Saint Cosmas of Aetolia: prophecies about Russia and the last times of human life on Earth

Saint Cosmas, known as Constantine, was born in 1714 in Aetolia, Greece.

Saint Cosmas, known as Constantine, was born in 1714 in Aetolia, Greece. His father worked as a simple weaver. Constantine first studied in Aetolia, his homeland, under the guidance of Archdeacon Ananias Dervishan.

Then he received his education on Mount Athos, at the Vatopedi School. His teachers were such famous people as Nikolai Tsartsulia and Evgeniy Bulgari.

Prophecies of Cosmas of Aetolian about modern humanity

Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Martyr Cosmas of Aetolia

These prophecies concern the material and spiritual life of modern man: his interests, everyday life, education - and are of particular interest and significance for us.
Saint Cosmas of Aetolia, with his prophetic gaze, saw what global problems modern society would face. Many of them are just in their infancy and are likely to become even more widespread over time. Perhaps, speaking about the financial crisis, intolerable taxes, the inability to obtain truthful information and the collapse of the educational system, the saint had in mind some future events. However, today in our daily lives we may well see the fulfillment of the prophecies of Cosmas of Aetolia.

1. “The time will come when you will not recognize anything.”

Modern media try to shape public opinion: they present only facts that are beneficial to them, dose out information, and sometimes use unverified and even deliberately fictitious data. When they talk about the lack of transparency, they mean, first of all, totalitarian countries. However, the situation is no better in democratic states: really, how much do modern Americans or Europeans know about the war in South Ossetia?

Newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs are becoming more and more similar to one another: their content and editorial comments are less and less diverse. The practice of the press has become the use of “conservative” editorials, which are prepared in a central agency and sold to newspapers as packaged goods. The media support the point of view and protect the interests of large companies and government agencies, on which they are financially dependent. The place of serious publications began to be taken by magazine fiction, specializing, as a rule, on sexual topics and gossip, and digest magazines, interpreting a huge amount of information to their liking and “facilitating” the reader’s task of not only receiving, but also comprehending information about current events, which , ultimately, takes away the desire and ability to think independently[1].

2. “Trouble will come to you from the educated.”

“Man, mastering the spaces and open spaces around him, seems to have forgotten about the many endless worlds within himself. The prosperity of the external progress of our technocratic civilization is accompanied by increasing withering and insensitivity. The tireless thirst for exploring external spaces has crippled the inner world of man, which has led to the distortion of relationships between people and societies. Man, like a river, overflowed its banks, and there was a danger that the bed of this river would dry up under the scorching rays of the sun and disappear from the face of the earth,” wrote our contemporary, the outstanding Serbian theologian Amfilohije (Radovich).

“Culture is good, but in order for it to be beneficial, it is also necessary to “civilize” the soul. Otherwise, the culture will end in disaster. “Evil,” said Saint Cosmas of Aetolia, “will come from literate people.” Despite the fact that science has advanced far forward and achieved such great successes, people, trying to help the world, do it in such a way that they destroy it without realizing it. God allowed man to do everything according to his own understanding, but by not listening to God, man destroys himself. Man destroys himself with what he creates.

People of the twentieth century, what have they achieved with their culture and civilization?! They drove the world crazy, they polluted the atmosphere, they ruined everything in the world. If the wheel comes off the axle, it continues to rotate without purpose. So it is with people: having left the axis of God’s harmony, they suffer. In the old days people suffered from war, today they suffer from civilization. Then, because of the war, people from cities moved to villages and lived with some small vegetable garden. And now people will not be able to live in cities and will leave them due to the onslaught of civilization. Then the war brought death to people, but now civilization brings them disease.”[2].

Scientific achievements, instead of being used for the benefit of humanity, lead to disasters: remember nuclear and bacteriological weapons, environmental pollution, interference in natural processes.

3. “There will be things in schools that your mind won’t be able to comprehend.”

