Seridus of Gaza

Venerable Seridus of Gaza (died about 543), also called Abba Seridus, was a Palestinian abbot of a monastery that was later named after him, a disciple of the hermits Barsanuphius and John the Prophet. He is commemorated on 13 August. The sources say nothing about a particular canonization, only that he is venerated as a saint in the Orthodox Church.

Life

Little is known about his youth. When the hermit Barsanuphius came to live in a hilly region, at Thabatha, he stirred many people to come and live there too in ascetic labour, perhaps including Seridus. Seridus was a severe ascetic and nearly died of his practices, but Barsanuphius healed him and became his spiritual father. Barsanuphius thought of him as his true son and led through him the nearby monastic community, of which Seridus was abbot.

Abbot

The monastery was near Thabatha and the Besor stream, not far from the monastery of Saint Hilarion, the first in Gaza. It functioned in the usual manner of Gazan monasticism: a coenobium that supported the surrounding hermits' cells. Under his abbacy the monastery was enlarged on a neighbouring plot, bought with the community's funds, whose owner at first refused but was persuaded by Seridus's skill and diplomacy. There a new church, a xenodochium (guesthouse), workshops and an infirmary or hospital were built. Many came, above all for Barsanuphius and John the Prophet, who moved to the region between 525 and 527, at Barsanuphius's invitation, and for whom Seridus also had a cell built.

Seridus was the only one allowed to speak with Barsanuphius and acted as intermediary for those who wished to receive counsel and guidance from the hermit called "the Old Man". The counsels were sent in letters, written in Greek, because Seridus did not know Coptic. The letters of Barsanuphius and John, more than 850 in number, were gathered later, perhaps by Dorotheus of Gaza, who was for a time letter-⁠bearer to John. According to this editor, Seridus had a gifted yet patient and tolerant character and knew how to reach agreements. There were occasional complaints of monks, but never a bitterness of all against him.

His end

Feeling the end near, Seridus ordained that the next abbot should be one of the monks ranked on a list. After his death, around 543, all those on the list refused, and the lowest, a layman named Aelianus, not yet a monk, was elected and accepted only when John urged him. Saint Vitalis of Gaza was also a monk at Seridus's monastery, before the seventh century.