St. George
St. George, one of the most renowned martyrs of our church, whom the Greeks call the Great Martyr, was a native of Cappadocia, and the son of illustrious Christian parents. His courage and his uncommon bodily strength made him adopt the profession of a soldier. His undaunted bravery soon caused him to be advanced to the rank of commander in the army of the Emperor Diocletian, by whom he was greatly esteemed on account of his valour. The emperor was ignorant that St. George was a Christian, until the following occurrence took place. Diocletian, a bitter enemy of the Christians, one day assembled all his counsellors, and announced to them that in order to preserve their religion he had determined to exterminate all the Christians in his dominions, but desired their opinion upon the subject. One after another, the counsellors approved and praised this plan of the emperor. George alone disapproved of it, and said boldly, that he could not understand by what right they would exterminate the Christians, as their religion and teachings were full of wisdom, their commandments holy, and their conduct blameless. All present were astounded at this speech, and began to suspect that he himself was a Christian. They represented, therefore, to him on the one side, the favor of the emperor and the great consideration which he enjoyed, the riches and honors he already possessed, as well as the still greater that were in store for him; on the other hand, the disgrace in which he would be held by the emperor, the loss of all his riches and honors, as well as the cruel tortures that he would incur, perhaps even an ignominious death, in case he disagreed with the other counsellors, or if he was a Christian and did hot abandon his faith. They added much concerning the greatness and power of their gods, the errors of the Christian faith, and even refrained not from attacking its Divine founder. Continue reading