Many schools in our time have actually become centers of anti-Christian propaganda. When drawing up the school curriculum, the Orthodox tradition is not taken into account. Today in schools there is sometimes propaganda of sexual promiscuity and permissiveness.

I recall the words of St. Athanasius of Paros: “If parents do not watch where they send their children and what the children teach, then the time will come when our people will weep bitterly in the ruins.”

“Today children are being taken away from the Church, and I see how hard they have become. After all, in the Church they become quiet, kind children, because in the Church a child receives the blessing of God and is sanctified. Now children are not allowed to go to Church so that they do not “fall under spiritual influence,” but at the same time they are not protected from all nonsense. And not only do they not protect, but they also teach all sorts of nonsense. Is it really not clear that children, if they truly fall under “spiritual influence,” will ultimately not act outrageously, but will become prudent, diligent children in their studies... And as they grow up, children living in the Church will become conscious citizens of their Fatherland. They will not get involved with bad companies, with drugs, and will not turn into good-for-nothing people.”[3]

4. “Thieves and robbers will no longer hunt in the mountains. They will live in cities, dress like ordinary people and come in broad daylight to rob you.”

Indeed, today you almost never see thieves in forests, mountains and on the main road. They do not attack people under the cover of darkness, and do not wear masks or silent shoes. They live among us and often commit their crimes in broad daylight, without fear that retribution will overtake them.

In this prophecy, Saint Cosmas also predicted such modern phenomena as money laundering, currency fraud, scams, and financial pyramids.

5. “We will see our land turn into Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Unfortunately, the saint’s prophecy is coming true in our days. The perversions for which the Lord once destroyed two ancient cities from the earth have become widespread. Every day they become more and more commonplace and are already perceived by many not as shameful perversions, but as a variant of the norm. Same-sex marriage has already been legalized in many countries. The European Union will soon require all its members to formally recognize their legitimacy.

6. “The time will come when brother will rise up against brother.”

7. “The time will come when brother will kill his brother, and son his father.”

It is worth watching the news or studying the crime section of any newspaper, and we will discover that such phenomena are, unfortunately, commonplace in our time.

8. “After the World War, people will eat with golden spoons.”

Here the saint was referring to the relative prosperity that came in Western Europe and the United States after World War II. In a consumer society, people work not in order to maintain their lives, but in order to acquire the opportunity to consume. “To be a consumer... means to be included in a specific set of cultural symbols and values”[4].

This is exactly what Saint Cosmas meant when he spoke of “golden spoons.” On the one hand, they are a symbol of well-being, which has become accessible to wide sections of the population; on the other hand, they are a symbol of consumption, elevated to an ideal and cult by modern society.

“The people of our era have not experienced wars or famines. “And we don’t need God,” they say, “either.” They have everything and therefore value nothing.”[5].

9. “The time will come when you will see three, even four families living in one house.”

Here the saint apparently predicted the appearance of apartment buildings.

10. “Don’t build big houses so that others won’t move in.”

11. “Do not build large houses with large windows so that people cannot easily come to you.”

During wars, occupying forces always occupy the largest houses.

12. “The time will come when people will close themselves in big boxes, and their fathers will die in small ones.”

Obviously, we are talking about the mass relocation of village residents (mainly young people) to cities, where they will live in “big boxes” - apartment skyscrapers. Parents of migrants, abandoned by their sons who left in search of a better life, will be left to live out their lives in villages in small houses - “small boxes”.

13. “They will impose a large, intolerable tax on you, but they will not be able to get their way.”

14. “Even chickens and windows will be taxed.”

On the one hand, this prophecy can be understood figuratively - after all, almost everything is now taxed, on the other - in a literal sense: when assessing country houses by the tax inspectorate in some countries, the number of windows in houses and the number of pets are taken into account [6].

15. They will loan you a lot of money and demand it back, but they won’t be able to take it.

After World War II, the credit system became a mass phenomenon. Loans are now taken out for everything: cars, housing, furniture, household appliances. In Western Europe, even clothes and food are bought on credit. Recently, the credit system has become widespread in Russia.

