessed one went, there could be found a great gathering of Christians who listened to the grace and sweetness of his words with much compunction and reverence. Thus, great correction and spiritual benefit would result.

His teaching—even as we ourselves heard it was most simple, like that of the Fishermen. It was caim and peaceful, so that it seemed as though it were wholly filled with the grace of the gladsome and peaceful Holy Spirit. Especially on the island of Cephalonia, this sacred teacher brought great spiritual benefit with the seed of his inspired teaching.

But God also, from on high, aided and confirmed his words with the following signs and miracles, even as He once confirmed the preaching of His Apostles by these very same miracles.

On this island there was a certain poor tailor whose right hand had been withered and useless for many years. This man, therefore, ran to the Saint and beseeched him to heal him. The Saint exhorted him to come with reverence while he taught, saying that God would have compassion on him. The poor man obeyed, and after he had heard his teaching – O, the wonder! – the next day he was found to be healed.

And again, another paralytic who heard of this strange miracle asked that they take him on his bed to the place where the Saint was teaching. After a few days, he too was made whole, and he glorified God and thanked the Saint.

There is a certain village of Cephalonia named Kourouni. Once, when the Saint was passing by this village in the summertime, he became thirsty as he was walking on the road, and asked that they bring him water from a dry well which was there nearby. The people told him that the well was dry, yet in order to be obedient they went and brought up from the depths of the well water full of mud and took it to him. Putting it to his mouth, he drank a little, and from that time on, that dry well strangely gushed forth pure water. It henceforth remained always full, both winter and summer, and it is a cure for many diseases.

Because of the great multitudes of people which no church could contain, out of necessity he taught in the open. Thus, it was his habit that wherever he was about to stand to teach, he would first tell them to make a large wooden Cross, and they would set it up there. Afterwards, upon the wood of this Cross he would lean the stand which, it is said, was made for him by Kurt Pasha in the form of a pedestal with a support. He would stand upon this and teach, and after the lesson he would dismantle the stand and take it with him wherever he went. As for the Cross, it remained there as a perpetual reminder of his preaching. In those places where the Crosses were fixed, God worked many wonders. In the midst of the marketplace of Argostolion, a village of Cephalonia, at the place where the Saint left such a Cross, there gushed forth a wondrous water which can be seen even to this day, and which never lessens.

FROM CEPHALONIA he crossed over to Zakynthos (Zante), being accompanied by ten small sailing craft filled with pious Cephalonians. However, the blessed one had no success there. Hence, having taught there only a little, he returned again to Cephalonia. From there he went to Corfu, where he was received with great enthusiasm by all, and especially by its governor. However, when a very great multitude gathered from all the villages to hear the teaching of the Saint, the leaders of the city feared the arousing of the ill will [of the Italian authorities] and asked him to depart as quickly as possible. Thus, in order to avoid becoming a cause of scandals and disturbances among the people, he left them there and crossed over to the mainland, that is, to Albania, to Sarande, and there he taught the people as he walked and passed through those barbarous provinces. In these places piety and the Christian life were in danger of vanishing altogether because of the great ignorance that prevailed among the Christians there, and also because of the many evils, murders, robberies, and countless other transgressions to which they were addicted. In evil they well nigh surpassed even the impious (Moslems).

Whereupon the sacred Cosmas sowed the seed of the Divine Word in the hardened and fierce hearts of these Christians, and with the aid of Divine Grace, he bore many and great fruits. He tamed the wild, caused the thieves to cease from their lawlessness, made the uncompassionate and unmerciful merciful, rendered the irreverent reverent, instructed the unlearned and the crude in Divine things, made them hasten to the Divine services, and to put it simply, brought all sinners to great repentance and correction – so much so, that all said that a new Apostle had appeared in their days.

He established schools everywhere by means of his teaching, both primary and secondary schools, in the cities and in the villages, so that the children might go there and learn the sacred letters free, and thus be established in the Faith and in piety, and be guided to a virtuous manner of life. He persuaded the rich, and they purchased more than four thousand large baptismal fonts of bronze and dedicated them to the churches so that they might always be found there as a memorial to the donors, and so that the children of the Christians might be baptized in the proper manner. Similarly, he persuaded those who had the means to buy patristic books, books of Christian instruction, prayer-ropes, small crosses, scarves and combs. The books he distributed free to those who knew letters, or those who promised to learn. As for the scarves, he distributed more than forty thousand of them to the women so that they might cover their heads. He gave the combs to those who promised to leave their beards uncut and live in a virtuous and Christian manner. He distributed the prayer-ropes and small crosses more than fifty thousand of them to the common people, so that they might pray for the forgiveness of those who bought them.

