ON ST. GERASIMUS, ABBOT IN PALESTINE NEAR THE JORDAN,
IN THE YEAR 475.
A HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Gerasimus, Abbot near the Jordan in Palestine (St.)
By Cyril the Monk.
CHAPTER I.
The sacred cult, age, and monastery of St. Gerasimus.
[1] St. Gerasimus died on the fifth day of March and is inscribed in the tables of the Roman Martyrology with these words: Likewise in Palestine on the bank of the Jordan, St. Gerasimus the Anchorite, who flourished in the time of the Emperor Zeno. On the same day, in Constantius Felici, the following is read: The birthday of St. Gerasimus on March 5, Gerasimus, the most illustrious founder and author of the rules for anchorites, died in the first year of the Emperor Zeno. Since the Greeks celebrate St. Conon the Isaurian Martyr on March 5 with solemn Odes, and also another Conon the Gardener Martyr, others on the 4th. they extol St. Gerasimus on March 4 with solemn Odes and hymns, and have his Acts, though in abbreviated form, in the Great Menaea, in Maximus Bishop of Cythera ἐν βίοις ἁγίων, and in the Anthologion published with the approval of Clement VIII, with this title: On the fourth day of the same month of March, the memorial of our holy Father Gerasimus. In the Menologion is added: dwelling at the Jordan, whom even the wild beast served. Molanus recorded him on the same day as the Greeks. and on March 20. But on March 20, the Greeks again celebrate him in the same Menaea and in the Cytheraean with these words: On the same day, of our holy Father Gerasimus; and the appended verses indicate that the same Gerasimus is meant:
Ὑπηρέτης θὴρ τῷ Γερασίμῳ γέρας, Θῆρας παθῶν κτείναντι, πρὶν λῆξαι βίου.
An aged beast serves the elder Gerasimus as an honor, Who slew the beasts of the passions before the end of his life.
[2] His deeds are given from the Lives of St. Euthymius and St. Quiriacus, The remarkable deeds of St. Gerasimus have not yet been found by us written in a separate treatise; but we gather some from the Life of St. Euthymius the Abbot, illustrated by us on January 20, and add a few from the Life of St. Quiriacus, to be given on September 29. The illustrious example of St. Gerasimus and his familiar companionship with a lion is transmitted by John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 107, which we add. Baronius rightly notes and rejects that this story has been attributed by some to St. Jerome, in his notes on the Martyrology for this day, and from John Moschus: and on September 30, as well as in the Annals for the year 420, number 49. The same history from Moschus is transmitted by the Menaea and the Anthologion, but with the enormous error of prefixing that, in the reign of Constantine Pogonatus, the grandson of Heraclius, St. Gerasimus, imbued from childhood with the fear of the Lord and clothed in the monastic habit, withdrew into the interior solitude of the Thebaid. monastic life in his native Lycia, Below, from the Acts of St. Euthymius, it is established that he was a native of Lycia and had long embraced the monastic institute in his homeland, and thence came to Palestine and lived there until his death. He could have gone from Lycia or Palestine to the Thebaid and stayed there for some time, and then returned to the Jordan. and Palestine: But he who is there said to have been reigning, Constantine Pogonatus, the great-grandson of Heraclius, succeeded his father Constans, who was killed in the baths at Syracuse in the year 668, and died, having completed both his life and his reign, in the year of the Christian era 685.
[3] In place of this Constantine, the younger Theodosius should be substituted, under the younger Emperor Theodosius, grandson of the great Theodosius, under whose reign, at least during its final years, St. Gerasimus came to Palestine. When Theodosius died in the year 450, Marcian succeeded, under whom, in the following year, in the month of October, the Council of Chalcedon was held, when Gerasimus was already excelling in the anchoritic life near the Jordan. under Marcian, When Marcian died in the year 457, Leo was created Emperor; in the ninth year of whose reign, the year of Christ 465, under Leo, St. Quiriacus came to Jerusalem, and having spent the winter there, went to St. Euthymius and, having been clothed in the monastic habit, was sent to St. Gerasimus. Then St. Euthymius died in the year 473. After his death (these are the words of Cyril the monk in the Life of St. Sabbas the Abbot, December 5), when the monastery had gradually given itself over to idleness and sloth, Blessed Sabbas fled for a long time and lived in solitude, while Gerasimus illuminated the solitude around the Jordan like a star. under Leo the Younger and Zeno, When the Emperor Leo died, Leo the Younger, his nephew by his sister, succeeded him; and when he had not lived long, his father Zeno, who had previously been crowned Augustus by his son, succeeded. Then St. Gerasimus died on the fifth of March, he dies in the year 475. Indiction 13, in the second consulship of Zeno Augustus. That year was 475.
