By Fr. George Dorbarakis
“George, the cultivator of virtue and dweller with wisdom, the useful vessel of the all-powerful Spirit, the Comforter, and the inexhaustible fountain of healings, having in recent times followed the footsteps of the illustrious venerable Fathers of old, became a pillar and an image for those who wish to live piously.”
With these brief words in the Synaxarion of his service, the good and well-known hymnographer of our Orthodox Church, more precisely, officially titled the “Great Hymnographer of the Church of the Alexandrians,” Dr. Haralambos Bousias, who also composed the service of our Venerable and God-bearing Father George Karslides the Confessor, summarizes the principal elements of the Venerable Father's life in Christ: the Venerable Father was a man of virtue and wisdom; he was a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, with the result that he himself, as surely as his grace-gushing relics, became a fountain of healings for every illness of the faithful people who had recourse to him and continue to do so. The cause of these supernatural states was the fact that throughout his life he strove to follow in the footsteps of the great venerable Fathers of the Church of old. For this reason, he too, together with the great venerable Fathers, became a support and an example for all faithful Christians.
With inspiration, knowledge, and scholarship, our Hymnographer develops, by the God-given grace he possesses, all these dimensions of the life of the Venerable George. He repeatedly points out, first of all, that the Venerable Father was a man in whom all the virtues of God had taken up their dwelling. For example, already in his Apolytikion he tells us that he was “an initiate of joy-giving mourning and a mirror of heartfelt prayer, humility, and spiritual vigilance”; he was “the one who was consumed by his love and compassion for every fellow human being, guiding the people of God without leading them astray” (Idiomelon of Matins); he was a most temperate man who “lived with the mortification of his flesh and with fasting” (Ode 3); he was “the one who ran first to almsgiving, showing that he was the light of love” (Ode 4); he was “the foundation of temperance and the radiance of goodness” (Oikos of the Kontakion). In a word, he was a man in whose person “Christians of recent times saw the achievements of the most holy ascetics of the deserts of Palestine and Egypt” (Sticheron Prosomoion of Vespers). That is, they saw another Anthony, another Euthymios, another Makarios, and one who ultimately “through his ascetic struggle reached the angels as one without flesh, having ascended the ladder of all the virtues” (Ode 5).
The good and faithful Hymnographer, of course, points out that all these virtues were not an achievement of the Saint based on his own powers, so that the boasting might belong to him. Rather, it was the presence of the Holy Spirit within his being that made the Saint—“since from childhood he loved Christ and directed toward Him all the longing of his soul” (Praises)—manifest himself, wherever he passed, whether in Argyroupolis of Pontus, in the land of Georgia, or in the city of Drama and the Monastery of the Ascension founded by him, in such a God-graced manner. For this reason, whatever virtue he possessed was firmly established upon the foundation of all the virtues, which is none other than humility, because it is the only one that literally attracts the grace and mercy of God like a magnet. “God gives grace to the humble.” Our well-informed Hymnographer takes his cue from “the humble ascetic” (Sticheron of Vespers) in order to penetrate somewhat into his soul with regard to this virtue, which raises one on high. He guides and moves us, telling us that this humility was, through the grace of God, the fruit of his ascetic effort “to keep his mind in Hades, without, however, being led to despair, and thus to be deemed worthy of the enjoyment of the Taboric light” (Lity). What does the Hymnographer do? Evidently through divine illumination, he “borrows” the experience of Saint Silouan of Athonite, expressed in writing by Saint Silouan himself and by the Venerable Elder Sophrony Sakharov, in order to say what Saint Silouan had seen as an operation of the grace of God within himself. That is, what was revealed by the Lord Himself to Saint Silouan, who was almost contemporary with the Saint we honor, so that he might remain in humility and consequently in the grace of God—“Keep your mind in Hades and despair not”—the Hymnographer attributes in the same way to Saint George Karslides. And he is right, because the spiritual struggle, despite all its possible branches, is common to all the saints.
