The established date for the celebration of Saint George the Trophy Bearer and Great Martyr is April 23rd. However, if you are preparing to say happy birthday to one of your George or Georgia, it is better to postpone it for a few days.
And this is because the feast of Saint George is mobile and the date of celebration depends on when Easter falls.
If Easter is after April 23, then is celebrated the day after Easteri.e. Monday of Diakainisimo.
This year, that is, when Easter Sunday is on May 5, the celebration of Saint George will take place on May 6.
The last time his feast day was moved to after April 23rd was in 2022.
The life of Saint George
According to Orthodox tradition, although the calendar includes more than 50 figures with the name “George”, the saint officially celebrated is Saint George the Great Martyr and Trophy Bearer.
He lived during the time of the emperor Diocletian in the late 3rd to early 4th century. He came from Asia Minor and specifically from Cappadocia and was the scion of an aristocratic family and an officer in the Roman army.
In 303 AD, when Diocletian’s persecutions began, George did not hesitate to confess his Christian faith, provoking Diocletian’s anger, because he held a high office and was one of the officers he highly valued.
Initially, he offered him riches, land and slaves to convert and when George refused, the Roman Emperor subjected him to horrific torture.
Christian tradition describes that after they speared Saint George, they tore his flesh with a special wheel of knives. He was then thrown into a pit of slaked lime and then forced to walk in hot metal shoes. According to Christian tradition, out of all these trials, God miraculously kept him alive.
George was finally martyred by beheading, on Friday, April 23 of the year 303 AD. According to the calculation of the Christian historian and apologist Saint Eusebius, this day corresponded to the Friday of the Transcendent Easter.
The Christians took his remains and buried them with those of his mother, who was martyred on the same or the following day. Christian tradition states that George’s faithful servant Pasikrates, fulfilling his wish, took the remains of George, together with that of his mother, and carried them to Lydda in Palestine. From there, the Crusaders took them to the West.