[4] Cyril the author assumed the habit in the monastery of St. Euthymius in the year 543 and moved to the New Laura in the year 553, the ages of the writer Cyril and of John Moschus. and spent two years writing the Lives of SS. Euthymius and Sabbas. At that time, Gerontius of Medaba was in charge of the monastery of St. Euthymius, about whom, well known to him, and his father and grandfather, Cyril treats in the Life of St. Sabbas. But the things that Gerontius narrated to John Moschus and Sophronius the Sophist are related in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 21. When they arrived at the monastery of St. Gerasimus, the elders narrated what Moschus wrote about him. St. Quiriacus had also lived around those same times, being 107 years of age.
CHAPTER II.
Summary of the deeds of St. Gerasimus: from the Life of St. Euthymius, by Cyril the monk.
Chapter 12
[5] In the seventy-fifth year of the age of the great Euthymius, a Synod was convened at Chalcedon, to which nearly all the Bishops from every part of the world came together. Against the Council of Chalcedon, For they were summoned to convene by the things that had been innovated at Ephesus, by Dioscorus of Alexandria, that is; whom they cast out from the sacred lists together with those who defended his dogmas, and they set forth an exact decree of faith. And to that Synod distinguished disciples of Euthymius were also present... After he had read what was written and found it to be correct and to harmonize with the right rule of truth, a report quickly spread through the entire desert that the great Euthymius also follows the Council of Chalcedon.
[6] This would have drawn almost all the monks to it, had not a certain Theodosius, a monk in habit but a most shameless impostor in character and a most corrupt man in mind, when the seducer Theodosius raged, coming to Palestine, impudently fabricated certain things about the said Synod — that it overturned the dogma of the right faith and introduced, or rather recalled, the dogmas of Nestorius — and won over Eudocia, who was then living in Palestine. Through her he led astray all the monks; and then also shamelessly — O justice! — and impudently invaded the See of Jerusalem, and having gained power by authority, he waged war against the divine Canons.
[7] There was there a certain great Anchorite who had recently come from Lycia, named Gerasimus; St. Gerasimus is led astray, who, having demonstrated in his homeland every mode of life befitting monks, had also endured many labors against the spirits of wickedness. He, therefore, while nobly exercising himself in the solitude near the Jordan, and often striking down demons, was himself also struck, or rather tripped up, by their wickedness and was led astray by the heretics. When, however, he heard from almost all the anchorites about Euthymius and had his ears filled with the things that were celebrated about him in conversation, he came at some point to him at Ruban; and having long associated with him and drunk the most sweet stream from his tongue, he vomited forth the heresy like a disease and returned to the sound faith, he is brought back to the orthodox faith by St. Euthymius, feeling great penitence that he had been deceived, and punishing and castigating his heart, corrupted by vain discourses, with the spur of grief. These same things other anchorites also followed: Peter surnamed Gournitis, and Mark, and Julon, and Silvanus; they too had been pursuing the harmful communion of Theodosius.
Chapter 18
[8] John the Silentiary, both Bishop and Priest, and Thalelaeus the Priest also narrated these things to me along with others. he lives with SS. Sabbas, John the Silentiary, Theoctistus, etc. For they said that when they were once living in solitude, Blessed Sabbas, falling in with them, would converse, saying that while he was still in the cenobium, he had gone up after the death of Theoctistus, together with Longinus the Prefect, to the great Euthymius. When they had spent some days around Ruban with Martyrius and Elias, and St. Gerasimus was also present with them, "Since," he said, "the great Euthymius sees me and Domitian with a prompt and eager spirit, taking us both along, he would pass through the inner solitude. And our food was the roots of wild plants."
