By Fr. George Dorbarakis
From a young age he loved the Lord with all his heart. However, since his parents, against his will, wanted to marry him off, George became a monk and devoted himself with all his strength to every kind of ascetic practice — namely fasting, self-discipline, prayer, the study of the divine Scriptures, and more.
Many who came to the Venerable one were enlightened and returned through repentance to Christ. But because there were many who visited him, they did not leave him in peace to pray, and so the Venerable one withdrew to Mount Maleon, where he lived in stillness. Yet even there a multitude of monks gathered, whom the Venerable one guided through prayer and ascetic struggle.
He advanced so greatly in virtue that he became renowned and admired even among rulers, and even among kings, to whom he had written many important and noteworthy letters of counsel on various matters.
The Venerable one foretold the end of his earthly life three years in advance. Thus, after falling ill for a short time, he gathered the monks of Mount Maleon, and after giving them divine counsel, he delivered his righteous soul to God, whom he had loved from infancy.
The Venerable George is yet another confirmation of what the sanctified Elder Paisios of Mount Athos used to say: among the Roman Catholics, monasticism is outward-oriented, in the sense that monks go out into the world to find people. Among the Orthodox, monasticism looks first with love toward God, so that the heart may be purified and thus their love for people may also become pure — something that the world senses; and for this reason, it is the world that seeks out the monks and comes to the monasteries.
Thus, the paradox occurs: the monk withdraws from the world, and God transforms him into a magnet for people. In the Venerable George, therefore, we see this reality precisely put into practice: he withdrew from the world in order to be with God, and the world continually sought him out. Indeed, the more he withdrew, the more the thirst of people for him increased.
One of the stichera of Vespers for the feast of the Venerable one expresses this truth in the manner of the Hymnographer:
“Being wholly devoted with fervor, united with your whole soul to the all-seeing God, you cultivated the divine fruits of the Spirit: stillness, self-control, love, hope, long-suffering and meekness, and you magnificently demonstrated the path toward the heavenly ascent, faith and goodness, O Father.”
And elsewhere:
“Your life has been shown to be radiant, and your word seasoned with divine salt and grace, O George” (Ode 3).
The fervent turning of the Venerable George’s love toward the Lord constitutes a “remarkable” fact for Saint Theophanes the Hymnographer, the hymnographer of the Venerable one, and thus he comments on it more than once. This is because George turned toward God not because he was guided by his parents, nor because he had some sanctified model in his youth, but because he was guided by the very Providence of God.
And this means that wherever the Lord encounters a well-disposed heart, there He Himself undertakes the governance of the person — although it should be noted that even in cases where one person guides another toward finding God, it is ultimately God Himself who simply uses the guide as His instrument for the salvation of that person. In other words, God’s love for every human being — even the least — is a given: He holds all of us at the center of His “heart,” devising ways to bring us near to Him.
“Having been guided by divine Providence, O George, you walked the path that leads to heaven, having as your co-worker the only Benefactor and all-merciful God” (Ode 1).
“O blessed one, you were clearly governed by God” (Ode 1).
However, Theophanes also notes the obvious: although God guides a person, the person must also respond in order to preserve the gift of God and to increase it. This is accomplished through continual study of the word of God and watchfulness over one’s thoughts. A person who remains only at the initial calling of God and does not then cooperate with Him, unfortunately cannot bear fruit in the virtues.
The Venerable George showed how truly the love of God constrained him: not a day passed in which he did not study the words of God and remain in a state of constant vigilance. He had fully understood that the secret of spiritual life is the guarding of one’s thoughts, and that for this to happen one must continually water the soul with the rain of divine sayings.
And if today, as in every age, there is little fruit in spiritual virtues — that is, there is only a small presence of the grace of God in human hearts — it is because we do not study the word of God as we should, whether as the Gospel, or as the writings of the Fathers, or as the lives of the Saints, or as the hymns of our Church. Thus, our heart, left unguarded, becomes a den of thieves.
“Giving continual attention, O most wise one, to the study of the divine words, you drove away the unstable thoughts, O Father George” (Ode 4).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