He had some forty or fifty priests who followed him, and when he was about to go from one village to another, he first commanded the Christians to confess, to fast and to have a vigil-service with a great effusion of light. He had wooden candle-stands that were especially made, which could fit one hundred candles, and which he would dismantle and take with him. Afterwards, he would distribute candles to all freely and would put the priests to read the service of Holy Oil, and all the Christians would be anointed, and at the end he would preach to them.

Since many people followed him some two or three thousand – in the evening he would command that they prepare many sacks of bread and vats of boiled wheat. Afterwards, they would go out by the wayside where the people would pass by, and thus all partook of that food and prayed for the forgiveness of both the living and the dead.

IN ALBANIA ALSO God worked many miracles through St. Cosmas, such as the following. One Turkish officer, being incited by either the Jews or by the demon, had so much hate for the Saint that he once mounted his horse and hastened to reach the Saint to inflict harm upon him. But as the horse was galloping, it threw him down and he broke his right foot. After he had returned to his house, he discovered his son dead. At this, he repented and sent a letter to the Saint asking forgiveness from him.

The foremost Aghas from Philiates went to see the Saint and hear his teaching. Since it was summertime, they slept out in the open plain. At about the fifth hour of the night, they saw a heavenly light like a cloud which covered the place where the Saint was standing. They themselves narrated this to the Christians. And in the morning they asked the Saint to give them his blessing from his heart, and not from his lips only.

In Phanar, at the place called Lykurse (northeast of Sarante) one Turkish official saw the Cross which the Saint had left there, which, as we have mentioned, it was his custom to do when he taught. When he saw it, he took it from its place and brought it to his house to make two posts for the bed which he had in his country home. But suddenly—O, the wonder!—there was a trembling like a terrible earthquake, and unable to stand upon his feet he fell to the earth, rolling about for a great length of time, foaming at the mouth and gnashing his teeth like one demonized. Afterwards, he was lifted up by two Turks who were passing by, and when he came to himself he realized that he suffered this from Divine wrath, because of his attempt to uproot the Precious Cross. Whereupon he went of himself and fixed it in the same place where it was before, and every day he would go and kiss it with great reverence. When the sacred teacher passed by there yet another time, this same Turk ran to worship him, and in the presence of all narrated the miracle and humbly asked to be forgiven.

Inasmuch as the Saint censured women who wore ornaments, he persuaded them by his teaching to throw them all away--to such a degree that some even wore only black thereafter. One rich woman in Korche had a child whose head she adorned with many florins and other useless ornaments. The Saint exhorted this woman many times to distribute these things to the children of the poor, if she wanted her child to live. But she did not obey him. Finally he told her that if she did not take those ornaments off of her child, she would lose it quickly. Since even then she was not convinced, the next day she found her child dead in bed. Then she realized that God had chastized her because of her disobedience.

And again, since wherever the Saint went, he taught the Christians to have no marketing or other labor on the Lord's Day, but to go to the churches and hear the sacred services and the Divine words, God chastized with diverse chastizements those who disobeyed the Saint. Hence, in the place called Halkides, about one day's journey from Arta, one merchant's hand became suddenly withered since he had disobeyed and had dared to do business on the Lord's Day. He ran to the Saint and asked forgiveness for his sin, and after a few days he was healed.

Likewise in Parga, when one owner of a workshop wished to sell some goods on the Lord's Day, his hand became paralyzed. When he confessed his sin before the Saint and had been admonished by him, he received forgiveness together with the desired healing of his hand.

In Xeromeron, one woman made bread on the Lord's Day, and when she took it from the oven, it turned red as though she had kneaded it with blood. She fell at the feet of the Saint and received the proper correction. In other places, because the proper reverence for the Lord's Day was not kept, one man's cow died, another's mule died, another became demonized, and one other found his child dead.

