Great-Martyr GEORGE(April 23)
The Great
martyr George was the son of wealthy and pious parents, who raised him
in the Christian faith. He was born in the city of Beirut (in antiquity
Berytos), at the foot of the Lebanese mountains.
Having entered military service, the Great martyr George stood out among
the other soldiers by virtue of his mind, valor, physical strength, military
bearing and beauty. Having quickly attained to the rank of millenary [tribunus
militum, an officer in the Roman army in charge of a thousand or more soldiers
trans], Saint George became a favorite of the Emperor Diocletian.
Diocletian was a talented ruler, but a fanatical adherent of the Roman
gods. Having set for himself the goal of reviving dying paganism in the
Roman Empire, he went down in history as one of the most cruel persecutors
of Christians.
Once, when he heard in a court the inhuman sentence concerning the annihilation
of Christians, Saint George became inflamed with compassion for them. Foreseeing
that sufferings were also awaiting him, George distributed his property
to the poor, freed his slaves, appeared before Diocletian and, having revealed
himself as a Christian, denounced him for cruelty and injustice. George's
speech was full of powerful and convincing objections against the imperial
order to persecute Christians.
After futile persuasions to deny Christ, the Emperor ordered that the saint
be subjected to various tortures. Saint George was confined in a dungeon,
where they placed him supine on the ground; his legs they confined in stocks,
and on his breast they placed a heavy stone. But Saint George manfully
endured the sufferings and glorified the Lord. Then George's torturers
began to refine their cruelty. They beat the Saint with ox hide whips,
subjected him to the wheel, threw him into quicklime and forced him to
run in shoes with sharp nails inside. The holy Martyr endured everything
patiently. Finally, the Emperor ordered the Saint's head to be cut off.
Thus, the holy sufferer departed unto Christ in Nicomedia in 303 AD.
The Great martyr George, for his manliness and for his spiritual victory
over the torturers, who could not force him to renounce Christianity, and
likewise for his wonderworking assistance to people in danger is additionally
called the "Trophy bearer". The relics of Saint George the Trophy
bearer were placed in the Palestinian city of Lydda, in the church that
bears his name, while his head was preserved in Rome, in the church that
is also dedicated to him.
On icons, the Great martyr George is depicted sitting on a white horse
and smiting a dragon with a spear. This depiction is based on tradition
and relates to the posthumous miracles of the holy Great martyr George.
It is said that not far from the place where Saint George was born in the
city of Beirut, in a lake lived a dragon which frequently devoured people
of that locale. What kind of beast that was, a python, crocodile or large
lizard is not known.
In order to appease the wrath of that dragon, the superstitious inhabitants
of that locale began regularly by lot to give up to it a youth or maiden
to be eaten. Once the lot fell on the daughter of the ruler of that locale.
They took her to the shore of the lake and tied her up where she began
to await in terror the appearance of the dragon.
When the beast began to approach her, suddenly a radiant youth appeared
on a white horse who smote the dragon with a spear and saved the maiden.
This youth was the holy Great martyr George. By such a miraculous appearance
he caused the extermination of youths and maidens to cease in the environs
of Beirut and converted to Christ the inhabitants of that country, who
until then were pagans.
One may suppose that Saint George's appearance on a horse to defend the
inhabitants from a dragon and likewise the description in his life of the
miraculous reviving of a farmer's only ox, served as the cause for honoring
Saint George as a protector of animal husbandry and as a defender from
predatory beasts.
The depiction of George the Trophy bearer on a horse symbolizes victory over the devil the ancient serpent.
Consecration
of the Church of the holy and Great-martyr GEORGE at Lydda where
his holy body was translated. (November 3)
After his beheading, his servant collected his precious relics and testament
and went to Palestine, where he and the Christians interred that sacred
body with reverence and honor. The servant also fulfilled all the requests
bequeathed by the saint.
Now much time had passed before the great and ever-memorable Constantine
held the scepter as emperor (306-337) and shone forth in piety as an equal
to the apostles. It was during his reign that the friends and admirers
of Saint George, under the direction of the emperor's mother, Saint Helen,
built an elegant and beautiful church in Lydda (Diospolis, Lod), at a distance
of nine miles east of Joppa and thirty miles from Jerusalem. The Christians
translated the relics of Saint George to the newly built church. Simultaneously
with the deposition of the relics, the church was consecrated and dedicated
on the 3rd of November. The Christian community expanded in Lydda, so that
in 325 its bishop attended the first Ecumenical Council.
In the fifth century, the majestic basilica attracted many pilgrims. After
the Arab conquest in the seventh century, the Crusaders rebuilt the church
into a fortified cathedral. In 1260, the cathedral was destroyed by the
Mamelukes. On account of the fame of the saint's miracles, in 1268, the
Moslems built a large mosque on part of the Crusader cathedral's ruins,
which had incorporated stonework from earlier churches, including columns
and other architectural remains from the Byzantine church that had stood
on the site. Parts of the fifth-century basilica are even now incorporated
in the mosque called Djamaa-al-Kabir, which has persevered on one of the
pillars the following Greek inscription: "Those administering the
city of old adorned this splendid edifice sacred to the glory of Christ." It
was in 1870 that the Orthodox received permission to erect a church on
the remaining portion of the ruins that lie adjacent to the mosque. The
present day Church of Saint George was built over the ruins of the Crusader
cathedral in 1893. Remnants of the Byzantine church can be viewed in the
courtyard.
The tomb of the Great-martyr is now in the crypt of this church. Since
the saint has wrought many miracles for the demonized, a set of chains
in which the demonized were restrained has been attached to a column at
the right of the iconstasision. For those who hasten with faith to the
saint, an everflowing stream of miracles gushes forth from the saint's
relics; for God knows to glorify those who glorify Him. Hence the holy
Church commemorates this feast yearly, that is , the translation of the
relics of Saint George, to the glory and praise of Christ, our true God,
and His Great-martyr George.
