[1][2] His only surviving work provides no information beyond what is indicated by the long title: that he was the abbot of the Greek Orthodox monastery of the Blessed Saint Symeon the Wonderworker outside of Antioch.
[2] Samuel Noble and Alexander Treiger suggest that the author may be Gerasimos, the "spiritual son" to whom Nikon of the Black Mountain addressed a letter, which he includes in his Taktikon.
[1] Abgar Bahkou and John Lamoreaux suggest that the apologist may be the scribe Gerasimos who lived in the monastery in the 13th century and worked on a manuscript containing the biographies of Saint Symeon the Wonderworker and his mother, the Blessed Martha.
[4] According to the synaxarion of Makarios III, Gerasimos wrote works called al-Mujādalāt (The Disputations), al-Mawaʿīẓ (The Sermons) and al-Shāfī (The Healer).
[11][12] It is detailed, learned, gracious and bereft of the rancor that came to characterize Christian apologia under Islam in the later Middle Ages.
Its purpose, he says, is to draw humans to God through commands and prohibitions and through the promise of reward or punishment in the afterlife.
He argues that all religions save Christianity draw humanity to earthly glory and serve its base desires.
The next three objections are philosophical and allege the incompatibility of Christian doctrines (such as the Trinity and Incarnation) with reason, or the contradictoriness of others (such as divine foreknowledge and omnibenevolence).