ON ST. GEORGE CONFESSOR
BISHOP OF ANTIOCH IN PISIDIA.
9th CENTURY,
CommentaryGeorge, Confessor, Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia (St.)
G. H.
We celebrated yesterday Saint Cosmas Bishop of Chalcedon, an illustrious Confessor of Christ, who for the defense of the veneration of images was sent into exile: to him on that day Saint George, Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia, also having suffered exile for the same cause, was joined in the ancient Ms. Menology of Basil Porphyrogenitus the Emperor with this eulogy: Eulogy April 18 from the Menology of Basil the Emperor And the memory of Saint George Confessor. Also Saint George Confessor of Christ flourished in the times of the iconoclasts. First from boyhood he pursued God with love, and embraced the monastic life, and on account of many labors and contests which he sustained, he became a temple of the Holy Spirit. Then, initiated Bishop of Antioch, he rightly ruled and guarded the flock entrusted to him. But afterwards by the impious counsel of the devil the heresy of the iconoclasts was stirred up, and all the Bishops with letters sent were summoned by the Emperor, that they should come to Constantinople as soon as possible. He too therefore approached, endeavoring to obey his superiors according to the precept of Saint Paul,
but when ordered to abjure the veneration of the sacred images, he was unwilling to do so. Heb. 13:17 Soon sent away into exile, when he had there sustained many hardships for the orthodox faith, he departed in peace. Thus far that source.
[2] That the aforesaid Antioch was the metropolis of Pisidia in Asia Minor, is indicated by the Menaea of the Greeks, in which this eulogy, which we subjoin, is contained on April 19, and it is of this kind: On the same day the memory of our holy Father George, another for April 19 from the Menaea, Bishop of Pisidia and Confessor. At the time when the heresy of the iconoclasts was raging, this Saint, who from boyhood had been initiated to God, on account of his excellent virtue had been created Bishop of Antioch in Pisidia. But afterwards when by the prompting of the devil, the worst counselor, the heresy of the iconoclasts had been stirred up, and all the Bishops from every side had been suddenly summoned to Constantinople by imperial letters, George also appeared: but when he could not be led to consent with the heretics, and to deny the veneration of the sacred images, having been afflicted with many hardships, he is cast into exile, in which having died, he migrated to the Lord. Thus far the Menaea: which same things are read in the Parisian Synaxarium of our Clermont College on April 20. Sirletus published this extracted compendium in his Menology on April 19: from the Menology of Sirletus On the same day of our holy Father George Bishop of Pisidia of Antioch, who being in those times in which by the perverse instinct of the devil the heresy of those assailing the sacred images was stirred up, could by no means be persuaded to agree with the heretics, and to deny the veneration of the Saints' images, sent into exile he migrated to the Lord. and from the Roman Martyrology. Baronius, citing the said Menology, celebrates him thus in today's Roman Martyrology: At Antioch in Pisidia, of St. George Bishop, who for the cult of the holy images died in exile.
[3] April 20 from the Ms. Synaxarium, Again on the following day April 20 the memory of the same St. George is celebrated in the ancient Ms. Greek Synaxarium, preserved at Paris in the Clermont College of the Society of Jesus. A eulogy is appended, such as we have already published from the Menaea. There customarily a distich is prefixed to it, alluding to the name George, taken from agriculture; and to τὸ γεώργιον, which signifies the fruit of agriculture, that is the harvest itself, in this way:
Ὁ Γεώργιος, ὡς γεώργιον μέγα, Ἔχων ἀπῆλθεν ἐ͂ιδος ἀρετῆς ἅπαν.
George departs, in place of an abundant harvest, Bearing with himself every kind of virtue.
[4] That Emperor, who summoned all the Bishops to Constantinople, He flourished in the 9th century and punished those opposing him with exiles and prisons, we do not doubt to have been Leo the Armenian: by whom the persecution stirred up against the worshipers of images we have described on March 12 and 13, in the Acts of Saints Theophanes the Hegumen and Nicephorus the Patriarch, outstanding Confessors on that occasion. Therefore this Saint belongs to the 9th century, and is very different from that George surnamed the Cyprian, whom together with St. Germanus the Patriarch and John Damascene, as already having ended their life, the Pseudo-Synod condemned, different from George the Cyprian, contemporary of SS. Germanus and Damascene. gathered under Constantine Copronymus in the year 754, almost 60 years before Leo ascended the imperial throne. The same can be proved from the Acts of the Second Nicene Synod, celebrated in the year 786: where on behalf of Gregory the Cyprian, on whom the Pseudo-synod, as an adherent of St. Germanus and a falsifier of patristic doctrines, had pronounced anathema, Epiphanius the Deacon read these things in his praise: And George, a Cyprian by nation, who instituting his life evangelically, and imitating Christ our God, who gave us the norm of his life, did not contend, did not cry out; when he was cursed, he did not curse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; to him who struck his cheek he turned also the other, to him who compelled him a mile he offered double: he bore the yoke from his youth, judging it good according to the Prophet to sit alone and be silent. From which words Allatius in the Diatribe on the Georges rightly concludes, not only that he who is there praised was not a Bishop, such as was the one we now venerate, but only a monk, or at most the Hegumen of monks: for how would the praiser of that George have omitted the Episcopal title, to be considered above all others by the Synod? Therefore Zonaras erred, who believed him to be the Patriarch of Constantinople, and erred the more because those who were at Constantinople before the Pseudo-synod preceded in age the heresy of the Iconoclasts of George, and so could not be condemned by it, as those who had attacked it in word or writing. and from George Syncellus. From these things moreover you will easily gather that also from George Syncellus the chronographer, who flourished under Tarasius, and was present at the Second Nicene Synod, was different the very one of whom we have undertaken to treat: but whether that other one, the Cyprian, to whom perpetual memory the Synod wished, together with Saints Germanus and John, whom we have mentioned, has any cult among the Greeks, as he seems to have deserved, we cannot determine, since no trace of him appears anywhere.