Cosmas the Protos

Saint Cosmas the Protos, venerable martyr, was the head (protos) of the Holy Mountain and died as a martyr about 1280, with the monks of the cells at Karyes, because they resisted union with the Church of Rome. They stood against the Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and the Latin-⁠minded Patriarch John Bekkos (1275-1282). Tradition tells that the monks of the cells around Karyes, headed by the protos, were summoned to accept the union. All took the proposal as a betrayal of Orthodoxy and said that they would choose martyrdom. The threats of the emperor's envoys changed nothing, and the more they were tortured, the firmer they became in their faith. Cosmas was condemned to be hanged and the others to be beheaded with the sword. According to one tradition the emperor himself, enraged by their rebukes, had them killed with the sword and set fire to the Protaton church. At that time monks of the monasteries of Vatopaidi, Iviron, Zographou and Xenophontos were also killed.

The martyrdom of Cosmas was confirmed when the Holy Community of the Mountain disinterred his remains on 18 November 1981, at the place indicated by tradition, where a lamp had always burned. His relics rest in the narthex of the Protaton church in Karyes. His main feast is on 5 December, and on 18 November the translation of his relics is celebrated. The hieromonk Athanasios of Simonopetra composed services of praise and supplication for him.