COSMA the Melodist. — The date and place of birth of C. are unknown; it is known only that he was the brother of JOHN DAMASCENE and that in his father’s house he had as his teacher a monk named C., taken captive by the Saracens and deported from Calabria to Damascus.
Tradition holds that both COSMA of Calabria and C. the Melodist were authors of ecclesiastical hymns. C., the singer, became a monk in the laura of St. Sabas near Jerusalem and in 743 bishop of Mayuma, the port of the city of Gaza (cf. the Arabic Life of JOHN DAMASCENE, published by G. Graf in Katholik 1913, p. 185). Like John, so too C. wrote Canons, following the model of ANDREW OF CRETE, for the great feasts, each consisting of nine odes, which were much admired by Byzantine writers (THEODORE PRODROMUS, in the Suda, and others). The 14 canons have been published by Christ-Paranikas in their collection: Anthologia graeca carminum christianorum, Leipzig 1871, pp. 161–204. The commentary of THEODORE PRODROMUS was (in part) published by H. M. Stevenson, senior, Theodor. Prodromi Commentaria in Carmina sacra melodorum Cosmae Hierosolymitani et Ioannis Damasceni, Rome 1885. Mai published under the name of C. a large Collectio et interpretatio historiarum quarum meminit Divus Gregorius in carminibus suis (cf. Spicilegium Romanum, II, 1839, II, pp. 1–373 or PG, 38, 339–680). The source of this compilation was a commentary on four orations of GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS by the monk NONNUS.