George the Elder of Sofia

Saint George the Elder of Sofia, new martyr, is one of the nine martyrs of Sofia for the Orthodox faith. He died on 26 March 1437, burned at the stake in Edirne, then the Turkish capital. He is honoured on 26 March.

His life has been preserved in a Greek copy. He was born in Sofia in 1407, and his parents raised him in the Christian faith. He held a military rank, perhaps in Ottoman service, and had received a high distinction for good service.

He was thirty years old when he could no longer bear the blasphemies against Christ uttered by an Ottoman armourer to whom he had given his bow to be repaired. The Ottomans seized him, first exhorted him, then threatened him and finally tortured him heavily. Seeing the firmness of his faith, they condemned him to death: first they stabbed him with a knife, then burned him at the stake in Edirne.

In his native city of Sofia he was honoured, and the later martyrs of Sofia, such as George the New of Sofia and Nicholas the New of Sofia, strengthened their spirit through him. His image has been painted from the Bulgarian Revival to this day on the common icon of the saints of Sofia. A street in Sofia bears his name.