St. George the Newmartyr of Sofia

On 11 February 1515, St. George the Newmartyr of Sofia was killed. He was born in Kratanovo, in nowadays’ FYR Macedonia, in a pious Bulgarian family. Left without a father at a very young age, he was forced to go to Sofia in order to avoid the forced adoption of Mohammedanism in the small town. The Ottoman rulers in Sofia try to outwit him to join their religion, but despite he was only 18 years old, he showed tenacity and extraordinary wisdom. However, he couldn’t escape the rage of the Moslems. They took him to the city square, where they set a large bonfire and threw the martyr in it with tied hands. When the ties burnt out and his hands were free, he started crossing himself and prayed: “Jesus Christ, I command my spirit in your hands.” Then someone from the mob hit the young man with a piece of wood on the head and he fell dead. No matter how hard the Turks tried to burn his body to dust, they couldn’t. The wood burnt out, but his body remained intact. In the night, a Christian secretly took his body to the church of St, Marina (today in the yard of the Sofia Bishopric) and he was officially buried.