George of Kastoria

George of Kastoria was a young man born a Muslim, converted to Orthodoxy, who died under torture in Acarnania, in 1809 or 1815, because he would not return to Islam. He was numbered among the saints by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2020 and is commemorated on 18 August, together with Demetrios of Samarina, who was killed at Ioannina.

He was born at Kastoria in the late eighteenth century. He went to Ioannina to look for work and there witnessed the martyric contest of Saint Demetrios of Samarina, killed by Muslims for his faith in Christ. What he saw led him to leave the Islam of his forefathers and embrace the Orthodoxy of the new martyr Demetrios. At Baptism he received the name George.

He left Ioannina for Acarnania, where he lived a quiet and God-⁠pleasing life as a Christian. One day he was recognised by a Muslim he had known, and the Muslims tried to persuade him to return to Islam. He steadfastly refused. They then subjected him to harsh torture, including the insertion of molten iron into his bowels. Under these tortures Saint George gave up his spirit to the Lord, who crowned him with the unfading crown of martyrdom, in the year 1809 or 1815.