XIV.
APRIL 23. SAINT GEORGE, MARTYR.
Heretics have written falsehoods in their books
about the holy man who is called George.
Now will we tell you that which is true about him, that their error may not secretly harm any one.
The holy George was in heathen days
a rich noble under the cruel emperor,
who was called Datian, in the province Cappadocia.
Then Datian bade men gather the heathen
to his devil-worship, as an insult to his Lord,
and, with many threats, frightened the people
so that they offered their sacrifices to the false gods with him.
When the holy man saw the error of the heathen,
how they sacrificed to the devils, and dishonoured their Lord,
then he distributed his property fearlessly in alms
to poor men, to the Saviour's praise,
and became emboldened through Christ, and said to the emperor,
Omnes dii gentium demonia, dominus autem caelos fecit
'All the gods of the heathen are cruel devils,
and our Lord verily wrought the Heavens ' [Ps. xcvi. ].
Thy gods. Emperor, are golden and silvern,
stone and wooden, the handiwork of unbelieving men,
and ye set guards over them to watch them against thieves.'
So then Datian became fiendishly angered
against the holy man, and bade him say
of what city he was, and what was his name.
Then George answered that impious man, and said,
'I am verily a Christian, and I serve Christ,
"George" I am called, and I hold authority
in my country, which is called Cappadocia,
and it liketh me better to forego now
this transitory honour, and to minister to the kingdom
of the glorious God in holy service.'
Then said Datian, 'Thou errest, George,
Approach now first [of all], and offer thy sacrifice
to the unconquered Apollo, he who may verily
have pity on thy ignorance, and turn thee to his homage.'
George then interrogated the fiendlike emperor ;
' Which is to be loved, or to whom is sacrifice to be offered,
to Jesus Christ, the redeemer of all worlds,
or to Apollo, chief of all devils '
Thereupon Datian, with devilish anger,
commanded the holy man to be hung up on a gibbet,
and his limbs to be torn with iron claws,
and torches to be kindled on both sides of him;
after that, he commanded him to be led out of the city,
and to be tortured with scourges, and rubbed with salt;
but the holy man remained unhurt.
Then the emperor ordered him to be put in prison,
and bade enquire everywhere for some noted sorcerer.
Then Athanasius the sorcerer heard of the matter,
and came to the emperor, and asked him boldly,
'Why badest thou fetch me thus suddenly to thee?'
Datian answered Athanasius thus,
'Canst thou extinguish the Christian's sorcery?'
Then the sorcerer answered Datian thus.
'Bid the Christian man come to me,
and may I be guilty if I cannot
totally extinguish his magic by my sorcery.'
Then rejoiced Datian that he had found such a sorcerer,
and bade bring God's champion out of prison,
and said to the saint, with fierce anger,
' For thee, George, I have procured this magician;
overcome his magic, or let him overcome thee,
either let him undo thee, or do thou undo him.'
George then looked upon the heathen magician,
and said that he perceived Christ's grace in him.
Athanasius then speedily took
a great bowl, filled with a noxious draught,
and dedicated all that drink to the devils,
and gave it him to drink, but it hurt him not.
Then said again the magician, 'Yet one thing will I do,
and if that hurt him not, I will submit to Christ.'
He took then a cup, with a death-bearing drink,
and cried aloud to the black devils,
and to the foremost devils, and to the most powerful,
and in their names enchanted the fearful drink,
and gave it to the Lord's saint to drink;
but the fiendish liquor harmed him not a whit.
Then the sorcerer saw that he could not hurt him,
and fell at his feet, praying for baptism;
and the holy George straightway baptised him.
Then Datian became fiendishly angry,
and bade seize on the sorcerer, who had there believed in God,
and bring him out of the city, and instantly behead him.
Again on the second day the wicked emperor commanded
George to be bound on a broad wheel,
and two sharp swords to be set against him,
and so to be drawn up, and shoved backwards.
