Sainted Gerasim, Bishop of Velikopermsk (GreatPerm) and Ust'vymsk

Commemorated on January 24

      Sainted Gerasim, Bishop of Velikopermsk (GreatPerm) and Ust'vymsk, was the third bishop of the newly-enlightened Zyryani people, and he was a worthy successor to Sainted Stephen, the Enlightener of Perm. Having been elevated onto the Perm cathedra-seat sometime after the year 1416, he was a participant in Church Sobor-Councils: in that of the year 1438 condemning the Unia and metropolitan Isidor, and in that of the year 1441, which defined the selection of the metropolitan of All Rus' by means of a Sobor of Russian pastors. The saint unrelentingly concerned himself about his newly-established flock, which suffered raids from Novgorodians, and in particular from the pagan Vogulians – where he fearlessly showed up in their camps urging them to cease the pillaging of villages of the defenseless Perm Christians. During the time of one of his journeys through the Perm land in 1441, he was murdered (according to tradition, strangled with his omophor) by a Vogul servant. He was buried in the cathedral church of the first bishops of Perm, – later becoming the Annunciation church in the village of Ust'Vyma, situated northeast of the city of Yarensk, at the River Vychegda. The celebration of his memory was established in 1607. On 29 January is made a general commemoration to the three Perm Sainted-Hierarchs: Gerasim, Pitirim and Jona.

© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.