Saint Gerasimos

Ο Saint Gerasimos, according to tradition, was born in Trikala, Corinth in 1506, fifty-four years after the fall of Constantinople. His father Demetrios belonged to the Byzantine aristocracy, to the large family of the Notarades, who were close relatives of Constantine Paleologos, the last Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

The baptismal name of Agios Gerasimos was George. Saint Gerasimos grew up and was educated like all the noble children of the time.

At the age of 20 he decided to go to Zakynthos which was an important center of the letters of the time, as due to the Venetians there was a renaissance air in contrast to the rest of Turkish-occupied Greece. He stayed there for three years and then toured the monasteries of Greece and Byzantium, wanting to experience the pilgrimages to the most important spiritual and religious centers of his time. He resides for five years in Mount Athos. To Holy Places resides from 1537 to 1548, where he was ordained a deacon and an elder by the German Patriarch of Jerusalem named Gerasimos in honor of St. Gerasimos of Jordan. Travels to Crete where he remains for two years and then for five years in Zakynthos.

In Zakynthos, Agios Gerasimos practiced asceticism in a cave in Agios Nikolas Gerakariou, where the people of Zakynthos still call it Agios Gerasimos. At the same time he was born in Zakynthos Saint Dionysios and some tradition wants Saint Gerasimos to have baptized him. However, what is certain is that Saint Dionysios was influenced by the personality of Saint Gerasimos who was already well known on the island.

Saint Gerasimos decides to go to Kefalonia. He exercises again in cave near Argostoli. He stayed in the cave for 5 years and 11 months so he decided to settle in the area of ​​Omala at the foot of Ainos and to establish a monastery. There the faithful begin to flock to hear his teaching. The Saint establishes a monastery with the name next to a desert church of Panagia New Jerusalem. Since then, his fame has spread throughout Christendom

Saint Gerasimos died on August 15, 1579. Because on this day the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is celebrated, the feast of Saint Gerasimos is exactly the next day.

The canonization of Saint Gerasimos was proclaimed in 1622.

The tent of Agios Gerasimos remained miraculously intact and is worshiped today in monastery of Agios Gerasimos. It is one of the three incorruptible relics in the Ionian, of Saint Spyridon, Saint Gerasimos and Saint Dionysios.