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| The New Martyr Saint George of Ioannina and his martyrdom, a popular icon of the 19th century, Benaki Museum |
By Archimandrite Michael Stathakis
“1838: January: 17: a certain young man in Ioannina, named George, was slandered by the Turks of Ioannina that he had changed his religion and become a Turk. They brought him before the Kadi and before the Vizier Mustafa Pasha, examined him, and tortured him greatly. In the end he was not persuaded to become a Turk; he stood firm and did not change his Christianity. They hanged him at Kouramargio, and he remained hanging for two days. They then took him down and buried him at the Metropolis on January 19, and he became a martyr and works miracles for those who approach with faith. This is most true. The Saint had a wife and a child fifteen days old, who are alive in Ioannina.”
Thus simply — very simply — a monk of the Sacred Monastery of Panagia Eleousa on the island of Ioannina describes, on a page of the Great Horologion, the martyrdom of Saint George the New Martyr of Ioannina. He recounts the events as simply as George’s own life was simple. A young man, only twenty-eight years old, a horse groomer by profession, he had only recently married his wife Helen and had a son with her, whom he baptized just a few days before his martyric end.
The life of the Saint and his martyrdom are well known to all, especially to devout Christians.
In the Service of the Saint, “composed by the Christ-loving Ioannite” (Kerkyra, 1866), it is noted in the Synaxarion that:
“The hierarch then presiding in Ioannina, Lord Joachim of Dryinoupolis (who later gloriously became Patriarch from Cyzicus), went that evening to the court and spoke as was fitting, demonstrating with strong and irrefutable arguments the innocence of George. He then also went to the authorities and said what was necessary; yet his words availed nothing, though they were well-founded and true.”
The body of the Saint remained hanging until January 19, “and on that day his dead body was granted by the governor, Vizier Mustafa Pasha, to the aforementioned Metropolitan of Ioannina, Lord Joachim. It was transferred to the Church of Saint Athanasios of the Metropolis of Ioannina and buried outside the sanctuary, on the left side, with a great gathering of Christians and with the proper procession of the entire clerical body.”
The events that followed George’s hanging, however, reveal the glory that God bestows upon those who glorify Him.
We learn that on the very first night, January 17, when the Saint’s body remained hanging — and also on the following night — a light descended from heaven and illuminated the Saint’s face. Seeing this, the Turkish guards tried to drive it away by firing at it, but it withdrew only to return again and illuminate the Saint.
Christians also testified that they took from the hanging body pieces of his undergarments, his sock — surely bribing the Turkish guards — and pieces of the rope of the gallows, and through these the Saint performed miracles and healings.
Bitter cold prevailed in those days, and the moisture of the lake turned into frost, with a thin layer of ice covering everything. Yet the martyr’s body was supple and warm when, after two days, the Christians took it down and transported it by boat to the chapel of the women’s gallery of the Metropolitan church, Saint Marina, in order to shroud it, as is fitting for every Christian.
There, at the Metropolis, in the Church of Saint Athanasios, the Bishop of Ioannina, Joachim of Chios — later Ecumenical Patriarch — ordered Kyr-Petros, the Protopsaltis of the Metropolis, who was also a painter, to carefully touch the Saint’s face so that he might immediately paint an icon after the Funeral Service. And so it was done: Kyr-Petros touched the martyr’s face with his hands, and his fingers memorized every wrinkle, every contour, the shape of the eyes that would now behold the face of the Lord, and the shape of the lips with which he confessed the faith and with which he would now hymn God in the heavenly dwellings.
Immediately after the Saint’s burial, Kyr-Petros went to his home and, without washing his hands, touched his mother, who was dying and suffering from dropsy — and she was immediately healed! Thus Saint George performed his first official miracle. Twelve days later, the first icon of the Saint was completed.
In September of the following year, 1839, the official Act of Canonization of Saint George arrived from the Patriarchate, since the multitude of miracles performed by the Saint for the faithful — who took oil from the ever-burning lamp at his tomb or earth from there — were innumerable.
“On the basis of a report signed by the Metropolitan of Ioannina, Ioannikios of Rethymno, and attested by the former Bishop of Vella Leontios, Seraphim of Peristera, and many other clergy and laypeople, confirming the performance of miracles at the tomb of the New Martyr,” the Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory VI decided, by Patriarchal and Synodal Act issued on September 19, 1839, that “George the New Martyr, who publicly accepted martyrdom for Christ, is henceforth recognized by the entire Orthodox Eastern Church as a true martyr of Christ, numbered among the choir of the faithful, with his memory to be celebrated canonically on January 17.”
The Patriarch Gregory, when sending the Patriarchal and Synodal Act to the Metropolitan of Ioannina, asked him not to publish it so as not to provoke the Turks. He also added that the feast of the New Martyr was set on January 17, the feast of Saint Anthony, so that it might not appear that a new feast had been established specifically for the New Martyr. However, the fame of the Saint’s miracles among Christians and Muslims alike dispelled these fears, and thus the feast of Saint George was celebrated festively.
Crowds of Christians from the villages of Epirus came to venerate the Saint. They slept at his tomb, and in the morning celebrated the Divine Liturgy, and the Saint responded to the requests of these simple people.
Many times he appeared to his wife Helen, encouraging her and giving her strength to continue living according to Christ and to endure her poverty while raising their child in a Christian manner. Three days before Helen herself died, she received knowledge from heaven of her approaching end, gave salvific counsel to her son John, and fell asleep peacefully.
Worthy of admiration is also the faith of the Christian people. As the Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim II later recounted — and as was published by Zotos Molottos in the newspaper Voice of Epirus — when he was Metropolitan of Ioannina, the faithful pressed him greatly on the first anniversary of the Saint’s martyrdom to compose a service for them to chant, something he himself was unable to do. He therefore ordered the Protopsaltis to read, on the Saint’s feast day, the service of Saint George the Trophy-bearer, but wherever it said “Great Martyr” they were to read “New Martyr.” Thus the first feast of the Saint was also celebrated festively.
Even today, as one walks through the city of Ioannina, one feels very strongly the presence and companionship of the Saint at every step. In his house are preserved his clothes, his footwear, his watch, and various other personal items. At Gyali Kafeneio, a little distance from his home, is the place where he was arrested by the Turks and led to trial; if you linger there a bit longer, you think you will see the man in a fustanella passing by on his way to the market. A little farther on, at the Castle Gate, at Kourmanio, you imagine the crowd descending with the executioners and the Saint, bringing him here to be hanged. And if you go up toward Saint Athanasios, the Metropolis, and sit in the cold stalls of the church, you will see before you the Saint’s funeral unfolding: behold, the bishops emerge from the Beautiful Gate, the deacons cense, and the smoke of the incense mingles with the dampness of the lake, as if all of nature is being sanctified.
Wherever you stand in this city, you have the sense that at any moment the Saint will appear from somewhere to greet you and welcome you... So slowly does time flow in Ioannina — like its waters.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
