Venerable Gerasimus

Life

This renowned saint first trained in the ascetic life in the Thebaid of Egypt, then moved to the Jordan and there founded a monastery in which he had around seventy monks, a monastery that exists to this day. He established a particular rule for his monastery, according to which: the monks spent five days in their cells weaving baskets and rush mats; they were never permitted to light a fire in their cells; for five days they ate only a little dried bread and dates; the monks were required to keep their cells unlocked even when they went out, so that anyone could take whatever they wished from them; on Saturdays and Sundays they gathered in the monastery church, had a common table with cooked food and a little wine to the glory of God. Then each monk would bring and lay at the feet of the abbot whatever he had made during the past five days. Each monk had only one garment. Saint Gerasimus was an example to all. During the Great Fast he ate nothing except when he received Holy Communion. Once he saw a lion roaring in pain, for there was a thorn in its paw. Gerasimus approached, made the sign of the cross, and removed the thorn from the beast's paw. The lion became so tame that it followed the elder to the monastery and remained there until the elder's death; and when the elder died, the lion also expired from grief for him. He was present at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, in the time of Marcian and Pulcheria, and although he had at first leaned somewhat toward the Monophysite heresy of Eutyches and Dioscorus, he became a great champion of Orthodoxy at the Council. Saint Euthymius had turned him away from the heresy. The most renowned of Gerasimus's disciples was Saint Cyriacus the Hermit. Saint Gerasimus reposed in the year 475 and passed into the eternal joy of his Lord.

From the Hymn of Praise

### SAINT JAMES THE FASTER