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- St Gerasimos of the Jordan (475)
- He was from Lycia in Asia Minor. After living there as a hermit for
many years, he traveled to the Egyptian Thebaid and lived among the
Desert Fathers. He then went to Palestine, where he founded the great
Lavra, a community of about seventy monks, that remains to this day.
The monastery's rule was simple and strict: During the five weekdays,
the monks would stay in their cells, praying and weaving baskets and
mats. On these days they ate only a little dry bread and some dates.
On Saturdays and Sundays the monks gathered for worship and ate boiled
vegetables with a little wine. Each monk owned only one garment; if he
left his cell he was required to leave it open so that anyone else could
take whatever he needed from it. Saint Gerasimos himself was an
example to all of them, exceeding even the rule that he laid upon them:
during the Great Fast, he would eat nothing but what he received in
Holy Communion.
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In the desert, the Saint once saw a lion in great pain from a thorn in
its paw. Moved by compassion, Gerasim approached it, made the sign of
the Cross and pulled the thorn out. The lion followed the elder back to
the monastery and remained there until the Saint's death. When
Gerasimos died, the lion, overcome by grief, soon died also, lying upon
the Saint's grave.
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Saint Gerasimos was present at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at
Chalcedon, where he proved a strong champion of Orthodoxy, though he had
inclined toward the Monophysite heresy in his youth. He reposed in
peace in 475.
source: http://www.abbamoses.com
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