Then George commended himself boldly to God;
Deus in adiutorium meum intende; domine, ad adiuuandum me festina.
'Give heed, O God, to deliver me, make haste now to help me, O Lord' [Ps. lxx. i].
and he was then brought with this prayer to the wheel,
Then the heathen men turned the wheel savagely,
but it instantly burst asunder, and bent to the earth,
and the holy man remained uninjured.
Datian then became sad in his mind,
and. swore by the sun, and by all his gods,
that he would destroy him by divers torments.
Then said the blessed George to him,
'Thy tortures are transitory,
but I fear not for thy threatening;
thou hast my body in thy power,
but nevertheless not thou hast, but God (has) my soul.'
Then the emperor bade his torturers fetch
a brazen caldron, and fill it full
with boiling lead, and lay George
within the caldron, when it was hottest.
Then the saint raised his eyes to heaven,
praying to his Lord, and saying boldly,
' I go into thee in my Lord's name,
and I hope in the Lord that He will now deliver me
unhurt out of this boiling caldron,
to whom is praise and glory throughout all the world.'
And he made the sign of the cross over the caldron, and laid
himself upon it,
and the lead was cooled by God's might,
and George sat sound in the caldron.
Then said the emperor to Christ's servant,
' Knowest thou not, O George, that our gods are striving with thee,
and even yet they are patient, that they may pity thee;
now I exhort thee, as a beloved son,
that thou altogether quit the Christians' doctrine,
and quickly incline to my counsel,
so that thou sacrifice to the venerable Apollo,
and thou mayest so obtain great honour.'
Then the holy martyr, filled with the Holy Ghost,
smiled with his mouth, and said to the wicked man,
' It befitteth us to sacrifice to the immortal God.'
After this the blinded Datian commanded
to adorn his dead gods magnificently,
and the devil's temple with precious silver;
and bade bring thither the faithful martyr,
weening that he would worship his gods,
and offer his sacrifice to the lifeless gods.
Then George bowed down to the earth,
thus praying his Lord with bended knees,
'Hear now, God Almighty, thy servant's prayer,
and utterly destroy these miserable images,
even as wax melteth at a hot fire,
that men may know Thee, and believe in Thee,
that Thou only art God, Almighty Creator.'
After this prayer, a very sudden fire burst out
from Heaven, and burned up the temple,
and all the gods sunk utterly
into the earth, and never appeared afterward.
Likewise, the priests sunk down with them,
and some of the heathen who stood there at hand;
and George asked the wicked emperor,
'On what sort of gods persuadest thou us to believe'?
How can they deliver thee from perils,
when they cannot deliver themselves?'
Thereupon, Datian endited this decree,
and bade thus to kill the champion of God;
'Take this guilty one, who, by magic,
hath turned our venerable gods altogether to dust,
and drag him prone with his face to the earth
through all the streets and stony ways,
and slay him afterward with the edge of the sword.'
Then the heathen dragged the holy man,
as Datian had directed them,
until they came to the place of execution,
and the martyr asked leave that he might pray
to Almighty God, and commend his spirit.
Then he thanked God for all His mercies,
that He had shielded him against the deceitful devil,
and had given him victory through the true faith.
He prayed likewise for all Christian folk,
and that God would give rain to the earth,
because the heat was then wasting the land.
After this prayer he crossed himself,
and bade his slayer to kill him.
When he was slain, there came straightway thither
the people of his own country, believers in God,
who took his body, and brought it to the city,
wherein he had suffered, and there buried him
with great honour, to the praise of the Almighty.
Then the Lord sent rain-showers,
and watered the earth, which before was burned up,
even as George had prayed, before he bowed to the death.
Lo, then, Datian was suddenly slain
by fire from heaven, and his companions together,
as he was going homeward with his high thanes,
and he went to hell before he reached his house;
and the holy George journeyed to Christ,
with whom he ever dwelleth in glory. Amen.