April: Day 23: Teaching 2: Holy Great Martyr George the Trophy-Bearer

April: Day 23: Teaching 2:
Holy Great Martyr George the Trophy-Bearer
 
(On Spiritual Martyrdom)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Great Martyr George the Trophy-Bearer, whom the Church glorifies today, lived in the 4th century in Cappadocia. He was of noble birth, distinguished himself in military valor, and attained the high rank of commander of a thousand. In his time the emperor Diocletian reigned, who raised one of the most terrible persecutions against Christians. Thus, once, on the night of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, he burned a church in Nicomedia with 20,000 Christians inside.

Saint George confessed the Christian faith; and once, when Diocletian with his nobles and officials was conducting a cruel and lawless trial against Christians, George entered the assembly and began to rebuke the emperor for his impiety and cruelty. The whole assembly was struck by George’s boldness. Then Diocletian, concealing his anger, tried to persuade him gently to renounce Christ; but seeing the Martyr’s steadfastness, he ordered that he be thrown into prison and later subjected to cruel tortures.

“Sooner will you grow weary of torturing me than I of enduring torture,” said the Holy Martyr to the emperor.

The emperor ordered that he be tortured naked on a special wheel. Beneath the wheel were placed boards studded with nails. The Martyr was bound to the wheel and it was turned over these boards. The nails pierced his body and tore it to pieces. But God preserved his life: an angel took him down from the wheel. Seeing the Holy Martyr alive, the emperor was astonished but not corrected.

Meanwhile, two officials, Anatolius and Protoleon, believed in Christ and for this were immediately put to the sword. The empress herself, Alexandra, the wife of Diocletian, also believed in Christ.

Saint George was then made to wear red-hot iron boots with sharp nails inside, and, struck with whips and rods, he was forced to run to prison; but the Lord healed the Holy Martyr. Then a magician, Athanasios, was summoned to overcome the Martyr by sorcery. He prepared a most deadly poison, but it had no effect on George, so that Athanasios himself believed in Christ and was beheaded.

Finally, the emperor summoned George to the temple of Apollo, hoping to turn him to idolatry; but the Holy Martyr, by prayer, shattered the idols. Then it was ordered that his head be cut off. Thus the soldier of the earthly king, Saint George, showed himself to be a victorious warrior of the Heavenly King, for which he received the name “Trophy-Bearer.” His relics, according to his own will, were laid in Palestine, in Lydda, the homeland of his mother.

II. Christian brethren! Such is a brief outline of the life and sufferings of the Holy Great Martyr George. Let us reverently honor his sufferings for Christ and marvel at the firmness of his holy faith: no torments could force him to worship lifeless idols or betray the true God.

Let us turn to ourselves and ask: do we imitate the steadfast faith of the Holy Great Martyr? Are we victors, not over external enemies and persecutors, but at least over our internal, spiritual enemies: our passions, stirred up by the flesh, the world, and the devil? Do we have idols to which we slavishly serve, denying Christ by our life?

a) Alas, we do have idols — these are our passions; and our idolatrous service to them is our indulgence of these passions.

Gluttony and drunkenness — these are our idols; anger, lust, love of money — all these are our idols, and we who serve these passions are no different from idolaters. Every sinful passion, every sin that becomes a habit, is an idol of the soul. A sin-loving heart is the shrine of this idol; love of sin is idolatry; consent to sin in thought and desire is a rejection of Christ; and carrying out the sin in action is the sacrifice offered to the idol. Thus a person who becomes a slave to sinful passions becomes an idolater.

b) And if such spiritual idolatry exists within us and even increases, then there must also be spiritual martyrs/sufferers without the shedding of blood. For just as in former times, when impious people worshiped lifeless idols, there were countless holy martyrs who shed their blood for Christ and died in many ways, so also in our time, when idolatry — meaning the service of sin — reigns everywhere in human life, true Christians must, out of love for Christ, become martyrs without shedding blood. They must constantly mortify their passions, die to sin, become incapable of committing sin, and not enslave themselves to sinful desires.

Thus every Christian can become a spiritual martyr of Christ — without shedding blood, yet worthy of the martyr’s crown.

On this spiritual martyrdom, Saint John Chrysostom speaks beautifully, saying:

“You will say: how can one now imitate the martyrs? These are not times of persecution. I know this well: now is not the time of persecution, but the time of martyrdom; not the time of such outward feats, yet the time of crowns. People do not persecute, but demons do; there is no tyrant, but the devil pursues, the fiercest of all persecutors. You do not see burning coals before you, but you see the flame of desire. They trampled burning coals underfoot — so you must trample the fire of nature. They fought wild beasts — so you must restrain anger as a savage beast. They endured unbearable sufferings — so you must overcome impure thoughts arising from your heart, and you will be an imitator of the martyrs. In the words of the Apostle, ‘our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ Fleshly desire is fire — an unquenchable, constant fire; it is a raging beast. Drive it away a thousand times, and a thousand times it will attack again and not depart. The flame of burning coals is fierce, but the flame of desire is even worse, even stronger. We never have rest from this battle, never see peace while we live on earth: we are in constant struggle, in unceasing effort, so as to receive a sure crown.”

Thus, the mortification of sinful passions is martyrdom without the shedding of blood.

III. May the Lord, through the prayers of the Holy Great Martyr George the Trophy-Bearer, help us to be victors over all passions and temptations brought by the flesh, the world, and the devil — the enemy of our salvation. Amen.

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.