Saint Cosmas the Hymnographer, the Bishop of Maiuma
(c, 787) was a hymn-writer of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the
foster-brother of St. John of Damascus. The teacher of the two boys was an
elderly Sicilian, also named Cosmas, who had been freed from slavery by St.
John's father. St. John and Cosmas went from Damascus to Jerusalem, where both
became monks in the monastery of St. Sabas near that city.
Cosmas,
however, left the monastery in 743, when he was appointed Bishop of Maiuma, the
port of ancient Gaza on the southern coast of Phoenicia. The Church observes
his feast on October 12. As a learned prose-author Cosmas wrote comments on the
poems of Gregory of Nazianzus; as a poet he is regarded by the Orthodox Church
with great admiration. It considers Cosmas and St. John of Damascus the best
representatives of the later Greek classical hymnology, the most characteristic
examples of which are the artistic liturgical chants known as canons.
The hymns
of Cosmas were originally intended to add to the interest of the services at
Jerusalem, but through the influence of Constantinople their use became
universal in the Greek Orthodox Church. It is not certain, however, that all
the hymns ascribed to Cosmas in the Greek liturgical books were really his
compositions, especially as his teacher of the same name was also a hymn
writer.
Collections
of hymns, varying in number, are attributed to Cosmas, and may be found in
Migne, Christ-Paranikas, Anthologia graeca carminum christianorum.
Among his
many compositions are the Canon of the Cross (Sept. 14), the Canon for the
Nativity of Christ, "Christ is born, give ye glory", more canons for
feast days and a Triodion for four days of Holy Week.
Sources:
https://orthodoxwiki.org/Cosmas_the_Hymnographer;
http://www.antiochianarch.org.au/stCosmas.aspx
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