Blessed George was from Philadelphia, the son of Christian parents. Having come of age, he left his fatherland and settled in Karachasu, a place in the diocese of Iliopol. Here, blinded by the whirlwind of worldly vanity, he accepted Islamism, but a few days after the unfortunate recognition of lies as truth, darkness as light, he sobered up from mental blindness, vividly felt the gravity of his crime, wept bitterly about it and sought means for his correction. Why, having found a convenient time, he left from there, arrived on the Holy Mountain, confessed his sin to one confessor there, fulfilled the canon assigned to him and, upon fulfilling it, was anointed with the sacred myrrh. Having thus been grafted onto the spiritual olive tree - Christ, he labored for quite a few years in every possible way to appease God, who was angered by his great crime of renunciation; however, his soul never had complete peace within itself. Reflecting on the words of the Lord: Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven (Matt.
10:33), the blessed one did not find any other way to atone for his denial of Christ, except by confessing Him before those to whom he denied Him, and except by shedding his blood for Him; Thinking about this, he was finally inflamed with an indispensable desire for martyrdom. Having announced this intention to his confessor and some other spiritual fathers and finding them agreeing with his desire, he distributed everything he had to the fathers in alms, asking and praying so much for the upcoming great feat, and, leaving the Holy Mountain, arrived in Karachasa. The Turks, seeing him here, recognized him and, immediately seizing him, brought him to the judge and testified that this man at such and such a time denied Christ and became a Turk, and now, having come here, walks in Christian clothes. “Is this true?” – the judge asked George.
“It’s absolutely true,” the martyr of Christ answered with great boldness, “I am really that Haji George, who at such and such a time, out of his madness, renounced his faith and accepted yours, but, having gone to different places, I clearly understood that your faith is false, and therefore now I have come here to give it back to you. Great is my sin that I abandoned my first faith, which is pure, unadulterated gold, and accepted yours - this insignificant metal. So, I confess before you that I am a Christian again, I call myself George, and for the love of Christ I am ready to shed all my blood. Now do whatever you want with me.” “The judge used all means to change his thoughts, but the martyr stood firm and unshakable in the faith of Christ. Seeing this inflexibility of his thoughts, the judge ordered his servants to throw the passion-bearer into prison and torment him there until they turned him away from Christianity.
Having received such an ungodly command, the servants rushed at the sufferer of Christ like untamed beasts and, throwing him into prison, tortured him for 8 days with the most severe torments: they - the devil's servants - stretched his legs in the tree to the point that the so-called groins were almost torn, then they brought a metal, very hot cup and put it on his head like a skufia; then they wrapped a rope around his head and pulled it so tightly that the whites of his eyes protruded from their places. But the courageous warrior of Christ, half dead from such inhuman torment, cried out:
“If you do anything else to me, I will not renounce my faith: I was born a Christian, I live as a Christian, and I will die as a Christian.”
So, the wicked, being unable to bring him to their wickedness, announced this to the judge, and he then signed the death sentence for the martyr, according to which the executioners, taking him from prison, brought him to the place of execution and beheaded him there. This happened in 1794, on October 2. Thus, blessed George received the crown of martyrdom from the heroic hero Christ our God, to whom belongs all glory, honor and worship, together with His beginningless Father and His all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
3 Rev. Hesychius Horivit (VI, commemorated October 3)