Bishop Gerasim was born in 1961, in Torrance, California, and raised in Palos Verdes. Growing up, he initially attended the Episcopal Church, and later the Presbyterian. As a child he had a diverse range of interests: sports, history, science fiction, and stamp-collecting, which offered a window to foreign lands and languages. He graduated from University High School in Irvine in 1979, simultaneously taking classes at UC Irvine during his senior year.
He studied Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, later shifting his focus to Spanish literature. Entering university with a conscious Christian identity, he attended Intervarsity Fellowship. There he met James Paffhausen (later Metropolitan Jonah), whose Bible study became an Orthodox Catechism class. He accompanied James to services at Saint Nicholas Church (OCA) in Saratoga. Priest John Newcombe, the new pastor, welcomed them with the words: “So I understand that you want to become monks.” Father John taught them about monastic life at a time when Orthodox monastic life was almost inaccessible in the West.
Periodically he attended services at Saint Nicholas Cathedral (Moscow Patriarchate) in San Francisco, where Bishop Mark (Schaviakin) of Ladoga would warmly share about his life at Valaam Monastery. Bishop Mark received him into the Orthodox Church on April 7, 1980. He spent the following summer at Holy Assumption Monastery (OCA) in Calistoga, under the direction of Father John.
In July he visited the remote Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery (ROCOR) in Platina, California. Divine Liturgy followed the late-night Vigil. During this trip, the words of Hieromonk Seraphim Rose molded his thoughts about monastic life. Returning to college, he reflected on this visit, nurturing his desire to live the monastic life.
Visiting the Saint Herman Monastery again in July 1981, he worked beside the monks preparing for their feast day. In November he became a novice. The following August Hieromonk Seraphim fell ill and, on September 2, reposed. At the funeral Archbishop Anthony tonsured him a riassaphore-monk with the name Gerasim, in honor of Saint Gerasim of the Jordan. In July 1983 Archbishop Anthony tonsured him a reader in the sepulcher chapel of the Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral (ROCOR) in San Francisco. In August he traveled with some other brothers to experience monastic life on Spruce Island. In 1984 they built Saint Michael’s Skete on a parcel of land several miles from Monk’s Lagoon on Spruce Island. In 1986 he returned to Platina, as new brothers arrived to test the monastic life.
In September 1987 Riassaphore-monk Gerasim made a pilgrimage to monasteries on Mount Athos. While there he observed the rhythm and practice of Athonite monastic life, returning with resolve to live the monastic life.
In 1991 he traveled to Russia, staying six weeks at Valaam Monastery. While there he traveled on to Georgia, forging relationships with priests and monks that have lasted decades. He conversed at length with Schema Archimandrite Vitaly of Tbilisi, the last in the line of the Glinsk elders. His Holiness Patriarch Ilia II directed him to meet Archimandrite Daniel (now Metropolitan) and Priest Pavle (now Metropolitan Nikoloz of Kumurdo), who shared their vision for evangelizing their homeland. Their life, witness, and faith demonstrated for him the reality of the Church.
Riassaphore-monk Gerasim was tonsured as a monk in May 1992. Two years later he traveled to Russia with another monk and a deacon. Metropolitan John (Snychev) of St Petersburg ordained him to the diaconate on January 1, 1995, and then to the priesthood on January 5.
Hieromonk Gerasim returned to Alaska in January 1996. The monks had built a small chapel on a knoll above the beach at Monk’s Lagoon in honor of the Meeting of the Lord. Their monastic life grew around this chapel, and they restored the crumbling cell of Archimandrite Gerasim (Schmaltz).
Father Gerasim’s continued relationship with the Georgian Church proved crucial to the future of the Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. In 1999 Bishop Nikoloz of Bodbe invited him to Georgia, and early the next year Father Gerasim took extensive counsel with Patriarch Ilia II on the canonical status of the Saint Herman Brotherhood.
In April 2000, following the counsel of fellow monastics and priests, he persuaded Abbot Herman, who previously had been serving under a non-canonical bishop, to voluntarily step down. Hieromonk Gerasim met with hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Bishop Jovan of Alhambra and Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, in order to bring the monastery back into communion with the canonical Church. They were received into the Serbian Orthodox Church on November 28, 2000. Bishop Jovan elevated Hieromonk Gerasim as abbot after his election by the brotherhood.
In 2006 Abbot Gerasim began making regular pastoral visits to a small Orthodox community in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The same year he traveled to Recife, Brazil, meeting with clergy and faithful, visiting their missions, and giving talks. In February 2009 he made a pilgrimage to Serbia, Kosovo, and Hercegovina, visiting monasteries and speaking at the theological faculty.
In August 2009 Abbot Gerasim stepped down as superior of the Saint Herman Monastery and entered Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. During the summer of 2010, he traveled throughout the Diocese of Alaska, visiting nearly thirty-five villages and attending regional conferences. Returning to seminary, he was encouraged by faculty advisors to finish a Master’s of Divinity degree, which he received in May 2012. In his final year he served on Sundays under Archpriest David Garretson at Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in South River, NJ, augmenting seminary studies with pastoral practice in a parish.
Beginning in September 2012, he served for a year at Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral in Los Angeles. In April 2013 Archbishop Benjamin elevated him as Archimandrite. In September 2013 he was assigned to Saint Seraphim Cathedral in Dallas, Texas, where he serves as cathedral dean. On May 18, 2021, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America elected Archimandrite Gerasim as Bishop of Fort Worth, Auxiliary to His Eminence Archbishop Alexander and the Diocese of the South. He was ordained to the episcopacy on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, at Saint Seraphim Cathedral in Dallas, Texas.