George the Confessor

Saint George the Confessor (George of Antioch) was bishop of Antioch in Pisidia in the eighth century, a confessor of the veneration of icons, and died in exile in the year 814. He is venerated in the Orthodox Church and in the Roman Catholic Church. His commemoration is on 19 April; the Serbian source also gives 1 August.

In his youth he became a monk and gained renown for his piety, and later was ordained bishop of Antioch in Pisidia. In 754 George took part in the iconoclast council of Hieria, near Constantinople, which banned the veneration of icons. But, as an iconodule, George refused to comply with the rulings of the council and was then sent into exile by the emperor Constantine V. Later he returned from exile and took part in the restoration of the veneration of icons at the Second Council of Nicaea, in 787.

George criticised the renewal of iconoclasm at the beginning of the reign of the emperor Leo V and once more refused to remove icons from the churches of his diocese. The emperor banished him, and George died in exile in 814. For his dedication to the Orthodox Church he was named Confessor of the Faith.