Chapter 19
[9] Since, therefore, Euthymius had such great confidence before God, St. Euthymius dead, and had drawn from above such great grace of the Spirit, not even the time of the common death was hidden from him. After he had remained three days in the diaconate, on the night of the Sabbath he fell asleep in peace and passed to the blessedness that is there, truly an old man and full of days, on the twentieth day of the month of January. When the news had quickly spread through every region, such a multitude of monks and laity gathered that it could not easily be numbered. Indeed, Anastasius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, along with the Patriarch of Jerusalem and others, he buries him: having taken with him a company of clergy and soldiers, also came. And with him were Chrysippus and Gabriel, and also the Deacon Pheidus. The anchorites who were in the solitudes also gathered from all sides, one of whom was Gerasimus. All were struck with wonder by the continuation of miracles. When, therefore, an almost innumerable multitude had gathered, the sacred body was kept from burial, although it was already the ninth hour, until the soldiers, as they had been ordered by the Patriarch, drove back the multitude; and thus at last access was given with difficulty to the divine Fathers, so that they might perform the last rites for that body which had fought so strenuously and suffered so much, and place it in a rich casket with fitting hymns.
Chapter 15
[10] It is proper also to treat of the great Gerasimus, and what kind of rules and forms he gave to those who were trained under him, and to add the narration as a kind of seasoning, which indeed has great usefulness. This great Gerasimus, then, who was both the citizen and the patron of the solitude of the Jordan, having constructed there a very great Laura that contained no fewer than seventy anchorites, the Laura and cenobium of St. Gerasimus: and besides that having placed a cenobium excellently in the middle of it, he saw to it that certain monks who were introduced should remain in the cenobium and practice the monastic life; but those who had trained themselves with frequent and long labors and had already reached the measures of perfection, he placed them in what the food and discipline of the anchorites:
are called cells, ordering them to live under this rule: that for five days of the week each one should keep silence in his cell, tasting nothing that was edible except bread, water, and dates; but on Saturday and Sunday, coming to church, after partaking of the sanctified elements, they should eat cooked food in the cenobium and take a little wine. In the cell, however, no one was permitted either to light a fire or to taste anything cooked. Their poverty, moreover, was their greatest concern; and they were especially adorned with humility.
[11] Each one, bringing the labor of his own hands, manual labor. which had been done by them during the week, to the cenobium on Saturday, and towards evening on Sunday, receiving the week's provisions in return — that is, bread, dates, and water in some vessel, and palm leaves — he would return again to his cell. clothing, bedding, They were so far removed from all anxiety and so detached from human affairs that they had nothing except what they wore, so that there was not even a second garment. Their bed, moreover — what else was it but a mat, and what they call a centonium, and an embrimium, and an earthen vessel for water, which served at once for drinking and for watering the palm leaves?
[12] This rule was excellently given to them by Gerasimus: cells left open, that when they went out, they should leave their cells open, so that it would be permitted to anyone who wished to enter and take whatever he wished from those vile things necessary for daily use, with no one forbidding it; indeed, they themselves were also seen to be living apostolically, and for those who dwelt in the solitude, as for them, there was one heart and one soul, Acts 4:32 since no one of them judged that anything he had was his own, but all things were equally common to them. This also is said about the anchorites: when some had come to him and asked that they be allowed to heat water, to eat cooked food, and to read by lamplight, the great Gerasimus answered, saying: observance of the rule: "If you wish to live thus, it would be far better for you to live in the cenobium. For I will by no means permit this to happen among the anchorites during the whole time of my life."
[13] When the people of Jericho heard that the mode of life of those who were under Gerasimus was so strict, food sent by the people of Jericho, devoid of all comfort, and exceedingly harsh and violent, they made this rule for themselves: that on Saturday and Sunday they would go to them and bring them no small consolation. But this is indeed the praise of the people of Jericho and a clear proof of souls that love virtue. When, however, many of those who were among the combatants under this great Gerasimus saw many worldly people coming to them with this purpose and intention, so far were they from finding their arrival pleasant and agreeable that they could not even bear to see or tolerate them at all in the region; but rather they fled and avoided them as those who would greatly harm them. they are refused: For they knew well that the mother of perfect temperance is abstinence, since it can both expel shameful thoughts and lighten the heaviness of sleep — men who had learned this most excellently from their Father, not only by words but also by deeds.
