Patriarch Cosmas I of Constantinople

Kosmas I. was 1075-1081 Patriarch of Constantinople Opel. According to Anna Comnena ( Alexiade, Book 2 ) he lived a holy moderate and exemplary in every aspect of life, had no property, devoted himself to asceticism as the early church fathers who lived as a hermit in the desert and in the mountains and also had the gift of prophecy.

He was a good friend of the emperor Nicephorus III. Botaniates, which he successfully advised on April 4, 1081 to abdicate, to prevent blood be not shed in Constantinople Opel.

He crowned Emperor Alexius I in 1081, and seven days later, on the pressure of her influential family, his wife, Irene Dukaena. After the reign of the Comnenus was secured, Alexis invited the patriarch, distinguished members of the Synod, and some abbots, to sit in judgment because of the uprising and its other misdeeds on him. After a full confession of the Emperor condemned him and close relatives to pay a fine, when they fast and had to sleep on the floor. Alexios ' daughter Anna Comnena describes vividly how the palace was a place of weeping and of crying, " complaints, but were not blameworthy, but worthy of an award, the precursor of a higher, eternal joy. " The Emperor also contributed forty days under his robes burlap on the bare skin and slept with a stone for a pillow. This politically shrewd act of public penance of the usurper Alexius had secured his rule and increased his reputation.

Kosmas became effective on May 8, 1081 from his office, perhaps because he disapproved of the financial policies of the Comnenus, and retired to the monastery of Callias. Previously, he had held a solemn service for the Hierarch John the theologian at St. John's Church in Hebdomon. His remains were interred in the Chora Church. His successor was the eunuch Eusthatios Garidas.