Father Kosmas Aitolos was born in 1714 in the Greek village Megalo Dendro (Big Tree) in the region of Aitolia. He studied in Mount Athos, in “Athonias School”, and later he became a monk in Philotheou Monastery. Because of the lack of education in most of the population, especially in the remote areas of Greece, Father Kosmas was “forced” to live Athos and begin missionary tours in the villages with the aim of educating the poor people. This way he would also be able to help people understand the Scriptures better. In a period of six years he managed to establish 250 schools as well as charities and rural churches.
On August 24, 1779 he was executed at Kolkondas, Fier District, near the mouth of the Seman river (in present day Albania) by the Ottoman authorities. There were no formal charges against him.
He was recognized as a saint by the Patriarchate of Constantinople Athenagoras in 1961.
St. Kosmas received from God the gift of prophecy. He seems to have foreseen everything. He predicted the future of the world, he warned of the great cataclysms which await us in our Apocalyptic times but also he foretold the new technological developments.
Some of them became reality and others are about to be fulfilled. In the following quotes several of his prophecies are presented.
PROPHECIES AND SAYINGS
You will see people flying in the sky like blackbirds and hurling fire on the earth. Those alive then will run to the graves and shout: “Come out, you who are dead, and let us who are living in.”
The cause of the general war will come from Dalmatia. Austria will be dismembered first and then Turkey.
That which is desired [i.e., freedom] will come in the third generation. Your grandchildren will see it.
France will liberate Greece, [while] Italy (will liberate) Epiros.
The villages of the plain will suffer destruction, while people at the foot of (Mount) Kissavo will go to sleep slaves and will awaken free.
The time will come when your enemies will take away from you even the ashes from your fires, but don’t give up your faith as others will do.
The red hats [ie., the French] will come here [Kephallenia], and then the English for fifty-four years, and then this place will become Roman [i.e., Greek Orthodox].
The time will come when people will speak from one far place to another, for example, from Constantinople to Russia, as though they were in adjoining rooms.
A time will come when the harmony that exists now between clergy and laymen will not be.
The time will come when the devil will make his turns with his pumpkin.
They will put a tax on chickens and on windows.
Clergymen will become worse and more impious than everyone.
There will come a time when your enemies will even take away from you the ashes from your fire, but do not deny your faith, as others may do.
People will become impoverished because they will have no love for trees.
You will see in the plain a carriage without horses which will run faster than a rabbit.
The rich will become poor and the poor will die.
The time will come when the Romans [i.e., the Greek Orthodox] will fight among themselves. I recommend harmony and love.
A foreign army will come. It will believe in Christ, but it will not speak the (Greek) language.
After the general war, the wolf will live with the lamb.
People will become poor because they will become lazy.
They will seek to take you as soldiers, but they will not do so in time.
The Turks will learn the secret three days sooner than the Christians.
When you hear that the war has started from below (the south), then it will be near.
If the war starts from below (the south), you will suffer little. If it starts from above (the north), you will be destroyed.
The crags and the pits will be full of people.
It will come quickly. And either the ox will be in the field or the horse on the threshing floor.
It is sad for me to say it to you: today, tomorrow we will endure thirst and great hunger such that we would give thousands of gold coins but still will not find a little bread.
After the war, a man will have to run half an hour to find another human being to join him in fellowship.
They will ask for your rifles. Retain two. Give one and keep the other. A single rifle will save a hundred souls.
Out of schools will come things which your mind can’t imagine.
Have a cross on your forehead so that they know that you are Christian.
There will come a time when your enemies will even take away from you the ashes from your fire, but do not deny your faith, as others may do.
The Turks will leave, but they shall return and will come as far as Hexamilia. In the end, they shall be driven away to Kokkina Milia. Of the Turks, one third will be killed, another third will be baptized, and the remaining third will go to Kokkina Milia.(Kokkina Milia was a region which the imagination of the enslaved Greeks placed in the depths of Asia Minor and beyond. It is there that they hoped to push back their oppressors, i.e., where they originally came from.)