Venerable George, then, is also elevated as a universal example for all the faithful, offering them the grace of healings and the solution to the various problems of their lives. For he too became an “instrument of election,” like all the Fathers and enerable Saints of our Church. And through him we clearly discern the presence of the Lord Himself, the presence of His grace. One element that confirms this truth in a striking manner is also the fact that Venerable George, from a very young age, passed through very many hardships, dangers, and imprisonments, with the result that he was almost completely exhausted. The Venerable Father was in danger of death, yet his most courageous resolve was never broken, not even for a moment. Like the Apostle Paul, the pains of his body and the fragility of his health were accompanied by a heart filled with the grace of God and, consequently, with spiritual health. Was it not the Apostle Paul who, when he asked the Lord to remove from him the “thorn in the flesh,” received the answer, “My grace is sufficient for you,” whereupon the Apostle understood that “when he is weak, then he is strong”? The same thing happens, according to the Hymnographer, with Venerable George. “His frail body concealed a most healthy heart … and in reality, it was his taking upon himself of the Cross of the Lord without complaining” (Doxastikon of the Aposticha).
For this reason, the Venerable Father, fearless and courageous, imparted and continues to impart fearlessness and courage to every faithful person who has recourse to him, as the modest Hymnographer also very beautifully points out. “You give courage, strength, and power as a reward, O Venerable George, to all the faithful who worthily bless you” (Ode 9). A person who has faced death with faith in Christ, a confessor of the faith in the literal sense, feels the power of Christ within himself and, as a healthy member of Him, can offer it to the other members of the Body as well.
And let us be permitted here to emphasize a subtle observation by the Hymnographer concerning the confessional dimension of the Venerable Father's faith. Many in our time boast of the fact that they are confessors of the faith. They maintain that our era is, and must be, an era of confession. No one disputes this. After all, it is something the Lord Himself asked for. There is, however, one condition: confession is always accompanied by sufferings, ascetic struggle, and a martyric disposition. For a confession that remains only in shouting and slogans — we do not know to what extent it accords with the mind of the Lord, His Church, and His Saints. What observation, then, does the Hymnographer make? Seeking to understand the characterization of Venerable George as a confessor, he writes, among other things: “You endured imprisonment and were delivered from death, O most blessed one, so that you might receive the crown of your confession” (Sticheron of Vespers). A confessor, then, is one who has suffered for the Lord and His faith. This means, as we have said, that the confessional element is not exhausted by words and shouting alone.
For this reason, the late Athonite ascetic Elder Damaskinos from Saint Basil at Kavsokalyva, who lived his entire life in that remote region, noted that although in our time some people divide contemporary Christians into confessors and non-confessors, this reality will become apparent when the true problems arise and the faithful person must demonstrate in practice whether he is truly faithful or not. And in his own words, which he spoke to someone regarded as a confessor and zealot: “Father I..., in the last years God will withdraw the blessing of confession from many hypocritical zealots and will give it to people of good intention and good disposition” (Hieromonk Philip, The Wisdom of the Holy Mountain, Fereniki Publications, p. 34).
To point out the Saint's gifts, his great boldness before the Lord, so that countless miracles were performed daily both while he was alive and afterward, and the established invocation of him, which leads people to repentance, would be an endless task. It would be most desirable for us to seek out and take into our hands the book written about him by the now also departed Monk Elder Moses, following a request made in 1979 by the most venerable departed abbess at the Monastery of the Venerable Akylina. There we shall see and marvel at the precise course, earthly and spiritual, of the Venerable George's life. And may we be moved to compunction, so that within the circumstances of our own lives we may carry something of his sanctified life into them.
And we believe it is worth mentioning that Venerable George appeared to Elder Moses some considerable time after the latter had written his biography, at a time when this learned Elder was near the end of his life, amid many hardships, illnesses, and temptations. He appeared to him together with Saint Hieronymos of Simonopetra and Venerable Sophia of Kleisoura, in order to give him strength and courage in his difficult condition and to express his approval of his work on him.
Through the intercessions of our Venerable and God-bearing Father George Karslides, may the Lord save and sanctify us all.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