[14] For they said that he valued abstinence so highly that he would spend the forty days of fasting without eating, St. Gerasimus lives on the Eucharist alone: content with the sole participation in the Sacraments. Having lived thus, Gerasimus, who had been an exemplar of virtue and an occasion of salvation to those under him, came to the common end on the fifth of March, in the thirteenth Indiction, in the second consulship of Zeno Augustus. he dies.
Notesp Chrysippus was formerly the Oeconomus of the Laura, then Guardian of the Holy Cross at Jerusalem.
q St. Gabriel, founder of a new monastery, seems to be venerated on January 26, as stated there.
r He built the temple to which the body of St. Euthymius was transferred.
s Centonium: patched together from various cloths.
t Embrimium. Embrimium: a pillow made from coarser papyrus. Concerning which, Cassian, Collation 1, chapter 23.
u Therefore in the year of Christ 475.
CHAPTER III.
Fragment from the Life of St. Quiriacus.
[15] When Quiriacus had come to the Laura of the admirable Euthymius, he was received as a guest by a certain Anatolius the Priest and Olympius the monk, brothers by family, St. Quiriacus, sent to him by St. Euthymius, natives of Corinth; and when he had spent many days with them, he then also beheld the great Euthymius; and those blessed hands touched his sacred head, at the same time clothing him in the monastic habit and invoking upon him a more abundant operation of the Spirit. He did not, however, allow him to remain in this place, on account of his age. For he was very careful about the associations of beardless youths and adolescents in his Laura, lest they cause some offense to the other Brothers by provoking shameful thoughts. But since the great Theoctistus had already departed to the Jesus whom he desired, he himself sent Quiriacus to St. Gerasimus at the Jordan.
[16] When, therefore, he had truly received Quiriacus as a distinguished gift, St. Gerasimus kindly receives him, and had seen him at that age, he appointed him to minister in the cenobium. And so that admirable one lived there, cutting wood, preparing water and food for the Brothers, and serving as cook. But although he was in such a state and spent the whole day in such great labors, nevertheless he spent entire nights in conversation with God and in prayer, he loves him for his virtues: and after his manual work he would begin the sacred hymns again more fervently and eagerly; and, to say it briefly, he displayed the anchoritic life in the cenobium, amid so many duties in everything, as one who was nourished only on bread and water, and that only every other day. By these things Gerasimus was induced to love him greatly; and he so delighted in the life of the young man, and had been made so certain about his character and his love for spiritual things, he has him as his companion in sacred exercises: that he would take him along during the days of fasting to the solitude of Ruba, and had him as a companion of those labors and of the spiritual ascent that were undertaken there. Here the great Euthymius was also said to have dwelt, and to have imparted to them the divine Sacraments on each Lord's Day, until the day of Palms should come.
[17] When a brief time had elapsed, the great Euthymius departed on that fair journey to God; he sees the soul of St. Euthymius escorted by Angels: and Gerasimus saw his sacred soul being escorted by Angels and gloriously ascending to the heavens, whence it had been called. When, therefore, he had immediately taken Quiriacus with him, he went up to his Laura and buried his holy body with grateful hands and with fitting reverence; and when he had performed everything that was customarily done, he returned. In the ninth year after Quiriacus came to Palestine, the admirable Gerasimus also died and likewise departed to the common Lord, he dies on March 5. on the fifth of March.
Notesb In the year 467.
CHAPTER IV.
A Lion serves St. Gerasimus. From the Spiritual Meadow of John Moschus.
Chapter 107
[18] About one mile from the Jordan is the monastery called after Abbot Gerasimus. When we came to this monastery, the elders who dwelt there narrated to us about Abbot Gerasimus St. Gerasimus extracts a thorn from a lion's paw: that one day, walking on the bank of the Jordan, he met a lion roaring loudly, with its paw raised, in which a thorn from a reed was stuck, so much that the paw itself had swollen and become full of pus. When the lion saw the elder, it showed him its paw wounded by the thorn that was stuck in it, weeping as it were and beseeching him to give it care. When the elder saw it constrained by such need, sitting down, he took hold of its paw and, opening the wound, drew out the thorn that was stuck in it along with a large quantity of putrid matter; and having carefully cleaned the wound and bound it with a cloth, he let it go. he feeds it as his constant companion out of gratitude: But the lion, when it saw that it had been healed, would not desert the elder, but like a dear disciple followed its master wherever he went, so that the elder marveled at such great gratitude of the beast. From then on, therefore, the elder fed it, setting before it bread and soaked legumes.
