The Orthodox Church in Jordan celebrates the feast of Saint Martyr George twice a year, on the anniversary of his martyrdom on May 6, and on the anniversary of the transfer of his remains and the inauguration of his temple in the Palestinian city of Lod on November 16.

Saint George was born in the city of Lod in Palestine in the year 280 to wealthy Christian parents. His father, who was a soldier in the Roman army, died, and his mother raised him on piety and divine virtues.

Saint George became a soldier when he was seventeen years old. He was tall enough to be chosen as a knight in the cavalry division of the Roman Royal Guard. He caught the attention of Emperor Diocletian during a military parade with his strong personality, eloquence, intelligence, and wisdom, knowing that he was the only Christian knight in the Roman Royal Guard.

 George was known as the Green Knight, because of the green color of his horse and his military uniform, and what was most striking about his personality was that he was very humble, hated arrogance, and hated the injustice and persecution that the Roman emperors practiced against Christians. In Jordan, George is still known as “Al-Khader” and there are churches named after him in Salt and Mahes.

George publicly criticized Emperor Diocletian and his crimes in torturing Christians, and realized that it was a long battle with injustice, so he sold his property, distributed his money to the poor, freed his slaves, and began calling for freedom of worship for all Christians.

The Emperor was angry and decided to arrest Saint George. He asked his soldiers to tie his hands and feet, throw him to the ground, put a large stone on his chest, and beat him with whips harshly and brutally, while he was praying and glorifying the name of Jesus Christ and praying to God with the power of his only son that he would have a miracle so that he would not feel any pain from the torture in front of him. Gentiles.

Historical accounts say that George was praying, glorifying the name of Christ, and did not feel any pain from torture, and he was smiling sarcastically at the pagans who told the king that torturing him was useless.

Moreover, the Emperor's guards said that an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and released George from prison. The Emperor became angry and considered that this was just magic and that the saint was a magician, and ordered his arrest again, but he also came out of prison by the power of the Lord.

The Emperor became angry and asked George to disbelieve in Christ and worship idols. When he refused, he asked his soldiers to throw the saint into a small lake of sulfur and boiling water, but he also escaped death by the strength of his faith in Jesus Christ.

The Emperor offered the saint to consider him the best magician in the kingdom in exchange for offering sacrifices to the idols, and George agreed because he knew that the idols would be destroyed when he began to pray, and this is exactly what happened.

Finally, in light of George’s insistence on rejecting disbelief in Christ, the Emperor ordered his head to be beheaded with a sharp instrument known as the “wheel.” He died as a martyr when he was twenty years old