Saint Gerasimos of Boldinsk, in the world Gregory, was born in 1490 at Pereslav-Zalessk. In early childhood he frequented the church of God. Having learned about the holy life of St. Daniel of Pereyaslavl (April 7), the thirteen year-old Gregory begged the Elder with tears to let him join him. The Elder accepted the boy as a novice and after a short time gave him monastic tonsure with the name Gerasimos. The new monk zealously fulfilled the labors of fasting and prayer, and soon he was known in Moscow as a strict ascetic. He was summoned to the capital with his teacher, where he met the Tsar.

Worldly fame was a burden for the ascetic and, after his twenty-six years under the guidance of St. Daniel, St. Gerasimos obtained the blessing of his Elder for the solitary life. He settled near the city of Dorogobuzha in the Smolensk lands, in a wild forest inhabited by snakes and wild animals. The saint was often subjected to the intrusion of brigands, but he bore all their outrages meekly and patiently and he prayed for these malefactors.

Through a particular vision, he then went to Mount Boldina, where at a spring there stood an immense oak. The local inhabitants beat him with rods and wanted to drown him, but becoming frightened, they handed him over to the Dorogobuzha administrator, who threw him into jail for vagrancy. St. Gerasimos patiently endured the ridicule, he kept quiet and he prayed.

During this time an imperial emissary from Moscow came to the administrator. Seeing St. Gerasimos, he bowed down to him and asked his blessing. Earlier, he had seen the saint with St. Daniel in the presence of the Tsar. The administrator became terrified, and immediately he begged the saint’s forgiveness and promised to build an enclosure to protect him from robbers.

From this time St. Gerasimos began accepting those with a desire for monastic struggles, and sought permission at Moscow to build a monastery. In 1530 he built a church dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, and he built cells for the brethren.

Besides the Boldina monastery, St. Gerasimos founded another monastery in honor of St. John the Forerunner at the city of Vyazma, and later on in the Bryansk forest at the River Zhizdra, a monastery in honor of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. Peter Korostelev, a disciple of St. Gerasimos, was made igumen of this monastery. Several ascetics were under the spiritual guidance of St. Gerasimos: the igumen Anthony, later the Bishop of Vologda (Oct 26), and Arkadios, a disciple of St. Gerasimos, struggled as a hermit and was buried at the Boldina monastery.

Before his death, St. Gerasimos summoned the igumens and monks of the monasteries he had founded, told them of his life and gave them a final instruction. This oral narrative of the saint was included in the Life, composed by St. Anthony at the request of the Elders.

St. Gerasimos reposed on May 1, 1554.