In one village of Kastoria called Selitsa (now Eratyra), one woman who had reverence for the Saint took the water with which he had washed his face and kept it in a glass vessel and--O, the wonder!--there sprouted forth a plant with just two leaves which became as big as the vessel and always floated on the water, without having roots and never changing its color. For a whole year it stayed fresh so that all who saw it marvelled. This water healed many, as this pious woman related.

THESE THINGS did God work through the Saint, and many others which we omit for the sake of brevity. Many times during his teaching the Saint would say openly that he was called to the preaching of the Gospel by Jesus Christ Himself, and that for the sake of His love he was about to spill his blood; and his prediction came to pass, in the following manner.

This apostolic teacher never opened his mouth to say a word against the Jews. He would teach the Christians only to live as Christians and to be truthful and have trust in the rulers which God had given them, even as the Albanians themselves (i.e., the Moslem Albanian rulers) heard from his mouth whenever they went to hear him as he taught out in the open. They themselves proclaimed him to be a man of God, so much so that when Kurt Pasha heard his good report, he commanded that he be brought before him. So much was he pleased by his speech that he made him that stand of which we have spoken before, and he adorned it with silken velvet, so that he might go up on it and teach the people from an elevated place.

But the Jews who dwelt in Ioannina, not enduring to have the Faith and the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached, went and told the local pasha that Cosmas, this sacred man, had been sent by the Muscovites to lead the Royal Cattle; astray so that they might go to Muscovy (Russia). Although Divine Providence preserved him against the false accusations, many poor Christians suffered a considerable loss of money due to the slander. Hence, the sacred Cosmas began censuring the Jews for their slanderous accusation and implacable hatred towards the Orthodox Christians. He persuaded the people to change the common market day from the Lord's Day to Saturday. Likewise, he ordered the Christians to remove from their heads the long tassels and the like which the Jews had introduced among them, and declaring such things "unclean," he forbade the Christians to buy them.

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1. I.e., the Christians, so called because they belonged to the Sultan as though they were livestock.


Therefore, no longer enduring to see and hear the Saint censuring them, the Jews went to Kurt Pasha and gave him many gold pieces, so that he might deprive the Saint of his life. Having consulted with his hodja [teacher of the Koran], through whom also he brought his plan to pass, Kurt Pasha decided to put the Saint to death, even as it came to pass in the following way.

The Saint had a custom that wherever he went to teach, he first received permission from the local bishop and from the secular rulers, and thus he taught unhindered. One time, therefore, when he came to one village in Albania called Kolikontas [most likely today's Chorovode] he received permission from the bishop there. When he had looked to ascertain who the secular rulers were and learned that Kurt Pasha (who lived in the town of Berat, some twelve hours distant) was the ruler over those parts, and that the bodja of the Pasha was there nearby, he sent a man to him and received permission and taught. Still he was not satisfied, but sought to go himself to the bodja for greater assurance.

For a time the Christians hindered him, telling him that he had never done such a thing before, that is, to go himself to the rulers to seek permission. Still, they were not able to hinder him. When the Saint had told them not to examine the matter further, he took four monks with him and one priest as an interpreter, and went to the bodja. The bodja, feigning, said that he had a letter from Kurt Pasha commanding him to send the Saint to him so that they might speak together. Then he commanded the men to guard the Saint and not to allow him to go out of the courtyard until he could send him to the Pasha. Then the blessed teacher understood that they were about to put him to death. Whereupon he glorified and thanked the Master, Christ, Who had accounted him worthy to finish the course of his apostolic preachings with martyrdom.

Afterwards, he turned to the monks who had accompanied him, and quoted to them the Psalmic text, We passed through fire and water, and Thou broughtest us out into refreshment. For the whole of the night he glorified the Lord with psalms, without showing any sign of sorrow over his approaching execution. Nay, rather he was most joyful in countenance, as though he were going to festivities and celebrations.

When daybreak came, seven Turkish executioners, feigning that they were about to take him to Kurt Pasha, as they alleged, took him and mounted him on a horse But when they had travelled a distance of about two hours, they brought him to a place where a great river (the Osum River) flows. Here they made him dismount and revealed to him the command which they had received from Kurt Pasha to put him to death. The Saint received this decision against him with joy, and bending his knees, he prayed unto God, thanking and glorifying Him, that for the sake of His love, he was sacrificing his life, even as his soul had always desired. Afterwards, he arose and blessed the four parts of the earth with the sign of the Cross, and prayed for all the Christians who keep his precepts.