Lending in the form of government loans has also become widespread. Similar assistance was provided by the United States to European countries after World War II; The European Union helps its member countries. The Russian authorities also took out a lot of loans. The monetary lending system is expanding every day, and a situation is gradually emerging where “everyone owes everyone else.”

Why did Saint Cosmas predict that these loans would not be repaid? Obviously, this will be prevented by some kind of global disaster or war, which will result in the collapse of the world economic system[7].

Or maybe Saint Cosmas had in mind not only the repayment of loans in money? After all, often in return for money the creditor demands some kind of concessions, benefits, privileges. We can see a similar situation in the example of Greece and the European Union. Taking advantage of Greece's financial dependence, the EU is demanding concessions from it in a number of areas: allowing women access to Athos, recognizing marriages between representatives of sexual minorities, and abolishing the privileges of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Let's hope that the Lord will not allow such “repayment” of loans!

16. To be saved, you will go to live in another place, and others will come to yours.

Throughout the 20th century, the Greeks were forced to leave their native lands: after the genocide unleashed by the Turks, more than 1 million Greeks left Constantinople and Asia Minor. In 1974, part of the island of Cyprus was illegally occupied by Turkish troops. The Greeks were forced to move to the southern part of the island, and their houses remained behind the dividing line, in which Turkish families now live[8].

In 1970, there was a forced displacement of the Orthodox population of Northern Epirus (it was in this place that the prophecy of Saint Cosmas was pronounced). A plan was put into action for the ethnic cleansing of this region (Northern Epirus, located in southern Albania, was then inhabited predominantly by the Greek Orthodox population). 78 thousand Greeks were forcibly resettled in northern Albania. Only 16 thousand subsequently managed to return. Most of the resettled people died: some were killed, others died from hardships or in concentration camps. They were housed in miserable barracks and forced to work in inhumane conditions for meager pay. In parallel with the migration of the Greeks to the north, the Albanians moved to the south, occupying villages abandoned by the Greeks.

Let us also remember the mass exodus of Serbs from Kosovo. They “went to live elsewhere,” and their houses were occupied by Albanians. A similar situation occurred in Croatia, where Serbs were also forcibly expelled from their homes.

17. The time will come - and where the guys now hang their guns, the gypsies will hang their musical instruments.

“We have lived to see the time about which Saint Cosmas of Aetolia spoke<... > Where the monks used to labor, where their rosaries used to hang, now radios are blaring and soft drinks are hissing!.. Yes, apparently, a few more years will pass , and all this will no longer be needed. In general, from what is happening, the conclusion follows: life is approaching the end. The end of life and the end of this world are coming.”[9].

You can learn more about the life and prophecies of Cosmas of Aetolia in the books: Zoitakis A. Life and prophecies of Cosmas of Aetolia. M., 2007 and Zoitakis A. Traditional enlightenment in Greece in the 18th century: Cosmas of Aetolia and Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain. M., 2008.

The life of Saint Cosmas ended with martyrdom in 1779 in Albania

The life of Saint Cosmas ended with martyrdom in 1779 in Albania. At 65 years old, he was betrayed by the Turks and strangled. There is also a version that before he gave up his spirit, Cosmas prayed and died before his death.

The life of Saint Cosmas ended with martyrdom in 1779 in Albania. At the age of 65, he was betrayed by the Turks and strangled

His body was thrown into the river, but three days later the priests found him. They buried him near the village of Kalikontasi in the Ardevuz monastery in honor of the feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A little later, particles of his holy relics were transferred to many churches for worship by believers.

His canonization was performed by Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople in 1961.

24 August

Memorial Day of Cosmas of Aitolia

Predictions about the liberations of the Greeks

Cosmas' prophecies returned to his compatriots, who had suffered a difficult fate under the 300-year foreign yoke, great hope for the revival of the nation's freedom. The venerable saint made a huge contribution to the cause of liberation from the power of the Turks in Greece. The people sing the glory of Cosmas and ask him to return the St. Sophia Temple to Greek Orthodoxy.

