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St. Gerasimos of Kefallonia (Feast Day - October 20 & August 16) |
By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite
Verses
Gerasimos gained a beautiful crown,
At the right hand of the Lord above.
The newly-appeared Venerable Gerasimos was born in 1509, in the village of Trikala, in the Peloponnese, which is known as the Morea. His parents, Demetrios and Kali, came from the Notaras family and, from a young age, he was given to learning sacred letters, which became for him a second nature. When he reached a mature age, he left his homeland and went to Zakynthos, and from there traveled throughout the whole of Greece. From Thessaly he went to the Black Sea, Constantinople, Propontis and Chalcedon. He finally arrived at the Holy Mountain of Athos, where, like a bee, he gathered the nectar from the various flowers of virtue he observed in the ascetic fathers. He left that place and went to Jerusalem, where he settled, and Patriarch Germanos I (1537-1579) ordained him first Sub-deacon, then Deacon, and then Presbyter. For a year he served at the Holy Sepulchre as a lamp-lighter, and then a further twelve years at the Patriarchate. At one time he went into the Jordan desert, where he spent forty days fasting, in imitation of the Lord (Matt. 4:1), and returned to his duties at the Patriarchate.