Commemorated on April 23
The Holy Great Martyr George the Victory-Bearer, was a native of
Cappadocia (a district in Asia Minor), and he grew up in a deeply
believing Christian family. His father was martyred for Christ when
George was still a child. His mother, owning lands in Palestine, moved
there with her son and raised him in strict piety.
When he became
a man, Saint George entered into the service of the Roman army. He was
handsome, brave and valiant in battle, and he came to the notice of the
emperor Diocletian (284-305) and joined the imperial guard with the rank
of comites, or military commander.
The pagan emperor, who did
much for the restoration of Roman might, was clearly concerned with the
danger presented to pagan civilization by the triumph of the Crucified
Savior, and intensified his persecution against the Christians in the
final years of his reign. Following the advice of the Senate at
Nicomedia, Diocletian gave all his governors full freedom in their court
proceedings against Christians, and he promised them his full support.
Saint
George, when he heard the decision of the emperor, distributed all his
wealth to the poor, freed his servants, and then appeared in the Senate.
The brave soldier of Christ spoke out openly against the emperor’s
designs. He confessed himself a Christian, and appealed to all to
acknowledge Christ: “I am a servant of Christ, my God, and trusting in
Him, I have come among you voluntarily, to bear witness concerning the
Truth.”
“What is Truth?” one of the dignitaries asked, echoing
the question of Pontius Pilate. The saint replied, “Christ Himself, Whom
you persecuted, is Truth.”
Stunned by the bold speech of the
valiant warrior, the emperor, who had loved and promoted George,
attempted to persuade him not to throw away his youth and glory and
honors, but rather to offer sacrifice to the gods as was the Roman
custom. The confessor replied, “Nothing in this inconstant life can
weaken my resolve to serve God.”
Then by order of the enraged
emperor the armed guards began to push Saint George out of the assembly
hall with their spears, and they then led him off to prison. But the
deadly steel became soft and it bent, just as the spears touched the
saint’s body, and it caused him no harm. In prison they put the martyr’s
feet in stocks and placed a heavy stone on his chest.
The next
day at the interrogation, powerless but firm of spirit, Saint George
again answered the emperor, “You will grow tired of tormenting me sooner
than I will tire of being tormented by you.” Then Diocletian gave
orders to subject Saint George to some very intense tortures. They tied
the Great Martyr to a wheel, beneath which were boards pierced with
sharp pieces of iron. As the wheel turned, the sharp edges slashed the
saint’s naked body.
At first the sufferer loudly cried out to the
Lord, but soon he quieted down, and did not utter even a single groan.
Diocletian decided that the tortured one was already dead, and he gave
orders to remove the battered body from the wheel, and then went to a
pagan temple to offer thanks.
At this very moment it got dark,
thunder boomed, and a voice was heard: “Fear not, George, for I am with
you.” Then a wondrous light shone, and at the wheel an angel of the Lord
appeared in the form of a radiant youth. He placed his hand upon the
martyr, saying to him, “Rejoice!” Saint George stood up healed.
When
the soldiers led him to the pagan temple where the emperor was, the
emperor could not believe his own eyes and he thought that he saw before
him some other man or even a ghost. In confusion and in terror the
pagans looked Saint George over carefully, and they became convinced
that a miracle had occurred. Many then came to believe in the
Life-Creating God of the Christians.
Two illustrious officials,
Saints Anatolius and Protoleon, who were secretly Christians, openly
confessed Christ. Immediately, without a trial, they were beheaded with
the sword by order of the emperor. Also present in the pagan temple was
Empress Alexandra, the wife of Diocletian, and she also knew the truth.
She was on the point of glorifying Christ, but one of the servants of
the emperor took her and led her off to the palace.
The emperor
became even more furious. He had not lost all hope of influencing Saint
George, so he gave him over to new and fiercesome torments. After
throwing him into a deep pit, they covered it over with lime. Three days
later they dug him out, but found him cheerful and unharmed. They shod
the saint in iron sandals with red-hot nails, and then drove him back to
the prison with whips. In the morning, when they led him back to the
interrogation, cheerful and with healed feet, the emperor asked if he
liked his shoes. The saint said that the sandals had been just his size.
Then they beat him with ox thongs until pieces of his flesh came off
and his blood soaked the ground, but the brave sufferer, strengthened by
the power of God, remained unyielding.
