George the New, commemorated as a New Martyr of Sofia, was a young craftsman who was burned alive in Sofia in 1515 for refusing to renounce Christ and convert to Islam under Ottoman rule. The anchor record identifies him as a goldsmith of Sofia in Bulgaria; he is counted among the New Martyrs who suffered after the fall of the Byzantine and Balkan lands to the Ottomans.
The accounts of his origin differ by tradition. The Bulgarian synaxarion, followed by the Orthodox Church in America, places his birth in Sredets (the older name for Sofia), into a Christian family whose parents are named John and Mary, and relates that he was about twenty-five years old when his parents died and the pressure to convert intensified. A Serbian tradition instead identifies him with George of Kratovo, a South Slavic writer and silversmith from Kratovo. In either telling he was a young metalworking craftsman martyred at Sofia in 1515.
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c. 1490BirthBorn under Ottoman rule; the Bulgarian synaxarion places his birth in Sredets (Sofia) to parents named John and Mary, while a Serbian tradition gives his origin as Kratovo.
1515Confession and martyrdomPressed to accept Islam, George rejected the fez placed on his head and confessed his faith in Christ before the Turkish governor, who urged conversion with promises of honors from Sultan Selim. After beatings and tortures he was thrown into the fire still alive on 11 February 1515.
26 May 1515Uncovering of the relicsHis relics were recovered and, according to the synaxarion, placed by Metropolitan Jeremiah in the Church of Saint George the Great Martyr in Sredets. This uncovering is kept as his second feast.
Contributions & Legacy
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Martyrdom
He lived during the reign of Sultan Selim (1512–1520), when Christians in the Bulgarian lands were under pressure to convert to Islam. According to the synaxarion, when Muslims attempted his conversion by placing a fez on his head, George threw it to the ground and boldly confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, reproaching the errors of Islam.
Brought before the Turkish governor, who urged him to accept Islam and promised honors and wealth from the Sultan, George refused. He was beaten with rods and subjected to increasing tortures, and was finally thrown into the fire still alive on 11 February 1515. The synaxarion relates that dog corpses were placed atop the pyre to prevent recovery of his remains, but that a heavy rain extinguished the fire and the place was illumined with a bright light, after which his body was found by a Christian priest.
Relics & Veneration
The synaxarion relates that Metropolitan Jeremiah recovered the body and placed it in the Church of Saint George the Great Martyr in Sredets. The uncovering of the relics on 26 May 1515 is kept as a feast alongside the day of his martyrdom on 11 February.
He came to be especially honored during the Bulgarian National Revival and is venerated in both the Bulgarian and Serbian Churches. In the Serbian tradition he is identified with George of Kratovo, whose office and life (zhitije) were composed by the priest Peja between 1515 and 1523; that work was published by the Serbian historian Stojan Novakovic in 1867 from a manuscript held in the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade.
