Venerable Martyr Cosmas of Aetolia, Equal-to-the-Apostles (†1779) — August 4 / August 17 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 4 according to the Julian Calendar (August 17 on the civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Venerable Martyr Cosmas of Aetolia, Equal-to-the-Apostles.

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

After completing his studies, the saint remained on Athos, in the Monastery of Philotheou. There he was first tonsured a monk with the name Cosmas, and then ordained a hieromonk. Kindled with the desire to strengthen his brethren in the faith, the ascetic sought the blessing of his spiritual fathers and went to Constantinople to preach.

Saint Cosmas’s apostolic labor ended in martyrdom in 1779: at the age of sixty-five, the Jews slandered him and delivered him into the hands of the Turks, who strangled the saint and cast him into a river. Three days later the priest Mark found the body of the blessed one and buried it near the village of Kalikontasi, in the Ardevuz Monastery, in the church of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Later the incorrupt relics of the hieromartyr were enshrined in various places.