St. Herman’s Guardian – Archimandrite Gerasim Schmaltz

[haralampopoulosjc]

@Barbara Spruce Island, which is where the skete that Fr. Gerasim lived at is located; has always been under the jurisdiction of the Metropolia. In fact I'm not sure if there ever were any ROCOR hierarchs in Alaska.

[Barbara]

Thank you for answering the various questions, Haralampopoulos. What about the era when Fr Herman of Platina sent up Fr Gerasim [Eliel], named in honor of but not directly for Archimandrite Gerasim plus a crew of monks to build St Michael's Skete up there ?

I remember there was a protest supposedly by the locals.

But what was THAT all about ?

Fr Herman was POST-Rocor at the time, but seemingly favoring the Rocor ways if not all the ecclesiology ? He was pro-MP of course

How do you interpret all that era ? What really DID happen ?

[haralampopoulosjc]

@Barbara Fr. Herman was canonically rogue at that point. As you said he was no longer with the ROCOR. I think that he might have been in communion with the vagante bishop Panagiotis Vronopoulos at that point, who was defrocked for similar deviant reasons as Fr. Herman.

St. Michael's skete is nowadays under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Archdiocese of Western America, as is Platina monastery.

[Barbara]

What happened to St Michael's Skete ? Are there still monks from Platina there, if you have any idea at all ?

There was another skete where the St Xenia nuns [nearby Platina] were living, if I remember.

Are both of these monastic institutions still active ? Are there many monastics in them, I wonder ?

[haralampopoulosjc]

Yes, they're both still active.

[Barbara]

Good to hear : monasticism anywhere is a good thing, even World Orthodox.

So why doesn't the OCA glorify Fr Gerasim ? We all agree here that Matushka Olga's canonization was the most ridiculous thing.

It made the OCA look even more fake than it is already !

So they could retrieve a little honor by glorifying Archimandrite Gerasim.

Do you agree, haralampopoulos ?

Have they canonized anybody else except Fr Herman, which as we all know was a joint glorification with Old Rocor, though in different locations but at the same time, right ?

[haralampopoulosjc]

Some True Orthodox are divided on Matushka Olga. At the time that she reposed in 1979 the OCA was still entirely on the Old Calendar. They first introduced the New Calendar in some of their parishes in 1982.