The
monk-martyr Kosmas of Aitolia (+1779) may appear at first glance to be an
unlikely source of inspiration for Dixie, but a closer look reveals him to be a
radiant source of hope.
He
was born in 1714 in a rustic mountain village named Mega
Dendron (Great Tree) to good Christian parents.
When he came of age, he left his home in search of deeper knowledge and
wisdom. We still have his own words about his
education:
Later, in his teachings, he refers
to the education he acquired: "My Christians, I wore out my life in
studies forty to fifty years. I read the works of priests, and of the impious
and the atheists and the heretics. The depths of wisdom I researched."
Elsewhere he said: "I learned
many languages: Hebrew, Turkish, French, and from all the nations many things
did I read."
His
desire for God became so great at one point that he left the world and became a
monk on the holy mountain of Athos:
Then he went to Philotheou
Monastery. There he became a monk and took the name Kosmas and was ordained a
priest. As he says himself: "I went, and on the Holy Mountain I wept for
my sins for seventeen years."
But
love for God overflows and becomes also love of neighbor. This is what happened with St Kosmas; his
heart broke for his fellow Greeks, who struggled under the heavy Turkish yoke.
Since
the fall of Constantinople/New Rome in 1453, the Greeks had been ruled by the
Muslim Turks, who did what they could to suffocate the Christian Faith amongst
the Greeks and convert them to Islam.
Southerners should understand this tactic very well and sympathize with
the Greeks, for the Yankees have done the same to Dixie: They conquered our people in 1865 and have
slowly tried to kill our love for Christ, to eradicate our Christian culture,
and to replace them with the idol of Yankee Americanism (thanks to Fr Peter
Heers for mentioning this similarity in a talk he gave recently).
Father
Kosmas saw all that was happening to his fellow Greeks, and the Lord called him
to act:
In studying the Gospels he thought
by this he could help his brethren in the best manner. He prayed and he
consulted with spiritual fathers and elders. He felt that he had to leave his
beloved Mount Athos, to help the suffering people. St. Nikodemos continues:
"The Nation was in danger of the following: On the one hand the Turks, on
the other hand the Enlightenment - the atheistic Enlightenment - of France. The
faith was constantly diminishing. Islam was in triumph. The Greek language was
disappearing. Whole provinces forgot Romeik [Greek] and some spoke Turkish,
others Slavic, others Arvanite and others Vlach. There was also foreign
propaganda. . . . The Saint understood the risk. The
pessimistic messages had arrived at Mount Athos. He received them. He had to
interrupt his asceticism in the Monastery. The Nation, the Church of Christ,
awaited him. . . .
At Philotheou he felt the call from
God to undertake this great work "of enlightening and regenerating his
Christian brethren. The Greeks had fallen into ignorance in regards to their
religion, and this resulted in much wickedness, with large numbers changing their
faith from Orthodoxy to Muhammadanism. Kosmas felt this deepest. Therefore he
requested and received the permission of his elders to undertake such a
mission. Leaving the Holy Mountain, he went to Constantinople, met with
Patriarch Seraphim (1757-1761) and received from him written permission to
preach throughout Greece.
The
superabundant humility of St Kosmas attracted the Grace of God to him, which endowed his preaching with great
power:
. . .
The rest is at https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/kosmas-the-liberator.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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