The Greek Life of *Gerasimos of the Jordan (ascetic in Palestine, ob. 475, S01507) recounts the life of its hero as a miracle working ascetic near Jericho. Written in Palestine, in the 7th c. or later.
E06772
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
Life of Gerasimos of the Jordan (CPG 7543 = BHG 693)
Summary:
1. Gerasimos was born in Lycia where he became a monk in his youth. He came to the Holy Land and initially joined the Monophysite schismatic monks, but was converted to Chalcedonian Orthodoxy by *Euthymios (S01352).
2-4. Initially living as an anchorite, he established a coenobium and laura near Jericho, where a very strict style of asceticism was practised. The people of Jericho supported the monks with regular donations of provisions.
5-6. Gerasimos was miraculously notified of the death of Euthymios, through a vision of the latter’s soul being assumed into Heaven. The story was recounted by *Kyriakos of Souka (S01625), who was then Gerasimos’ disciple and accompanied him at the funeral of Euthymios.
7-9. Gerasimos healed the wounded leg of a lion which, from then on, followed and served him for five years, till the end of his life. The saint named the lion Iordanes. At Gerasimos’ death, Iordanes the lion happened to be away. When the lion returned and was shown its master’s tomb, it wept and died.
10. Gerasimos died on 5 March 475, and was succeeded in the leadership of his monasteries by Basileios and Stephanos, both of whom died in 481, and by the wonder-working Eugenios who died on 19 August 529.
Text: Papadopoulos-Kerameus 1897.
Summary: Efthymios Rizos.
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityComposing and translating saint-related texts
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracles experienced by the saint
Miracle with animals and plants
Assumption/otherworldly journey
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - abbots
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Animals
Heretics
Source
On the manuscript tradition of the text, see:http://pinakes.irht.cnrs.fr/notices/oeuvre/15681/
The saint's story, without substantive differences is also recounted by the other versions of the Life (BHG 694, 694b, and 696c).
Discussion
Gerasimos was the founder of the monastery of Kalamon, one of the main monastic centres of the Chalcedonian Orthodox community in the Judaean Desert. His figure is known from the History of the Monks of Palestine by Cyril of Scythopolis, especially from the Lives of Euthymios (E06468) and Kyriakos (E06733). Paragraphs 5 and 6 of this text are evidently derived from Cyril of Scythopolis, whereas the story of the lion in paragraphs 7-9 is a reproduction of chapter 107 of John Moschus' Spiritual Meadow. These demonstrate that the extant text cannot be earlier than the mid 7th century.Bibliography
Text:Papadopoulos-Kerameus, A., Άνάλεκτα ἱεροσολυμιτικῆς σταχυολογίας IV (St Petersburg, 1897), 175-184.
Translation:
di Segni, L., Nel deserto accanto ai fratelli, vite di Gerasimo e di Giorgio di Choziba (Bose, 1991), 65–79.
Further reading:
Beck, H.-G., Kirche und theologische Literatur im Byzantinischen Reich (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft XII.2.1, Byzantinisches Handbuch 2.1; Munich: C.H. Beck, 1959), 409.
Demetrakopoulos, Ph., Όσιος Γεράσιμος ο Ιορδανίτης (Athens, 2007).
Flusin, B., Miracle et histoire dans l’œuvre de Cyrille de Scythopolis (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1983).
Grégoire, A., "La vie anonyme de S. Gérasime," Byzantinische Zeitschrift 13 (1904), 113-35.
Efthymios Rizos
16/11/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01352 | Euthymios, abbot of Palestine, ob.473 | Certain | S01507 | Gerasimos, anchorite, founder of a monastery in the Judean desert, ob. 475. | Γεράσιμος | Certain | S01625 | Kyriakos, monk of the Monastery of Souka/Chariton, ob. 556 | Certain |
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