George of Ioannina

Description

The Martyrdom Saint George of Ioanninois (Agios Georgios Grevena, 1808, Ioannina, January 17, 1838) is a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The New Martyr George was one of the last victims of the forced recruitment of Christian boys by the Ottomans (they were known as Janissaries). This happened when he was 12 years old. Nevertheless, he was able to preserve his Christian faith untainted; a faith for which he was martyred despite the Turkish environs of Ioannina considering him to be a Turk and employing him in the Turkish army as a horse groom, with the name “Infidel (Giaour) Hasan”.

The New Martyr George, who was modest in his ways, always wore the traditional long foustanela of his village and an embroidered waistcoat, with which he is depicted in icons.

A new phase in his life started in October 1836, when he decided to get engaged and then marry on the feast of St. Demetrios a Christian girl from Ioannina, Eleni. They had a son together, born in December 1837, who was baptized in keeping with Christian tradition on the 7th January 1838, giving him the name John in honor of St. John the Baptist whose feast day it was.

All this, of course, provoked his persecution and eventually his death by martyrdom. Despite being tortured by the Turks to make him deny his Christian faith, the saint confessed with courage: “I was never a Turk, I was always a Christian.” He even said this at the gallows, which he faced with composure and bravery.

His last words are typical. When his Turkish tormentors asked him “What are you?” before pulling up the gallows, George asked that his hands be untied. He made the sign of the cross and said, “I am a Christian and I shall die a Christian, I bow before my Christ and my Lady Theotokos.” Then, turning to the Christians who stood there he said, “Forgive me brethren, and God will forgive you.”