Gerasimos of Byzantium

Our Righteous Father Gerasimos of Byzantium lived in the eighteenth century. His memory is celebrated April 7

Life

Gerasimos, the teacher, was born in Constantinople to a faithful family.

Little is known of his early life. He had a reputation as a wise man who was well regarded by the educated. He travelled to the island of Patmos where he became a disciple of St. Makarius at the famous seminary of Patmos. He became the rector of the seminary after the blessed repose of St. Makarius.

Having distanced himself from the cares of the world he received the monastic tonsure at the Royal and Patriarchal Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Patmos, where he was later ordained deacon and priest. He lived a righteous life and was regarded as an excellent teacher for the students of seminary. When he fell ill, he left for Smyrna for treatment. When this failed, he travelled to Crete were he reposed in 1770 and was buried in the Holy Trinity Monastery.

When the monks from his monastery in Patmos learned of his repose, they travelled by boat to Crete where they asked that his holy relics be returned to his monastery. The monks of Holy Trinity Monastery refused this request, however during a vigil, the holy right hand of the saint was miraculously cut off while the Cherubic Hymn was being chanted and so this treasured relic was returned to Patmos where it remains to this day and is a source of many healings.

The holy relics of St. Gerasimos was kept under the Holy Altar of the main church of the monastery together with the relics of St. Akakios until 1821 when the Ottoman Turks set fire to the monastery, destroying this source of Grace.