Hieromonk
Saint Gerasim (in the world Grigory Ignatievich Mochalov) was born in 1870 in the village of Marinino, Dmitrov district. He received his education at a rural school. On September 6, 1903, he was accepted as a novice at the Smolensk Zosimova Hermitage, where he served in the locksmith workshop. On April 2, 1908, he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Gerasim. In 1910, he was ordained as a hierodeacon, and in 1920 – as a hieromonk. In 1923, the hermitage was closed, and Father Gerasim began serving at the Nikolaev Pesnosh Monastery, and later at the church in the village of Gari. From 1936, he served at the Protection Church in the village of Kikino.
Hieromonk Gerasim was arrested on November 27, 1937, and imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow. He denied all accusations of anti-Soviet activity. On December 1, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death by shooting. Father Gerasim was shot on December 4, 1937, and buried in an unmarked common grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
