Kosmas of Gregoriou

Father Kosmas of Gregoriou was an Athonite hieromonk and Orthodox missionary in the Congo (then Zaire), who died in an accident on 27 January 1989 at Kolwezi. He is honoured by the faithful, especially in Africa, without synodal canonization. In ten years he baptized fifteen thousand Africans.

He was born in 1942 in the village of Theodosia in Kilkis. While still small he went with his parents to Thessaloniki, where they lived in poverty; his second home was the church and his second father the parish priest. He loved reading Holy Scripture and catechism. He became spiritually connected with Augoustinos Kantiotis (died 2010) and began to correspond with Fr Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos (died 1972), in Africa. The desire for mission always burned in him. He also had contacts with the elder Philotheos Zervakos (died 1980) of the Longovarda Monastery on Paros. He knew technical, mechanical, electrical, electronic, nursing, lifesaving and building skills; he attended courses for catechists, for foreign mission at Apostoliki Diakonia and for nursing at the Red Cross, and later rescued a child from drowning in a lake at Kolwezi.

In 1975 he went on the African mission, beside Fr Amphilochios Tsoukos, at Kolwezi in Zaire. He began to build churches with enthusiasm, skill and boldness, without knowing the Swahili language; he slept with his shoes on, having no time to take them off. He suffered a sunstroke and for years had headaches. In fifteen months he built nine churches. In 1977, with Fr Nikodemos Bilalis, he built the church of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite at Karyes on the Holy Mountain. There he met Elder Paisios, who told him to become a monk at Gregoriou Monastery, to be ordained there and then to go on mission. The next year he was tonsured by the abbot George and ordained by Bishop Chrysostomos of Rodostolon. With the blessing of the fathers he set out to begin his great missionary work in Africa.

First he went to Kananga to Fr Chariton Pneumatikakis and Sister Olga; then, with the blessing of Metropolitan Timothy of Central Africa, he went to Kolwezi. He told his father: "God has sent me as a missionary to this region. Wherever I go, I will help anyone who needs me." Besides serving as liturgist, spiritual father and catechist, he was a father and brother to many needy Africans, a loving pastor, a just judge, a helpful physician, a good builder and an engineer. He seemed to sense the approach of the end. Three months earlier he told his elder, Fr George: "Missionary work is not for a few months. Whoever wants to be a missionary must leave his bones in the soil of Africa." On the night of 27 January 1989, in an accident in which another car fell on his own, he died. His tomb is a place of pilgrimage, where the local people leave flowers of thanks.