St. George the Confessor, Metropolitan of Mytilene

George was bishop of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos in the early ninth century — the principal Greek see of the northern Aegean. He had served the diocese for some years through the brief restoration of the icons following the Seventh Council, and his episcopate continued into the second iconoclast period under Leo V the Armenian.

When the imperial decrees of 815 demanded subscription to the iconoclast position, George refused, was deposed from his see, and was exiled to a remote location in Asia Minor. He bore the exile with the same quiet endurance as his contemporaries — Theodore the Studite, Michael of Synnada, Nicephorus the Patriarch — refusing every offer of restoration that came at the cost of his confession.

He was eventually allowed to return to Mytilene after the death of Leo V, but the iconoclast policy was renewed under Theophilus (829–842), and George was sent into exile a second time. He died in this second exile around 840. His feast falls on April 7.