The executioners made him sit next to a tree and would have tied his hands, but the Saint did not allow them, telling them that he would not resist, but would keep his hands crossed as though they had tied them. Then he leaned his sacred head on the tree and the barbarians tied him around the neck with a rope. Immediately, when they had barely tightened it, his divine spirit soared to the Heavens.

In this manner was the thrice-blessed Cosmas, that benefactor of all and most comely adornment of the world, accounted worthy to receive a double crown from the Lord that of Equal to the Apostles, and that of a Priest-Martyr, being in his sixty-fifth year.

WHEN THE EXECUTIONERS had stripped his precious body of its clothing, they dragged it and cast it into the river with a large stone tied to his neck. When the Christians learned this, they ran immediately to bring it out. They searched with nets and with other means but were not able to find it. After three days, one pious priest, Fr. Mark by name – the priest of the Monastery of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Kolikontas near the river – this man, I say, got into a dugout, made the sign of the Cross and went in search of the relics, and immediately – O, the wonder! – he saw the holy relics floating on the water and standing upright as though the Saint were alive. Hastening to that spot, he embraced the Saint's body and brought it out of the water. As he was lifting it, much blood ran from the Saint's mellifluous mouth into the river. When he had clothed the relics with his rasso, he brought them to his monastery and buried them there with honor in the tribune (bema), during the archbishropic of Ioasaph of Belgrade, who was also present at the burial of the Saint.

After the repose of the Saint, the following things came to pass. Kurt Pasha repented that he had been fooled, and that for the sake of vain profit he had put to death such an innocent and peaceable man. He sent a message to his bodja to free the monks of the Saint whom he had imprisoned, so that they might go to the above-mentioned Monastery of the Theotokos and stay there. When they went there, they found that the holy relics had been buried, and in order to be more informed about his martyrdom, together with other priests and Christians they opened the grave. Though the relics of the Saint had been three days in the river, like Jonah in the belly of the sea-monster, yet they suffered no decay or foul odor, but were entirely fragrant and appeared as though the Saint were asleep. When they had kissed them reverently, they buried them again in the same place where the divine temple was built in his honor. It was built in the following manner.

While he was yet alive, the Saint was once passing by the parts of Tepelene in Albania. There he met the vizier Ali Pasha of Tepelene, who at that time was still a bey (governor) and who, in fact, was being persecuted by Kurt Pasha. When the Saint met him, he told him that his household would become great, that he would become a great ruler, renowned throughout the world, that he would be lord over many cities and the whole of Albania, and that, besides this, he would even succeed to the throne of Kurt Pasha.

After some thirty years, the prophecies of the Saint were fulfilled and when the most mighty vizier Ali Pasha had become great, he succeeded even to the throne of Kurt Pasha, even as the Saint had prophesied. Whereupon when the vizier Ali Pasha entered into Berat, he remembered that word of the Saint, and he called the bishop of Belgrade (Ioasaph, nephew of the man who had been bishop of Belgrade during the Saint's lifetime) and commanded him to uncover the relics of the Saint and build a monastery in his honor; for he knew the Saint to be a true man of God on account of the prophecy and other things.

After the passage of some time, therefore, there took place the translation of the Saint's relics, and his venerable head was immediately placed in a silver reliquary at the command of the most sublime prince and vizier Ali Pasha. Immediately afterwards he ordered that there be a common contribution, and commanded that the famed temple should be built in honor of the Saint's name. In this manner was the divine temple built from the foundation by the contribution and exhortation and sublime command of the most mighty vizier, Ali Pasha of Tepelene.

At the hour when they were exhuming the Saint, there happened to be found there a demonized woman who, out of longing to be healed, had followed the Saint from distant parts when he was yet living. When she saw that they had opened the grave of the Saint, the demons troubled her greatly, and after a short time she was healed, glorifying both God and the Saint.

One of the executioners who had put the Saint to death had taken his monastic cowl. When he returned to the hodja, he put it upon his head and mocked the Saint. Immediately, he became demonized and cast off his clothing and ran shouting that he had killed the ascetic. When the Pasha heard of this, he commanded them to put him in chains, aud there he who was evil died evilly.

