St. Cosmas of Jerusalem (the Melodist)

J. M. Neale ranks Cosmas of Jerusalem second among the Greek ecclesiastical poets. According to his headnote he was left an orphan, was adopted by the father of S. John Damascene, and the two foster-brothers encouraged and polished each other's hymns. He became a monk of S. Sabas, was consecrated Bishop of Maiuma near Gaza against his will, and died about 760 at a good old age; the Eastern Church commemorates him on the 14th of October. John Brownlie likewise dates him to 760.

Neale describes his compositions as tolerably numerous, with a fondness for types and a boldness in applying them, and calls the Canon for Christmas Day perhaps the finest of his canons. This file gives Neale's 1862 versions, including that Canon (Odes I and III to IX, the second ode being omitted as in the Greek use) and a cento from the Transfiguration canon, together with two of Brownlie's 1900 translations.