Holy New Martyr George Gurji (the Georgian) (+1770)
The holy new martyr George was from Iveria by birth. He was born around 1700. As a child he was abducted and sold to a Turk, who made him accept Islam and gave him the name “Sali”. George was a quiet, honest man. Everyone respected him. He worked in a shop and traded in old goods. He never married.
At the age of seventy his conscience awoke in him and he decided to return to the faith of Christ — of his own will, so that no one forced him to it. He went to the Turkish judge and declared: “I was born into a Christian family; my master compelled me, an orphan boy, to become a Muslim. Now I declare that I wish to die as a Christian.”
The judge and all who were with him knew Sali as a good, honest man. How could they have imagined that this venerable old man with his white beard would “lose his mind” and demand death for Christ? With tears in his eyes the old man again confessed the law of Christ and asked for a martyr’s death, to wipe away his sins.
To bring him to his senses they locked him in a room, where they reviled him, threatened him and tortured him. The next day he was brought to the court. For three days the interrogation and torture went on, but George, on the contrary, grew ever stronger in the faith. At last they decided to hang him.
On the way to the place of execution they beat him without mercy, and he bore the torments without a word. They drew a noose around his neck and tried to force him to say the word “salavat”, which means confessing Islam, but the blessed one pressed his lips together with all his strength so as not to say that word. Beating and tormenting him, they led him through the whole bazaar. At last they brought him to the place of hanging, which was called “Parmak-kapu”. First they began to prick him with a knife and tried to make him raise a finger, by which he would confess the one god (Allah), but he kept both fists tightly clenched. Then they hanged him on the rope and took him down again, in case he might be frightened at least in this way. Finally, when they were convinced that nothing would change his mind, they hanged him. So his soul inherited the Kingdom of Heaven and put on the martyr’s crown in 1770.
