George of Kratovo

Saint George of Kratovo (Macedonian: Свети Ѓорѓи Кратовски, Bulgarian: Георги Софийски Нови, translit. Georgi Sofiyski Novi) was a young silversmith from Kratovo,^[1] whom Peja, an Eastern Orthodox priest active in the Sanjak of Sofia (in the Ottoman Empire, now Bulgaria), was the spiritual guide and host^[2] and bible teacher.^[2] George was burnt alive on a pyre on 11 February 1515 in Sofia, after he refused to convert to Islam, due to which he later was proclaimed a New Martyr.^[3]

Peja wrote the liturgical rite and biography (žitije) on George between 1515 and 1523, in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic, per Serbian sources,^[4] and in Bulgarian recension, according to Petăr Dinekov.^[5] The work was published by Serbian intellectual Stojan Novaković in 1867, transcribed from a manuscript held in the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade.^[4] Milan Milićević wrote a work on George in 1885.^[6]

In Bulgaria, where he is known as St. George the New of Sofia (Bulgarian: Свети Георги Нови Софийски), he became especially honored during the Bulgarian National Revival, after Paisius of Hilendar included him in the list of Bulgarian saints, in his Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya (1762). In 1855 Nikola Karastoyanov from Samokov printed the Life of St. George the New, based on a manuscript kept in the metropolitan library of Sofia. During the first half of the 19th century St. George the New became popular also among Bulgarian painters and was depicted in many churches.^[7]

References

Further reading

• Milićević, Milan (1885). "Đorđe Kratovac, svetitelj srbin, spaljen u Sofiji 11 februara 1515". Državna štamparija.
• Ruvarac, Dimitrije (1893). "И још нешто о животу св. Ђурђа Кратовца". Годишњица НЧ. XIII: 291–308.