The emperor concluded
that the saint was being helped by magic, so he summoned the sorcerer
Athanasius to deprive the saint of his miraculous powers, or else poison
him. The sorcerer gave Saint George two goblets containing drugs. One
of them would have quieted him, and the other would kill him. The drugs
had no effect, and the saint continued to denounce the pagan
superstitions and glorify God as before.
When the emperor asked
what sort of power was helping him, Saint George said, “Do not imagine
that it is any human learning which keeps me from being harmed by these
torments. I am saved only by calling upon Christ and His Power. Whoever
believes in Him has no regard for tortures and is able to do the things
that Christ did” (John 14:12). Diocletian asked what sort of things
Christ had done. The Martyr replied, “He gave sight to the blind,
cleansed the lepers, healed the lame, gave hearing to the deaf, cast out
demons, and raised the dead.”
Knowing that they had never been
able to resurrect the dead through sorcery, nor by any of the gods known
to him, and wanting to test the saint, the emperor commanded him to
raise up a dead person before his eyes. The saint retorted, “You wish to
tempt me, but my God will work this sign for the salvation of the
people who shall see the power of Christ.”
When they led Saint
George down to the graveyard, he cried out, “O Lord! Show to those here
present, that You are the only God in all the world. Let them know You
as the Almighty Lord.” Then the earth quaked, a grave opened, the dead
one emerged from it alive. Having seen with their own eyes the Power of
Christ, the people wept and glorified the true God.
The sorcerer
Athanasius, falling down at the feet of Saint George, confessed Christ
as the All-Powerful God and asked forgiveness for his sins, committed in
ignorance. The obdurate emperor in his impiety thought otherwise. In a
rage, he commanded both Athanasius and the man raised from the dead to
be beheaded, and he had Saint George again locked up in prison.
The
people, weighed down with their infirmities, began to visit the prison
and they there received healing and help from the saint. A certain
farmer named Glycerius, whose ox had collapsed, also visited him. The
saint consoled him and assured him that God would restore his ox to
life. When he saw the ox alive, the farmer began to glorify the God of
the Christians throughout all the city. By order of the emperor, Saint
Glycerius was arrested and beheaded.
The exploits and the
miracles of the Great Martyr George had increased the number of the
Christians, therefore Diocletian made a final attempt to compel the
saint to offer sacrifice to the idols. They set up a court at the pagan
temple of Apollo. On the final night the holy martyr prayed fervently,
and as he slept, he saw the Lord, Who raised him up with His hand, and
embraced him. The Savior placed a crown on Saint George’s head and said,
“Fear not, but have courage, and you will soon come to Me and receive
what has been prepared for you.”
In the morning, the emperor
offered to make Saint George his co-administrator, second only to
himself. The holy martyr with a feigned willingness answered, “Caesar,
you should have shown me this mercy from the very beginning, instead of
torturing me. Let us go now to the temple and see the gods you worship.”
Diocletian believed that the martyr was accepting his offer, and
he followed him to the pagan temple with his retinue and all the
people. Everyone was certain that Saint George would offer sacrifice to
the gods. The saint went up to the idol, made the Sign of the Cross and
addressed it as if it were alive: “Are you the one who wants to receive
from me sacrifice befitting God?”
The demon inhabiting the idol
cried out, “I am not a god and none of those like me is a god, either.
The only God is He Whom you preach. We are fallen angels, and we deceive
people because we are jealous.”
Saint George cried out, “How
dare you remain here, when I, the servant of the true God, have
entered?” Then noises and wailing were heard from the idols, and they
fell to the ground and were shattered.
There was general
confusion. In a frenzy, pagan priests and many of the crowd seized the
holy martyr, tied him up, and began to beat him. They also called for
his immediate execution.
The holy empress Alexandra tried to
reach him. Pushing her way through the crowd, she cried out, “O God of
George, help me, for You Alone are All-Powerful.” At the feet of the
Great Martyr the holy empress confessed Christ, Who had humiliated the
idols and those who worshipped them.
Diocletian immediately
pronounced the death sentence on the Great Martyr George and the holy
Empress Alexandra, who followed Saint George to execution without
resisting. Along the way she felt faint and slumped against a wall.
There she surrendered her soul to God.
Saint George gave thanks
to God and prayed that he would also end his life in a worthy manner. At
the place of execution the saint prayed that the Lord would forgive the
torturers who acted in ignorance, and that He would lead them to the
knowledge of Truth. Calmly and bravely, the holy Great Martyr George
bent his neck beneath the sword, receiving the crown of martyrdom on
April 23, 303.
