The monastery and its rule
The community Gerasimus founded lay in the desert east of Jericho, near the Jordan River; by one account the site stood roughly 25 miles from Jerusalem and close to the river itself. He organized it as a combined house in which novices lived together in a common building while the more experienced monks lived apart in a cluster of small cells. By the accounts of his life the brethren numbered about seventy.
The rule he established was severe. For five days of the week each monk kept silence and solitude in his cell, occupying himself with handicrafts such as weaving mats or baskets from palm leaves, together with prayer. On those days the monks ate no cooked food and kindled no fire, taking only dry bread, dates, roots, and water. On Saturday and Sunday all gathered at the monastery for the Divine Liturgy and a common meal.
The monks lived in deep poverty, each possessing only an old garment, a reed mat to sleep on, and a small vessel for water; they left their cells unlocked so that any of the brethren might freely enter. Gerasimus himself was noted for extreme asceticism: during Great Lent he was said to eat nothing at all until the day of Pascha, when he received the Holy Mysteries. His disciple Cyriacus, commemorated on September 29, had been sent to him by Euthymius the Great.
Chalcedon and the controversy over the natures of Christ
By the accounts of his life, Gerasimus was for a time drawn toward the teaching of Eutyches and Dioscorus, which acknowledged only the divine nature in Christ and not His human nature. Through the influence of Euthymius the Great he is said to have returned to the faith confessed at the Council of Chalcedon. His life further relates that when Euthymius died, Gerasimus beheld angels carrying his soul up to heaven.
The lion
The account most associated with Gerasimus tells that, while walking in the desert by the Jordan, he came upon a lion in distress from a thorn or splinter lodged in its paw. He removed the thorn and cleaned the wound, and the beast became his devoted companion, following him to the monastery, where it was set to guard the community's donkey on its trips to fetch water.
By the account, the lion once fell asleep and the donkey was taken by a passing Arabian merchant's caravan; the monks supposed the lion had devoured the animal. Later the same merchant passed again by the Jordan on his way to sell wheat in Jerusalem, still leading the donkey; the lion recognized it and brought it back, and so was vindicated. From this the elder is said to have given the lion the name Jordanes. After Gerasimus reposed, the life relates, the lion died at his grave and was buried nearby. For this reason the lion is depicted with him on his icons.