After the Saint had preached for the last time at the forementioned village of Kolikontas, he left a large Cross there standing in the earth, as was his custom. After his repose, the Christians saw a heavenly light that shone above the Cross at night. Therefore, on the day of Exaltation of the Venerable Cross, the priests went together with the people and took the Cross and brought it in reverent procession to the place behind the tribune (bema), near the tomb of the Saint, as an everlasting remembrance of the miracle.

When the disciples of the Saint were freed by the Pasha, they exumed the relics of the Saint, and some of them took portions of them and went to other places. By means of those portions of the relics, many folk who were ill received their health. Especially on the Island of Naxos, where two disciples of the Saint had gone to tell the schoolmaster Chrysanthos, the sacred teacher and brother of the Saint, about his martyrdom, they chanced to have with them some of the hairs from the Saint's beard. One woman from Neochorion who had a grievous and fatal illness, took these hairs with reverence and O, the wonder! immediately she felt within herself a supernatural power, by which after a short time she received perfect health. But also many barren women who took earth from the grave of the Saint with reverence and faith for the space of forty days, they also received their request, that is, to bear children, by the grace of Christ and by the intercessions of the holy Priest-martyr Cosmas, through whose intercession may we be deemed worthy of the Kingdom of the Heavens. Amen.


SAINT COSMAS OF AITOLIA
With scenes from his life and martyrdom


FROM THE TEACHINGS
OF SAINT COSMAS

LOVE GOD

THE ALL-GOOD AND GREATLY-MERCIFUL GOD, my brethren, has many and various names. He is called light, and life and resurrection. But the chief name of our God is love, and so is He called. If, by chance, we want to get along well here, and also go to paradise, and call our God "love" and "Father," we must have two loves: love for our God, and for our brothers. It is natural for us to have these two loves; it is unnatural for us not to have them. And just as a turtle-dove needs two wings in order to fly in the air, so also do we need these two loves, because without them it is impossible for us to be saved. And first we have an obligation to love our God because He granted us such a big earth here where we live temporarily, so many thousands of plants, grasses, fountains, rivers, seas, air, day, night, sky, sun, etc. All these things, for whom did He make them if not for us? What does He owe us? Nothing. Everything is free. He made us into men; He did not make us into animals. He made us pious Orthodox Christians, and not impious heretics. And even if we sin a thousand times an hour, He has compassion for us like a father and does not kill us in order to put us into the place of torment, but with open arms He awaits our repentance. He awaits the time when we shall repent, and cease from evil deeds, and do good deeds, and confess and be corrected, so that He can embrace us and put us in paradise so that we might rejoice always.

Now, then, shouldn't we love such a most sweet God and Master? And should the need arise, shouldn't we spill our blood even a thousand times for His love, just as He also spilled it for our love? A man calls you to his house and wants to treat you to a glass of wine, and henceforth, for your whole life, won't you respect and honor him? And as for God, who granted you so many good things and was crucified for your love, won't you honor and respect Him? What father was ever crucified for his children at any time? And our most sweet Jesus Christ spilled His blood and redeemed us from the hands of the devil. Now shouldn't we also love our Christ? Not only we do not love Him, but we insult Him every day with the sins that we commit. But whom would you wish that we should love, my brethren? Should we love the devil who cast us out of paradise and brought us into this accursed world where we suffer so many evils? And the devil has the intention, if it were possible, to kill us all in this very hour and cast us into the place of torment; he would do it. Now I ask you, my brethren, so that you can tell me which is proper: should we hate the devil, our enemy, or should we love our God, our Creator, our Fashioner?

"Yes, O saint of God, you have said it very well."

May yout blessing be upon me, my brethren, I also say it, but even God needs a couch where He can sit. And what is this couch? Love. Therefore, let us also have love for God and for our brethren, and then God will come and make us joyful and will plant eternal life in our heart and we will get along well here, and in paradise we shall rejoice always.

