Draft:St. Georgios the New Martyr of Ioannina

St. Georgios the New Martyr of Ioannina

Saint George of Ioannina (Saint George of Grevena, 1808 - Ioannina, 17 January 1838) is a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The New Martyr Agios Georgios was born in 1808 in the settlement of Tsourchli (today's Agios Georgios of Grevena) in the Prefecture of Grevena. His parents, Konstantinos and Vasiliki, were engaged in agriculture and were poor. After he exceeded 15 years of age, half of his life was spent in his village of Tsourhli near his older brothers and sisters who took care of him during the time he was an orphan from the age of 8. He descended at the age of 16 to Ioannina to find resources to survive. At the age of 22 he was hired in Ioannina by the Haji Abdullah Efendi, a trusted officer of Imin Pasha, as a groom. Imen succeeded his father as the Valis of Ioannina in 1830 when he became Grand Vizier in Constantinople; the Turks gave him the name of Gavur (Indifel) Hasan.

In 1836, George became engaged to a young pious Yaniotissa, Eleni. On the day of his engagement, however, he was slandered by an Ottoman Hoxha for having been Islamised in previous years and reverted to the Orthodox faith. When questioned in court, George fearlessly confessed that he was born of Christian parents and that he had remained a Christian throughout his life. The accuracy of his words was attested to by the fact that he was unrestrained and was eventually released.

He married on the day of the feast of St Demetrios of the same year, i.e. 26 October 1836.On the eve of New Year's Eve 1838 his wife Eleni gave birth to their first child and on 7 January 1838, on the day of the Baptism of the Baptist, he baptized his son, giving him the name John.

Martyrdom

In 1837 he was hired as a groom in Mouselimi of Filiates, from where he returned to Ioannina in December of the same year for the birth and baptism of his son. There, on Wednesday, 12 January 1838, the same Hodja again slandered him for trivializing the Muslim faith, accusing him that while he had previously been an Ottoman, he was now a Christian, married to a Christian woman, and that he had also baptized his child a Christian.

After he was arrested, they locked him up in prison and pressured him to convert. But he remained unconverted, confessing his Christian faith unceasingly. The clergy and the people of Ioannina tried in vain to prevent the unjust decision of the Turkish judge against George. The Metropolitan of Ioannina, Joachim of Chios, as soon as he was informed of the events, went to the court to defend George, but while he put forward serious arguments, none of them were accepted. The next day,13 January 1838 in court, they tried to persuade George to convert, offering him important positions and offices. He stuck to his faith by confessing once again: "I am a Christian". Thus the martyrdom begins.

They whip him mercilessly, burn him with boiling oil and wax, pierce his nails with spikes, put a heavy stone on his chest, which is barely lifted by twenty men. George endures bravely, saying with simplicity: "I am a Christian and a Christian I shall die".

On Monday 17 January 1838, on the day of the feast of Saint Anthony, the Saint was hanged. His holy relic remained hanged until January 19, during which time many miraculous signs of his holiness were observed. As early as Monday evening, January 17, a light descended from heaven and crowned the head of the New Martyr. This light appeared every night for the entire three days during which the New Martyr George remained hanged. The theophanies, theophanies and miracles began from the moment his soul left his body and entered the world of the kingdom of God; he even healed a Muslim woman along with many other Christians. Then his skeleton was purchased for a price of 300 groats by Mustafa Pasha, as it appears from the register of the Metropolis of Ioannina, and the Metropolitan of Ioannina, Joachim of Chios, assisted by the Metropolitans of Grevena and Artis, buried the Neomartyr with honors at the western gate of the holy step of the Metropolitan Church of St. Athanasius. The martyrdom and burial of George was followed by a number of miracles, irrefutable proofs of his holiness.

On October 25, 1971, the late Metropolitan Seraphim of Ioannina, later Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, after his then first chancellor and then his successor in Ioannina, Theoklotos, performed the reburial of his sacred relics, which were deposited in the homonymous church of Ioannina, in Pargi Square. There is also a church dedicated to the memory of the Saint in his birthplace, Agios Georgios of Grevena, where part of his holy relic is kept.

His memory is commemorated on 17 January and he is the patron saint of the city of Ioannina and his birthplace, the village of Agios Georgios in Grevena. Finally, the saint is especially venerated in the village of Argyro Pigadi in Etoloakarnania, where there is a five-tower church of the same name, which is the first church built in his honour in 1847, just 9 years after his martyrdom.