[19] Now the monastery had one donkey he entrusts to it the care of pasturing the donkey: for carrying water from the Jordan for the needs of the Brothers. The elder had made a practice of having the lion take care of pasturing the donkey. So it would go with it along the banks of the Jordan, watching over it as it grazed. One day, however, while the donkey was being pastured, by whose theft it was taken, the lion turned away from it somewhat; and behold, a cameleer coming from Arabia, finding the donkey, took it and led it away with him. The lion, having lost the donkey, returned to the monastery very sad and with downcast face and neck to its Abbot. Abbot Gerasimus therefore thought that the lion had eaten the donkey, and said to it: "Where is the donkey?" the lion is given the donkey's task of carrying water: The lion stood like a man, silent and looking down. The elder said to it: "You have eaten it. Blessed be the Lord. Whatever the donkey used to do, from now on you shall do." From then on, therefore, at the elder's command, the lion carried a packsaddle holding four jars and brought water to the monastery.
[20] One day a certain soldier came to the elder for a blessing. When he saw the lion carrying water
and learned the reason, he had pity on it, frees it of that burden: and producing three gold coins, gave them to the elders so they might buy a donkey for the water service and free the lion from that necessity. After a short time had passed, after the lion had been freed from the labor, the cameleer who had taken the donkey was coming to sell wheat in the holy city, and had the donkey with him too. And when he had crossed the Jordan, it happened that he met the lion; the donkey brought back by the lion is recovered: and when the lion saw him, he abandoned his camels and fled. But the lion, recognizing the donkey, ran to it and, biting its halter with its mouth as was its custom, dragged it along with three camels, and rejoicing and roaring at the same time, because it had found the lost little donkey, came to the elder. The elder, who had previously thought that the lion had eaten the donkey, then truly learned that the lion had been the victim of treachery. And he gave the lion the name Jordan. he calls the lion Jordan. So the lion lived in the monastery with the Brothers for more than five years, never departing from the elder.
[21] When, however, Abbot Gerasimus had departed to the Lord St. Gerasimus dies, and had been buried by the Fathers, by the dispensation of God the lion was not then found in the monastery. Shortly after, however, the lion came to the monastery and was looking for its elder. Abbot Sabbatius, a Cilician, who had also been a disciple of Abbot Gerasimus, upon seeing it, said to it: "Jordan, our elder has left us orphans and has departed to the Lord; he is mourned by the lion, but take this and eat." But the lion did not want to eat; instead it kept turning here and there, looking around, trying to see its elder, and signifying by its great roaring that it could not bear his absence. But Abbot Sabbatius and the remaining elders, rubbing its neck, said to it: "The elder has departed to the Lord and has left us." But saying this, they could not, however, mitigate its cries and wailings; which would not accept comfort, but the more they thought they were soothing and consoling it with words, the more it wailed, and used a greater roar, and added laments, showing by its voice, face, and eyes the grief it had at not seeing the elder. Then Abbot Sabbatius said to it: "Come with me, since you do not believe us, and I will show you where our elder is laid." And taking it, he led it to where they had buried him. It was about five paces from the church. And standing over the tomb of Abbot Gerasimus, Abbot Sabbatius said to the lion: "Behold, here our elder is buried"; and Abbot Sabbatius bowed his knees upon the tomb of the elder. then dying upon his sepulchre. When therefore the lion heard this and saw Abbot Sabbatius prostrate upon the tomb and weeping, then it too prostrated itself, striking its head violently upon the ground and roaring; and thus it immediately died upon the sepulchre of the elder.
[22] All of this happened, not because the lion is to be thought to have had a rational soul, beasts were obedient to man before sin. but because God wished to glorify those who glorify him, not only in this life but also after death, and to show us what kind of subjection the beasts had to the first man before he was disobedient to the commandment and before he fell from the Paradise of delights.
Note