St George the New of Sofia: a martyr for the faith burned by the Turks for refusing to adopt Islam

The article talks about the Bulgarian youth George, executed by the Turks in 1515 in Sofia for refusing to accept Islam. His veneration quickly spread to the Balkans and just as quickly spread on Russian territory by word of mouth. Just a quarter of a century later Athonite monks Prokhor and Mitrophan spoke about the tragic death of the Martyr in Novgorod to Archbishop Macarius, and he told the priest of his home Church, hieromonk Eliyah to make a Life of George the New using the information gathered from the strangers. Ten years later, this Martyr of Sofia was canonized as an all-Russian Saint at the Moscow Church Council in 1549, and in this regard, the Pskov hagiographer Vasily-Varlaam wrote a short Life and service to the sufferer. The cult of George the New was extremely widespread in Russian lands, comparable in scale to the cults of other famous South Slavic saints, the hermit John of Rila and Archbishop Sava of Serbia.