Execution of Kosmas Aitolos

The monk Kosmas Aitolos was active during the 1760s and 1770s, mainly in Macedonia, Epirus and southern Albania. He was urging the congregations to remain committed to the Christian religion and to rely strongly on education, which he saw as the basis for the religious and moral revival and salvation of the Greeks. With that in mind, he established dozens of Greek schools. His sermons often had patriotic content, with references to the liberation of the Greek nation.  This action was considered to promote nationalist ideas and to ignite the notion of a Christian revolution against the Pasha. At the same time, his speeches against injustice were perceived as a provocation for the overturn of the social regime. During the Orlov revolt, the Turks suspected that Kosmas Aitolos served the interests of the Russians. When his enemies slandered him to the authorities, he was convicted and executed in present-day Albania in August of 1779.