Spring has shone upon us, the bright and divine Resurrection of our Master, sending us from earth to the heavenly Pascha; with it the radiant memory of the all-glorious martyr George also shines forth, which we shall brightly celebrate, that we may be deemed worthy of the divine grace from Christ our Saviour.
(Svetilen)
We know and honour the saints of those first few hundred years — the apostles, the teachers, and fathers of the Church, the martyrs. Most Christians know them well. But even among them all, one figure is known and loved far and wide with a rare constancy — the winning Saint George the Victorious.
Almost seventeen hundred years have passed since the Roman Emperor Diocletian had him killed for confessing his faith in Christ on the Cross in the year 303, and still the memory of him has not grown dim. People still build churches to him, and still they paint his icon; he is honoured yet by so many different peoples: in Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine, in Great Britain, Georgia, and the Arablands.
Georgia holds him dearest of all: the great martyr was a kinsman of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina, Enlightener of the Georgians, and according to ancient tradition it was Saint Nina herself who set down the feast marking his breaking on the wheel. The Georgians look up to him as their heavenly guardian; they name their sons and daughters after him, and countless churches and chapels across the land bear his name — indeed, in many tongues around the world, the very name of the country, Georgia, repeats his own. His image often appears on city coats of arms.
Martyr Gerontius
The true homeland of Saint George the Victorious is the rocky land of Cappadocia.That land brought forth many great Christian warriors. Longinus the Centurion, who believed in the Crucified Saviour on Golgotha, and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste were Cappadocians. Gerontius — George’s father — was also a soldier who served in the Roman army. He was among the first to suffer for Christ when persecutions began in the province. His mother, Saint Polychronia, came from Palestine and, after her husband’s death, moved with her nine-year-old son to Lydda, where she raised him in deep faith.
Saint Polychronia
Strong and hardy in body, George chose to follow in his father’s steps and, on reaching adulthood, entered military service. In a company of nearly a thousand men, Saint George stood out his brave and fearless spirit. He served so well that by the time he was twenty, they had made him a tribune.
Right about that time, his dear mother Polychronia passed from this earth. She left her son a considerable inheritance. Yet George spent more time in his service than in his estates. Soon, in the year 296, war broke out with the Persians, and it gave George many chances to show what he was made of. For his courage, he received the rank of comitus. And so Saint George came to be known among the highest commanders and even the emperor himself. When peace was made, he continued to serve in the imperial forces near the then-capital of the Eastern Empire — Nicomedia.
But at the beginning of 303 the persecutions of Christians began, calling George off service to the earthly king and into the service of the King of Heaven. Because he was so close to the court, Saint George was one of the first to hear what was planned. He not only prepared to confess his faith even unto death, but he put his earthly affairs in order: he freed all his slaves and gave away his wealth and jewels to those in need.
Soon, at a council in Nicomedia, Diocletian and Galerius proposed an edict that would require all Christians to take part in pagan sacrifices. On hearing this, George decided the time had come to confess his faith before the emperor, his co-ruler and the senators.
Saint George’s tortures
When Saint George declared himself a Christian before the pagan Diocletian — who had once favoured him — the emperor was shocked; and when he saw the young commander’s unbending resolve, his rage flared. George’s tortures went on for eight days. The cruel men beat the holy martyr with ox hides, they stretched him on the breaking wheel, they threw him into quicklime, and they made him run in boots with sharp nails hammered up through the soles… The holy martyr bore it all with patience, and, in impotent fury, his torturer finally ordered his head to be cut off.
As he had wished, they buried the body of the great martyr in Lydda. And today, a church in his name is built there, right over his tomb.
The tomb of the Great Martyr George
As befits a saint, the Great Martyr George aids those who suffer and seek the truth, even after his departure from this life: his scarlet cloak has flown over the fields near Beirut; it has waved over the armies of old Byzantium and the soldiers of Novgorod. The people of Kiev, with the eyes of their spirit, saw the martyr’s shadow fall across the wide lands of southern Rus’, guarding them from the raids of the unbelievers. He helped the Russian forces, too, during the Great Patriotic War. Always and everywhere, the image of George is first and foremost the image of a soldier of Christ who cannot be beaten. To him was given, from the beginning and for every age, a miracle of victory — the power to lead those who called on him into triumph. He seems from the first, and for ever, to possess the wonder of victory — and an equally wondrous gift to bring his devotees to it. For by suffering for Christ and truly overcoming the most terrible pains, by conquering his own self, his own fear, and all human weakness, he was able to defeat the one who tormented him most of all — the devil himself. . Yet the road to such sharing in eternal life for Saint George ran through full self-giving to God — even to death.
Having found life with Christ and in Christ, he gained the full right to cry with Saint John Chrysostom: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”… “Christ is risen — and the demons are fallen… Christ is risen and life abides.”
The icon of Saint George the Victorious
With a martyr’s boldness before the Master, ask earnestly for salvation for us who sing to you, healing the sickness of our souls with your prayers, O passion-bearer, most blessed George.
(Canon to the Great Martyr George, Ode 5)
Prepared by the team of the website obitel-minsk.ru
Photographs from the Internet
Sources:
1.Handbook for Clergy (in 2 volumes), Sergey V. Bulgakov. Synopsis, 2018.
2.The Lives of the Saints by Saint Dimitry of Rostov. Volume 8. April. Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage, 1992.
3.https://pravoslavie.ru/33085.html