The pagan era was coming to an end, and
Christianity was about to triumph. Within ten years, Saint Constantine
(May 21) would issue the Edict of Milan, granting religious freedom to
Christians.
Of the many miracles worked by the holy Great Martyr
George, the most famous are depicted in iconography. In the saint’s
native city of Beirut were many idol-worshippers. Outside the city, near
Mount Lebanon, was a large lake, inhabited by an enormous dragon-like
serpent. Coming out of the lake, it devoured people, and there was
nothing anyone could do, since the breath from its nostrils poisoned the
very air.
On the advice of the demons inhabiting the idols, the
local ruler came to a decision. Each day the people would draw lots to
feed their own children to the serpent, and he promised to sacrifice his
only daughter when his turn came. That time did come, and the ruler
dressed her in her finest attire, then sent her off to the lake. The
girl wept bitterly, awaiting her death. Unexpectedly for her, Saint
George rode up on his horse with spear in hand. The girl implored him
not to leave her, lest she perish.
The saint signed himself with
the Sign of the Cross. He rushed at the serpent saying, “In the Name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Saint George pierced
the throat of the serpent with his spear and trampled it with his horse.
Then he told the girl to bind the serpent with her sash, and lead it
into the city like a dog on a leash.
The people fled in terror,
but the saint halted them with the words: “Don’t be afraid, but trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him, since it is He Who sent me to
save you.” Then the saint killed the serpent with a sword, and the
people burned it outside the city. Twenty-five thousand men, not
counting women and children, were then baptized. Later, a church was
built and dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos and the Great Martyr
George.
Saint George went on to become a talented officer and to
amaze the world by his military exploits. He died before he was thirty
years old. He is known as Victory Bearer, not only for his military
achievements, but for successfully enduring martyrdom. As we know, the
martyrs are commemorated in the dismissal at the end of Church services
as “the holy, right victorious martyr....”
Saint George was the
patron saint and protector of several of the great builders of the
Russian state. Saint Vladimir’s son, Yaroslav the Wise (in holy Baptism
George), advanced the veneration of the saint in the Russian Church. He
built the city of Yuriev [i.e., “of Yurii.” “Yurii” is the diminutive of
“George”, as “Ivan” is of “John”], he also founded the Yuriev monastery
at Novgorod, and he built a church of Saint George the Victory Bearer
at Kiev.
The day of the consecration of Saint George’s Church in
Kiev, November 26, 1051 by Saint Hilarion, Metropolitan of Kiev and All
Rus, has entered into the liturgical treasury of the Church as a special
church feastday. Yuriev Day is beloved by the Russian people as an
“autumn Feast of Saint George.”
The name of Saint George was also
borne by the founder of Moscow, Yurii Dolgoruky (+ 1157), who was the
builder of many churches dedicated to Saint George, and the builder of
the city of Yuriev-Polsk. In the year 1238 the heroic fight of the
Russian nation against the Mongol Horde was led by the Great Prince
Yurii (George) Vsevolodovich of Vladimir (February 4), who fell at the
Battle at the Sita River. His memory, like that of Igor the Brave, and
defender of his land, was celebrated in Russian spiritual poems and
ballads.
The first Great Prince of Moscow, when Moscow had become
the center of the Russian Land, was Yurii Danilovich (+ 1325), the son
of Saint Daniel of Moscow, and grandson of Saint Alexander Nevsky. From
that time Saint George the Victory Bearer, depicted as a horseman
slaying the serpent, appeared on Moscow’s coat of arms, and became an
emblem of the Russian state. This has strengthened Russia’s connections
with Christian nations, and especially with Iberia (Georgia, the Land of
Saint George).
TROPARION- TONE 4
You were bound for good deeds, O martyr of Christ: George; / by faith
you conquered the torturer’s godlessness. / You were offered as a
sacrifice pleasing to God; / thus you received the crown of victory. /
Through your intercessions, forgiveness of sins is granted to all.
KONTAKION-TONE 4
God raised you as his own gardener, O George, / for you have gathered
for yourself the sheaves of virtue. / Having sown in tears, you now reap
with joy; / you shed your blood in combat and won Christ as your crown.
/ Through your intercessions, forgiveness of sins is granted to all.
SOURCE:
SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2016(with 2015's link here also and further: 2014 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, and even 2008!):
Commemorated on April 30
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