Cosmas Melodus

(eighth century)

   Saint, Bishop and Poet.

   Cosmas was the adopted brother of John of damascus. As a young man he joined a group of anchorites living near Jerusalem and in 743 he was consecrated Bishop of Meluma. Cosmas is remembered as a liturgical poet. Many of his odes have been incorporated into the liturgy of the Orthodox Church. He also may have been the author of a commentary on the poems of St Gregory of nazianzus.

   H.J.W. Tillyard, ‘A canon on the recovery of the cross’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, xxviii (1928).