Feast day of Georgios (George), Great Martyr and Triumphant

Today is Renewal Thursday, the fourth day after Holy and Great Easter Sunday, midway through Bright Week.

The Church today venerates the memory of George, or Georgios, in the original Greek, the Great Martyr and Triumphant.

Georgios, this truly great and glorious Martyr of Christ, was born of a father from Cappadocia and a mother from Palestine.

Being a military tribune, that is, a commander of a thousand soldiers, he was illustrious in battle and highly praised for his courage.

When he learned that the Emperor Diocletian was preparing a persecution of Christians, St. George presented himself publicly before the Emperor and denounced him.

When threats and promises could not move him from his steadfast confession, he was put through merciless tortures, which he endured with great bravery, overcoming them by his faith. By the wondrous signs that took place in his contest, he guided many to the knowledge of the truth, including the Empress Alexandra, wife of Diocletian, and was finally beheaded in 296 in Nicomedia.

After the establishment of the modern Greek state, a royal decree in 1864 stipulated that all military banners shall bear the image of St. George the Victory-Bearer.

At the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Metropolitan of Ikonion, His Eminence Theolyptos, officiated at an Or-thros service and the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George, commemorating the Feast Day of the Great Martyr.

Unfortunately, the services were conducted without the presence of worshipers, due to coronavirus restrictions.

The same situation, services without worshipers, was witnessed this week at the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of St. George, in Cairo’s old district, and in an area known as the “Babylonian Fortress”, the only Rotunda in the Middle East. The Feast Day of the Great Martyr will, nevertheless, be celebrated in the presence of the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, His Divine Beatitude Theodoros II.

On the eastern Aegean island of Cyprus, a con-celebratory Vespers service was conducted on Wednesday, ahead of today’s Divine Liturgy in the township of Paralimni, whose patron saint is George the Victory-bearer, or Trophy-Bearer.

Here also, the services were conducted without worshipers.

In northwest Greece, the annual tradition of the “horsemen of St. George” was held on Wednesday afternoon outside the coastal town of Preveza. However, only a lone rider this year conveyed the icon of St. George through the settlement of Aghios Pavlos, as per the custom, before presenting it to the priest of the St. Thomas parish, for use in the day’s Divine Liturgy.

The procession of riders every year attracts hundreds of faithful along the route, with this year’s event, however, severely curtailed due to the pandemic.

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