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…
The Holy Empress Alexandra was the wife of Diocletian (284-305). Her supposed death was described in the Martyrdom of Saint George, which was written immediately after his death. The empress, however, received the crown of martyrdom several years later, in 314. Many events occurred during these…
Two illustrious officials, Saints Anatolius and Protoleon, who were secretly Christians, openly confessed Christ after seeing Saint George tortured, then miraculously healed of his wounds. Immediately, and without a trial, they were beheaded with the sword by order of the emperor.
The Holy New Martyr Lazarus was from Gabrovo, Bulgaria and he was born to devout and God-loving parents in 1774. At a young age he left Gabrovo and went to Soma in Asia Minor, near Pergamon, where he became a shepherd. One day while tending his sheep in the fields, he sat down to rest, and fell…
1. SAINT GEORGE, THE HOLY AND GREAT MARTYR
This glorious and victorious saint was born in Cappadocia the son of wealthy and virtuous parents. His father suffered for Christ and his mother then moved to Palestine. When George grew up, he entered the military, where in his twentieth year, attained the rank of a Tribune and as such was in the service of the Emperor Diocletian. When Diocletian began the terrible persecution against Christians, George came before him and courageously confessed that he is a Christian. The emperor had him thrown into prison and ordered that his feet be placed in a stockade of wooden hobbles and that a heavy stone be placed on his chest. After that, the emperor commanded that George be tied to a wheel under which was a board with large nails and he was to be rotated until his entire body became as one bloody wound. After that, they buried him in a pit with only his head showing above the ground and there they left him for three days and three nights. Then George was given a deadly poison to drink by some magician. But, through all of these sufferings, George continuously prayed to God and God healed him instantly and saved him from death to the great astonishment of the people. When he resurrected a dead man through his prayer, many then accepted the Faith of Christ. Among these also was Alexandra, the wife of the Emperor Athanasius, the chief pagan priest and the farmers: Glycerius, Valerius, Donatus and Therinus. Finally the emperor ordered George and his wife Alexandra beheaded. Blessed Alexandra died on the scaffold before being beheaded. St. George was beheaded in the year 303 A.D. The miracles which have occurred over the grave of St. George are without number. Numerous are his appearances, either in dreams or openly, to those who have invoked him and implored his help from that time until today. Enflamed with love for Christ the Lord, it was not difficult for this saintly George to leave all for the sake of this love: rank, wealth, imperial honor, his friends and the entire world. For this love, the Lord rewarded him with the wealth of unfading glory in heaven and on earth and eternal life in His kingdom. In addition, the Lord bestowed upon him the power and authority to assist all those in miseries and difficulties who honor him and call upon his name.
2. THE HOLY NEO-MARTYR LAZARUS
This neo-martyr Lazarus was a Bulgarian by birth from Gabrovo. As a young man he left the place of his birth and went to Anatolia. Lazarus tended sheep in the village of Soma. As a Christian, Lazarus provoked the wrath of the Turks against himself and was cast into prison by a certain Aga. After prolonged tortures from inhuman tormentors, which Lazarus heroically endured out of love for Christ, this young martyr was killed on April 23, 1802, in his twenty-eighth year. The Lord received him into His eternal courts and glorified him in heaven and on earth. Countless miracles have occurred over the relics of St. Lazarus.
HYMN OF PRAISE
SAINT GEORGE THE GREAT MARTYR
Saint George on a tall horse
Saved the maiden from the dragon,
On his lance, the sign of the Cross,
Holy weapon, invincible,
With that weapon, the dragon he slayed,
The spared maiden, to the father he returned,
With his goodness, he indebted God Himself
With a wreath of glory, God repaid him.
Saint George with a hero's heart,
All wealth, he distributed to the poor,
Rejected the honor and glory of the world
For the sake of the Name of Christ, the Victor,
Sufferings he embraced; sufferings willingly,
His body crushed for the salvation of the soul,
With his goodness, he indebted God Himself,
With a wreath of glory, God repaid him.
George, the Saint and Victor-bearer
Even now walks with the cross on his lance,
Justice he defends, injustice he punishes,
Whoever invokes him with faith and tears,
Whoever prays to him with a repenting soul,
George, the Saint flies to his aid.
With his goodness, he indebted God Himself,
With a wreath of glory, God repaid him
REFLECTION
During a certain uprising in Constantinople during the reign of Emperor Constantine, some embittered men broke off the nose and ears of the statue of the emperor in the city. Many adulators quickly came to the emperor and with great disgust relayed to the emperor how rebels broke the nose and ears from his statues and they asked the emperor to punish the transgressors with the most severe punishment. The great emperor felt his nose and ears with his hands and said to the flatterers: "I feel that my nose and ears are whole and undamaged!" The flatterers were ashamed and withdrew. With every royal generosity we all need to endure insults from others. Yet, with particular caution listen to accusations against other people, which our flatterers bring to us. We should always confess before God and before ourselves, that we, by our sins, deserved even greater insults than those which are perpetrated against us.
CONTEMPLATION
To contemplate the resurrected Lord Jesus:
1. How His resurrection is the beginning of the new and bright day in the history of mankind;
2. How His resurrection is my peace, my strength and the resurrection of my soul while I am still in the body.
HOMILY
About stirring up pure minds
"This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you; through them by way of reminder I am trying to stir up your sincere disposition" (2 St. Peter 3:1).
Do you see brethren, the goal with which the Apostle Peter writes in his epistle? To stir up in people their pure minds! The apostle considers this as the main thing. And truly, it is the main thing. For if in every man the dormant pure mind would be awakened, there would not be a single human soul left on earth who would not have believed in Christ the Lord; who would not have confessed Him as the crucified and resurrected Savior of the world; and who would not have contritely turned to repentance for sins committed by the inducement of an impure mind.
Nothing distances us more from the Good News [Gospel] than an impure mind. What makes the human mind of man impure? Sin makes the human mind impure as milk when you pour in poison; it all becomes poisonous, so the human mind when impure sin enters into it, it all becomes impure. Every sin is impure; every sin makes the mind of man impure, muddy and poisonous. All knowledge which an impure mind possesses is impure as a muddied and soiled image of an object in a muddied and soiled mirror. "To the pure all things are pure" (Titus 1:15), said Paul, the other chief apostle. While Adam had a pure mind in Paradise, all of his knowledge about the Creator and created things was clear and true. Sin darkened his mind and the minds of his descendants. That paradisaical, pure mind of the sinless man is not dead rather is dormant in men under sin. It is necessary only to awaken it and then it will unerringly lead man back to Christ. That is why the apostle takes the responsibility to awaken in men that original pure, clear, discerning mind given to him by God.
O, my brethren, let us assist the holy apostle in awakening of men; He who was crucified upside down on the cross because of His preaching, let us help him in as much as it concerns us, and to awaken in every one of us, our own pure mind. If every one of us does this, we will see that all of us have one mind. For a pure mind is one while an impure mind is legion!
O resurrected Lord, You awaken in us a pure mind through the prayers of Your Holy Apostle Peter.
To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.
