Saint George the God-Bearer

Commemorated on July 3.

George the Recluse received the young ascetic and found a home for him in the monastery. His disciple remained with him for three years, leading the strictest ascetic life, until finally George the Recluse clothed him with the schema and “perfected him in the monastic life.”

Then, after sending him on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he blessed George to resettle at the Ivḗron Monastery on Mt. Athos and to continue the holy work of Saint Ekvtime of Mt. Athos.

George returned to the Holy Mountain but, instead of translating books as his spiritual father had advised him, he performed other obediences for seven years. When Saint George the Recluse heard this, he sent his disciple Theodore to Mt. Athos to rebuke him and remind him that he was sent there to translate theological texts from the Greek to the Georgian language. This time George of the Holy Mountain humbly obeyed the will of his teacher.

When he was not with George of the Holy Mountain, Saint George the Recluse confined himself to strict solitude and, like his spiritual son, dedicated much of his time to literary pursuits. He was closely acquainted with the writers of Ivḗron and other Georgian monasteries, and he encouraged his spiritual son to continue his labor of translating Orthodox theological literature.

Saint George the Recluse copied Davit Mtbevari’s translations of the Life of Martha (the mother of Simeon of the Wonderful Mountain) and the Life of Saint Barlaam (of the Syro-Caucasus). When George heard that no copies of these Lives existed on Mt. Athos, he transcribed the texts and sent them to the Athonites.

Saint George the God-bearer and Recluse reposed in 1068, after the death of his venerable disciple Saint George of the Holy Mountain.