COSMAS I, forty-fourth patriarch of the See of Saint Mark (730-
731) (feast day: 30 Ba’unah). He was a native of the town of
Bana, near Samannud in the Gharbiyyah Province. Little is known
about his secular life before he took the monastic vow in the
wilderness of Anba Maqar. Cosmas had a monastic life
distinguished by sanctity, humility, and self-denial. When the
Coptic archons unanimously decided to nominate him for the
patriarchate, he was reticent to accept their invitation and
protested that he was unworthy of occupying the throne of Saint
Mark. Nevertheless, the community of the faithful forced him to
accede to their wishes, and he was consequently consecrated
patriarch. His accession, however, came at a time when the
political and economic circumstances of the Umayyad empire were
precarious, and this had dire repercussions for the Coptic
community in Egypt. In spite of the lenient position of Caliph
Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (724-743), who issued a special
circular to his agents in al-Fustat (Cairo) not