Cosmas the Confessor

Holy Cosmas the Confessor, bishop of Chalcedon, lived in the ninth century, in the time of the struggle over the holy icons. He was from Constantinople and while still young entered a monastery, where he was tonsured a monk; he struggled together with Venerable Auxentius. For his virtues he was honoured with the priesthood and then became bishop of Chalcedon, zealously defending the right faith against the iconoclasts.

The iconoclasts tried in many ways to win him over, but he remained faithful to Orthodoxy to the end. He did not obey the decree of the emperor Leo the Armenian (813 to 820) ordering the holy icons removed from the churches, and for this he was driven from his see and sent into exile, to prison. Returning from exile, he continued with Auxentius to defend the veneration of icons. At the end of the persecution he was weak in body but strong in spirit. He fell asleep in peace, and his relics were buried in the church of the Holy Apostles. He is commemorated on 18 April (new style).