February: Day 21:
Saint George, Bishop of Amastris
(The Sin of Sacrilege)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
Saint George, Bishop of Amastris
(The Sin of Sacrilege)
By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko
I. Saint George, Bishop of Amastris, whose memory is celebrated today, was famous for his exalted life and miracles under the Emperor Constantine IV (780-797). By prayer he calmed a storm on the Black Sea during his voyage and died peacefully in 803. After his death, many miracles occurred at his tomb. Thus one day the Russians (i.e. Russian knights), having attacked the Greek Empire and devastated everything along the coast, captured Amastris (in Paphlagonia) on the Black Sea. Having broken into the church where Saint George was buried, they began to dig up his tomb, thinking that treasures were kept in it; but the plunderers suddenly lost strength in their legs and arms and, as if bound, they stood motionless in a stupor. This miracle terrified the Russians and their leader, calling a captive Christian, began to ask about the treasure hidden in the tomb. The captive Christian explained everything and at the same time communicated the concept of the true God, Who created everything from nothing and Whom no one can resist, and immediately advised to bring Him a sacrifice. When the Russians, on the advice of the captive, brought oil and wax to the true God and returned freedom to the captives, then the plunderers felt the freedom of their hands and feet. After this, the Russians made peace with the Christians and returned to their homeland with the thought of the greatness of the Christian God, and some with full faith in Him.
II. From the life of Saint George, Bishop of Amastris, we see, beloved brethren, how God is angry with sacrilegious persons and blasphemers. Let us now speak of the sin of sacrilege, which, to the great sorrow of every true Christian, is sometimes encountered even among Christians, since we often hear or read of the theft of property from holy churches and of tombstones from cemeteries. Even looking at the iron bars on the windows of a church, one involuntarily becomes sad and ashamed, because they are too eloquent a reminder of the sin of sacrilegious persons, often Christians, against whom they are actually erected.
a) In order to see the full gravity of the sin of sacrilege, let us first of all cite the Church Canons regarding this sin.
The 72nd and 73rd Canons of the Holy Apostles excommunicate anyone who takes wax or oil from the church, as well as anyone who appropriates for his own and ordinary use a consecrated vessel made of gold or silver, or a veil, as a punishable offense, if not sacrilege.
And the great Gregory of Nyssa in his 8th Canon says: "Sacrilege in the Old Testament and Divine Scripture is recognized as worthy of no less condemnation than murder. For both the one convicted of murder and the one who stole something dedicated to God (as Achan did, who was stoned for it) were equally subject to stoning (Joshua 8). And the ecclesiastical custom, having allowed (I do not know how) indulgence, accepted an easier cleansing of this disease, for it subjected sacrilegious people to penance for a shorter time (namely 15 years) than adulterers, and adulterers are removed from communion for 18 years."
Thus, let the blasphemers know that by committing their terrible sin they expose themselves to excommunication from the Church, and therefore from Christ, the Source of life and salvation, if not for life, then for no less than 15 years according to the Church Canons. But the just God, in His righteous anger, sometimes punishes earlier or severely punishes unrepentant blasphemers and robbers of church property.
b) Here are several cases of God’s terrible judgment on sacrilegious people, cases that have been preserved by ecclesiastical and civil history.
Two men, seeing the jewels on the relics of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara, who rests in the Kiev Caves Lavra, intended to open the reliquary and steal them; but right there thunder and sparks struck them from the reliquary, one went deaf, and the other went mad (December 4).
In the life of Stephen, Bishop of Sourozh (or Subak), we read the following remarkable story: “A warlike and powerful prince from Russian Novgorod, with a numerous army, devastating places from Korsun to Kerch, with great force came to Sourozh, broke down the iron gates, entered the city with a sword in his hand, entered Hagia Sophia, broke down the doors, entered where the tomb of Saint Stephen stood, and robbed everything that was on the tomb: the royal veil, pearls, gold, precious stones, golden chandeliers and much more. But at that very hour his face turned back; the prince fell, and foam came from his mouth. He cried out: 'This man is great! ... give back what you took ... let the priests come and baptize me!' Archbishop Philaret came with the priests: they said prayers, then baptized him in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And his face turned again. And all the chief of his men were baptized." This was about 755 A.D. (See "History of the Russian Church" by Philaret Gumilevsky).
III. Let all who have the inclination to appropriate someone else's property, especially church property, be horrified by this judgment of God, and let them repel this pernicious temptation with the thought of the omniscient and righteous Rewarder, before whom no crime, especially one committed with blasphemy, remains without vengeance! Eternal destruction awaits thieves, for as the Apostle says: "Neither the covetous nor extortionists nor thieves shall inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 7:10).
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