Sermon of Saint Cosmas

The saint became a symbol of Greek Orthodoxy in the struggle for liberation from foreign views. People never tire of being inspired by prophecies that give faith and hope. Cosmas in his prophecies veiled the term “national liberation” with the word “desired for the people.”
Answering a question about this “expectant”, the reverend prophet said that the state would again become Orthodox, and every inhabitant of this country would rejoice. With these words he reassured his enslaved compatriots. Soon the territory of the Balkans was freed from the Turkish yoke.
Saint Cosmas told the inhabitants of Epirus (the region on the border of Greece and Albania) that what they “wanted” would be in the third generation. The liberation of this province occurred after the war of 1912. The saint prophesied: people will live independently when a gap in a certain tree is healed or the celebrations of the Annunciation and Holy Easter coincide. These signs came true, and the Greeks gained their long-awaited freedom.
He advised the inhabitants of Albania to hide in the mountains, since their hometowns were soon subjected to military invasions. People listened to the elder, this helped save many innocent lives.
Cosmas of Aetolia prophesied that the Ionian Islands would be owned by the Venetians, and then by the French and English. And only in 1954 will the local residents be liberated from the foreign yoke.
The saint foreshadowed that fascist Italy would invade Greek territory without encountering military resistance. Having reached the cross, on the site of which Cosmas prophesied, the enemies will be afraid of further advance. Residents, remembering the elder’s slander, did not leave their homes during the war. The Italians stopped at the cross, having received rebuff from the Greek army.

On a note!
The prophecies of the righteous saint were filled with phrases about wars, famines, disasters and various tragedies. In his sayings, pious Christians find practical advice that helps them maintain their faith and survive certain adversities. The purpose of any prediction of the monk is not to scare faint-hearted listeners, but to warn contemporaries and future generations about upcoming misfortunes. Several generations of Balkan residents used his advice.

From all that has been said, the conclusion follows: the end of life and the end of this world are coming.

From all that has been said, it should be concluded that the end of life and the end of this world are coming, and at the same time the Orthodox population.

In the book “With Pain and Love about Modern Man,” he described how sin has become so fashionable in the modern world, what kind of torment a person who leaves God will experience, and much more.

Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets wrote several volumes about modern life on Earth, which are called “With pain and love about modern man.”

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Reliability of prophecies

The reliability of the prophecies has been established. As historians, we, first of all, rely on written sources, and from early times - the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries.

The oral tradition cannot be denied - a lot in Orthodoxy is transmitted orally - but in this case the selection takes place based precisely on written documents.

The stone on which Cosmas of Aetolia stood during his sermon

Many prophecies were written down either by contemporaries or shortly after the martyrdom of Saint Cosmas, so we can claim that they were pronounced by Saint Cosmas and carefully preserved by his disciples.

Classification

A varied classification of prophecies is possible, but now we would divide them into groups like this.

1) Prophecies about the liberation of the territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Ottoman yoke at the time when Saint Cosmas preached - then it included not only Greece, but also the lands of Albania and Turkey, where Orthodox peoples lived.

These also include prophecies about the liberation of Constantinople.

Most of these prophecies - about the liberation of Greece - were fulfilled. Those concerning Constantinople are still awaiting their execution.

2) Prophecies about future events - wars, disasters - and what will happen to all humanity.

Many of the prophecies, which, as we now understand, belonged to the distant future, were preserved only because people loved the saint very much and completely trusted him.

“A cart without horses will run faster than a hare.”

It is clear that in the 18th century this sounded unclear and even absurd. Just like the prophecy that it will be possible to talk to a person in another city as if he were sitting in the next room:

“The time will come when people will talk from one distant place to another, for example from Constantinople to Russia” or “The time will come when people will be able to communicate with each other over long distances, as if they were in two adjacent rooms.”