Gerasim of Suzdal

Holy Hierarch Gerasim of Suzdal was Archbishop of Suzdal in the Time of Troubles, at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was archimandrite of the Archangel monastery in Yuryev-⁠Polsky, then, from 1605, of the Saviour-⁠Euthymius monastery in Suzdal.

In Great Lent of 1612 he was ordained archbishop in Kazan by Metropolitan Ephraim of Kazan, who was then the locum tenens of the vacant patriarchal throne. In 1613 he signed the ratified charter of the council that elected Michael Feodorovich as tsar. He enjoyed authority in the governing circles of the time.

In 1614 it was decided to send men who were firm and wise to Yaroslavl to exhort the rebellious Cossacks. Gerasim was placed at the head of this mission, charged with urging the atamans and Cossacks to remember God, their souls and their oath to the tsar, to cease their lawlessness and to enter the tsar's service.

He held the see of Suzdal for about three years and died in Moscow, it is not known under what circumstances. He was buried in the Chudov monastery in Moscow, but at the request of his successor, Archbishop Arsenius, his relics were brought to Suzdal and laid in the cathedral church, at the first pillar on the left. At Suzdal he is commemorated on 20 February, and in the calendar on 6 July, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vladimir.