18th century
A Bulgarian of noble birth who left worldly life for Mount Athos and lived as an anchorite of Zographou Monastery.
Our Venerable Father Cosmas of Zographou
Cosmas of Zographou was a Bulgarian ascetic of the late eighteenth century who renounced a life of noble privilege to become an anchorite on Mount Athos. Born into an aristocratic Bulgarian family, he was educated in both Greek and Bulgarian.
When his parents sought to arrange his marriage, he left home secretly and made his way to the Holy Mountain, where he entered the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou and gave himself to ascetic struggle. Tradition connects him to the 'Hearer' (Epakousa) Icon of the Mother of God at Zographou, before which he is said to have received the call to withdraw into solitary, hermitic prayer.
He is commemorated on September 22 and is distinguished from the Cosmas the Bulgarian of Zographou commemorated on September 21. Few details of his life survive in accessible sources beyond the synaxarion notice.
By the account of the synaxarion, Cosmas was born toward the end of the eighteenth century into an aristocratic Bulgarian household and grew up proficient in both Greek and Bulgarian. When his parents wished him to marry, he departed his home secretly and set out for Mount Athos.
On the Holy Mountain he entered Zographou, the historically Bulgarian monastery, and took up the life of an anchorite, dedicating himself to ascetic discipline and prayer in seclusion.
The 'Hearer' Icon (Epakousa in Greek), an image of the Mother of God kept at Zographou Monastery, is associated by tradition with Cosmas. The account relates that while he prayed before the icon he heard the voice of the Mother of God issuing from it, asking her Son how Cosmas might be saved, and that the answer was that he should withdraw into solitary prayer; following this, he is said to have left community life for hermitic seclusion.
The name 'Hearer' refers to the Mother of God's responsiveness to prayer. Some accessible sources attach this episode to a Cosmas of Zographou without clearly distinguishing him from a medieval namesake; the eighteenth-century identity is asserted by the OCA calendar listing rather than detailed at length in available sources.
Distinct from Cosmas the Bulgarian of Zographou commemorated Sep 21.