Kosmas of Kavsokalyvia (d. 1919)

Kosmas of Kavsokalyvia (d. 1919), with the secular name Constantine Renieris, was born in 1857 at Isternia on Tinos. From childhood he learned the craft of a marble sculptor. Together with his brother George he came to work on the Holy Mountain. Drawn by the beauty of monastic life, they submitted in 1881 to the greatly virtuous Elder Chariton (d. 1906), who struggled in the cave of Saint Athanasios the Athonite. The first was tonsured with the name Kosmas in 1882, and the second received the name Damianos at his tonsure in 1893. Kosmas was ordained deacon and priest at Christmas 1892 at the Great Lavra by Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III. In 1902, at the fathers' request, he was made a confessor. From the start he wanted to follow his elder's rule of restraint, to eat only once a day, and that food without oil. The discerning Father Chariton did not allow it. At his insistence he let him, but when he fell ill he understood his error.

Once, returning to their cave at Provata, hungry, he picked and ate an apple from a garden he was passing. When he confessed it to his elder, the latter rebuked him: a priest and confessor allowed himself to be carried away for an apple. He told him to go back five hours' journey and ask forgiveness of the owner of the apple tree. Father Kosmas made a prostration at once, but showed his inability to return so far. Then he told him to make a thousand prostrations. After he did them, he made him go and ask pardon. The hieromonk Kosmas was a worthy successor and imitator of his elder. After Elder Chariton's repose, and because of great damage to the Kathisma from an earthquake, he moved with his company to the skete of Kavsokalyvia. In 1912 they built a church dedicated to the Akathist, which was consecrated in 1925 by the former Metropolitan of Moschonisia, Photios (d. 1930).

Kosmas and his brother Damianos had relatives who were nuns at the Kechrovouni monastery on Tinos, to whom they sometimes sent Athonite blessings. Kosmas, like his elder, copied holy services. In one of them he wrote: "These were written by Kosmas hieromonk and confessor from the Akathist Hymn of the Mother of God, Holy Skete of the Holy Trinity of Kavsokalyvia, Holy Mount Athos. The above is from Isternia, island of Tinos, in the year 1913." Kosmas's disciples were the compatriot monks Chariton (d. 1930) and Athanasios (d. 1956), from Dafni near Kalavryta. At the moment of the monk Chariton's repose, a heavenly light filled his cell. Once Athanasios was gravely poisoned and near death; Father Kosmas ran to the grave of Father Chariton to ask his help. In the night a light shone, the elder appeared to him and indicated what had to be done, and Athanasios recovered. Elder Andrew (d. 2004) writes of Athanasios: "He was very ascetic, a biblical figure, humble, of few words, with the thought of death and unceasing prayer; very beloved by all the other strugglers, who wished to have his company even for a moment." The blessed Father Kosmas reposed on 2 August 1919. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.