The life of St George the Georgian
When his master died, George stayed on as a free man in the town, running a small shop and living quietly among his neighbors for decades, the faith of his childhood unspoken but not forgotten.
Past the age of seventy, he went before the local authorities and declared that he was in truth an Orthodox Christian, throwing off the Muslim headdress he had worn for most of his life. The judge, certain no sane man would say such a thing knowing it meant death, questioned him again the next day, then had him beaten. George bore it without a word of complaint, and would not take back what he had confessed. Once sentenced, he was handed over to soldiers who struck him again and again along the road to his execution, trying to break his resolve, but he kept his silence to the end and was hanged on the second of January, 1770, an old man who had waited a lifetime to say plainly who he was.
