Cosmas of Jerusalem

Saint Cosmas of Maiuma
Hagiopolites
Born	8th century Jerusalem
Died	8th century Maiuma, Gaza
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Churches
Feast	October 14
Attributes	Vested as a bishop, or as a monk, holding a scroll with the words of one of his hymns
Patronage	Hymnographers

Saint Cosmas of Maiuma, also called Cosmas Hagiopolites ("of the Holy City"), Cosmas of Jerusalem, or Cosmas the Melodist, or Cosmas the Poet (d. 773 or 794), was a bishop and an important hymnographer (writer of hymns) of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Saint Cosmas (Greek: Κοσμάς) was probably born in Damascus, but he was orphaned at a young age. He was adopted by Sergius, the father of St. John of Damascus (ca.676 - 749), and became John's foster-brother. The teacher of the two boys was an elderly Calabrian monk, also named Cosmas (known as "Cosmas the Monk" to distinguish him), who had been freed from slavery to the Saracens by St. John's father. John and Cosmas went from Damascus to Jerusalem, where both became monks in the Lavra (monastery) of St. Sabbas the Sanctified near that city. Together they helped defend the Church against the heresy of iconoclasm.

Cosmas left the monastery in 743 when he was appointed Bishop of Maiuma, the port of ancient Gaza. He outlived St. John by many years and died in great old age.

As a learned prose-author, Cosmas wrote commentaries, or scholia, on the poems of St. Gregory of Nazianzus. He is regarded with great admiration as a poet. St. Cosmas and St. John of Damascus are considered to be the best representatives of the later Greek classical hymnography, the most characteristic examples of which are the artistic liturgical chants known as "canons". They worked together on developing the Octoechos.

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