Cosmas the Hymnographer Cosmas, however, left the monastery in
743, when he was appointed Bishop of Maiuma, the port of ancient
Gaza on the southern coast of Phoenicia. The Church observes his
feast on October 12. As a learned prose-author Cosmas wrote
comments on the poems of Gregory of Nazianzus; as a poet he is
regarded by the Orthodox Church with great admiration. It
considers Cosmas and St. John of Damascus the best
representatives of the later Greek classical hymnology, the most
characteristic examples of which are the artistic liturgical
chants known as canons. The hymns of Cosmas were originally
intended to add to the interest of the services at Jerusalem,
but through the influence of Constantinople their use became
universal in the Greek Orthodox Church. It is not certain,
however, that all the hymns ascribed to Cosmas in the Greek
liturgical books were really his compositions, especially as his
teacher of the same name was also a hymn writer. Collections of
hymns, varying in number, are attributed t