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS

IT IS NATURAL for us to love our brothers, because we are of one nature; we have one Baptism, one Faith, we partake of the Immaculate Mysteries, and it is one paradise which we hope to enjoy. Fortunate is that man who has been deemed worthy and has received in his heart those two loves, – for God and for his brothers. Because whoever has love in his heart has every good thing, and he cannot endure to do evil. And whoever doesn't have God in his heart has the devil, and he does every evil thing and all the sins. Even if we were to do thousands and thousands of good deeds, my brethren, givings, and even spill our blood for our Christ, fastings, prayers, almsand we have not these two loves but have hate and enmity for our brothers, all those other good deeds which we did are of the devil and we go to the place of torment. But wait, you say, there with that little bit of enmity that we have for our brothers we go to the place of torment after having done so many good things? Yes, my brethren, because that enmity is the poison of the devil. And just as we put a little yeast into four bushels of wheat, and it has so much strength and can raise so much dough, no matter how much it is, so also is enmity. It turns all those good deeds which we did into the poison of the devil.

How are you getting along here, my Christians? Do you have love amongst yourselves? If by chance you want to be saved, seek for nothing else in this world except love.

CONCERNING UNCEASING PRAYER
AND THE PRECIOUS CROSS

NOW I AM GOING TO COUNSEL YOU, my brethren, that each one of you, both small and great, make a prayer-rope, and hold it with your left hand, and make your cross with your right hand, and say: Lord Jesus Christ, Son and Word of the living God, through the Theotokos and all the Saints, have mercy on me, Thy sinful and unworthy slave. Our all-good God has granted us the Immaculate Mysteries, and also the Precious Cross with which we bless. With the Cross we open paradise; with the Cross we cast out demons; but our hand must be pure from sin. Then the devil is burned and he flees. Wherefore, my brethren, whether you eat, or drink, or work, let neither this prayer, nor the Cross be absent from you. And it is a good and holy thing for you to pray always, in the morning, in the evening and at midnight.

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FROM THE PROPHECIES
OF SAINT COSMAS

The red hats will come, and afterwards the English will remain for fifty-four years, and then it will become Greek. (This prophecy was spoken in Cephalonia, concerning the liberation of the Seven Islands. The French wore "red hats" during the reign of Napoleon, and they established themselves in the Seven Islands except for Corfu which was surrendered to Campbell in 1815 – and in 1864, after exactly 54 years, surrendered them to Greece.)

That which is longed for will come when two Paschal celebrations fall together. (Truly, in the year 1912, when the feast of Annunciation and Pascha fell on the same day, the northern provinces, including the city of Thessalonika, were surrendered to Greece by the Ottoman Empire.)

You will see a regular army and a guerilla army. You will suffer many things from them. (This prophecy was fulfilled during the Greek Civil War, 1945-49.)

The cause of the general war will come from Dalmatia. First Austria, then Turkey, will be dismembered. (Sarajevo, where the assassination of the Austrian Crown Prince in 1914 precipitated the First World War, is actually in Bosnia, adjoining Dalmatia; at the end of the war first Austria, and then Turkey, were in fact dismembered, these multi-national "empires" being replaced by national states and mandated areas.

There will come a time when there will not exist this harmony which today exists between the people and the clergy.

In Constantinople enough blood will be shed to drown a three-year-old calf.

Men will become poor because they had no love for trees. (Greece, a land once densely forested, has now been reduced to utter barrenness because the villagers cut down the trees indiscriminately, and the remaining young trees were completely devoured by goats. As a result, the rains washed away all the fertile topsoil, and the poorness of the soil has contributed greatly to the poverty of the peasants.

The evil will come to you from those who are learned.

There will come a time when things mute and senseless will govern the world. (This prophecy begins to be comprehensible in our age of automation and electronic brains.)

In the plain you will see a borseless carriage going faster than a rabbit.

There will come a time when the land will be girded about with a string, and men will talk from one distant place to another, as though they were in adjacent rooms; for example, from Constantinople to Russia.

There will come a time when the devil will make orbits with his pumpkin. (Again, a prophecy that becomes comprehensible only today, when artificial satellites are commonplace. The reference to the evil one may perhaps point to the end and ultimate use of these and other modern inventions, or to the source of the first and many subsequent "orbiting pumpkins" – the USSR, a government founded on the satanic principle of warfare with God.)

You will see men flying in the sky like blackbirds, and throwing fire upon the earth. Those that are living then will run to the tombs, and will cry out: "Come out, you that are dead, so that we the living can come in."