saint
St. George the Chozebite
Seventh-century abbot of the Chozeba monastery in the desert gorge of the Wadi Kelt between Jerusalem and Jericho, known for the strictness of his monastic rule and the luminous serenity of his long prayer.
Life
George the Chozebite was born around 615 in Cyprus, orphaned in childhood, and raised by an uncle who hoped to marry him to his own daughter. As a youth George resisted these plans and made the long pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He came to the great lavra of Choziba in the Wadi Kelt — the gorge that runs down from Jerusalem to Jericho — and was tonsured there as a monk.
He served the community in every office, eventually becoming abbot, and led the monastery through one of the most difficult periods in its history: the Persian invasion of 614, which sacked Jerusalem and devastated the Palestinian monastic federation, killed many of the monks of Choziba and drove the survivors into hiding. After the Persians retreated and the survivors returned, George labored to rebuild the community.
He reposed in the monastery around 670 and was buried there. His relics are honored at Choziba to this day. He is commemorated together with St. Domnica — a fourth-century Constantinopolitan ascetic who spent her last sixty years in silence at a small chapel near the harbor. Their joint feast falls on January 8.
Traditions
Feast day
January 8
Topics
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