S. PHOCAS, M.
(ABOUT A.D. 320.)
[All the Latin Martyrologies, from the mention in which all that is known of him is derived.]
At Antioch, after many sufferings endured for the name of Christ, Phocas triumphed over the Old Serpent, a victory which is testified, to this day, by a miracle. For whoever is bitten by a serpent, having touched, full of faith, the door of the basilica of the martyr, is immediately cured, the poison at once losing its power; so says the Roman Martyrology.
S. GERASIMUS, AB. IN PALESTINE.
(A.D. 475.)
[Roman Martyrology. By the Greeks on March 4th and 20th. Authorities:—Mention in the lives of S. Euthymius and S. Quiriacus, by Cyril the Monk, fl. 548]
S. Gerasimus embraced the monastic life in Lycia; he afterwards passed into Palestine, at a time when Eutychianism prevailed, and he had the misfortune to embrace the errors of that heresy; but S. Euthymius (Jan. 20th) visited him, and restored him to the unity of the faith. He expiated his error by the most rigorous fasting. He became very intimate with S. Euthymius, S. John the Silentiary, S. Sabas, and S. Theoctistus.
A great number of disciples placed themselves under his conduct, and he built a laura near Jordan, consisting of seventy cells, amidst which was a monastery for the lodging of those who were to live in community, and disciplined those who afterwards occupied the hermitages of the laura. The anchorites assembled in the church on the Sabbath and the Sunday to participate in the sacred mysteries, and on these two days they ate common food that had been cooked, and drank a little wine; on other days they ate only bread and dates, and drank water. Fires were never lighted in the cells, and the hermits slept on rush mats.