Cosmas the Monk

Who is Cosmas the Monk?

Cosmas the Monk was a 7th-century clergyman who features in Nestorian and Chalcedonian traditions. To the Nestorians he is a vessel of divine grace, an orphan who became a great ecclesiastical poet and Abbot in the Holy City until his death in 632AD. His hymnody was preserved by members of his order including a Sicilian who became the teacher and foster brother to John of Damascus. To the Chalcedonians he was a Saracen slave rescued from execution by a judge, the Father of John of Damascus who employed him as the tutor of John and his orphan foster brother Cosmas of Maiuma who became the Poet of the Holy City. He is also known to the Chalcedonians as Cosmas the Sicilian.

Any knowledge of Cosmas comes from the notably unreliable 10th-century hagiography of John of Damascus. Apparently, John's father met Cosmas, a Sicilian who knew Greek, on the shores of Italy when the latter was about to be executed. He was crying loudly and when asked why a monk would cry in the face of death, answered that he was bemoaning the loss of the knowledge he had gathered, "for he knew nearly everything under the sun." In response, John's father had him released and appointed him as tutor for his son.