Ascetical Life
Cosmas's life is remembered primarily for its monastic discipline. Entering Zographou as a young man, he cultivated humility and obedience, the foundational virtues of communal monasticism, and applied himself to ascetical practice with such seriousness that his superiors recognized his spiritual maturity.
On that basis he was permitted, with his spiritual father's blessing, to leave communal life for the more demanding path of solitary hesychasm. In keeping with the monastic tradition he was formed in, he attributed whatever good he had accomplished not to himself but to the mercy and grace of God. He is said to have received spiritual gifts from the Lord, including the gift of prophecy.
Zographou Monastery
Zographou (the "Zograph" monastery) is the historical Bulgarian house on Mount Athos. By tradition it was founded in the late ninth or early tenth century by three Bulgarians from Ohrid, with the earliest documented evidence dating to 980. It received generous support from Bulgarian rulers, including Ivan Asen II and Ivan Alexander, while Byzantine emperors beginning with Leo VI the Wise and Serbian rulers granted land endowments.
In 1275 (some sources give 1282), shortly before Cosmas's time, Crusaders acting on the orders of Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos attacked the monastery over its opposition to the Union of Lyons; twenty-six monks, including Abbot Thomas, were burned alive, and their martyrdom is commemorated on October 10. The monastery houses a thirteenth-to-fourteenth-century icon of Saint George known as Saint George the Zograf, said to have painted itself miraculously, and the Wonderworking Icon of the Theotokos "Of the Akathist."
Identity
Cosmas the Bulgarian of Zographou, a thirteenth-century monk commemorated on September 21, is distinct from Cosmas of Zographou the anchorite, who is commemorated on September 22. The latter came from an aristocratic Bulgarian family of the late eighteenth century, was fluent in Greek and Bulgarian, secretly left home when his parents arranged a marriage, traveled to Mount Athos, and became an anchorite at Zographou; he is associated with the wonderworking "Hearer" Icon of the Mother of God. The two figures, separated by some five centuries, should not be confused.
