Elizabeth, the Wonder-worker, and our venerable mother was famed for her asceticism and miracles (Gk. thavmata). From her birth, Elizabeth was revealed by God to be an elect vessel. Now that "many daughters have wrought mightily, and many have obtained wealth" was spoken of in prophecy by the most wise Solomon. By this, he was saying that, at sundry times, not only men but also women would shine forth radiantly with the comely gifts of the Divine Spirit, thereby working, in a marvelous manner, mysterious and extraordinary prodigies and signs in all the inhabited world.

Many are the miracles that are wrought by the Saint's sacred relics and his holy icons. The blind are granted their sight; the disabled are healed; and, simply put, all those who hasten to the Saint with faith find bodily cures and receive the requests of their hearts. Many and diverse were the feats and exploits of Saint George, which we have summarized.

Outside of the Queen City of Constantinople, towards the district of the Seven Towers, there was in ancient times a very large and most beautiful church named in honor of the Theotokos (Mother of God); it had been built about the middle of the 5th century by the Emperor Leo the Great (also called "Leo of Thrace,") he is commemorated on January 20th). Before he became Emperor, he had encountered a blind man, who being tormented with thirst asked him to help him find water. Leo felt compassion for him and went in search of a source of water but found none.

This Great and wonderful athlete of Christ was the son of a wealthy and high-ranking Cappadocian family. George having lost his father at the age of ten, his mother Polychronia, who had become a Christian without her husband's knowledge, returned to Palestine, her homeland, and brought up her son in the evangelical virtues. Handsome, intelligent, and refined in manner, George embarked on a military career at the age of eighteen. He pleased his superiors and was quickly promoted to the rank of Tribune in the Imperial guard, and then, it would appear, to that of Prefect. Returning to Cappadocia after a victorious campaign and passing through the region of Attalia in Pamphylia, he freed the king's daughter, who had been left at the mercy of a dangerous dragon, and killed the beast with a divine strength that he was given by his faith. Marveling at this demonstration of the strength given by Christ to His faithful ones against the forces of evil, the local pagans were all converted to Christianity.

Before His departure to the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ said to the Apostles: "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2-3). The Savior prayed to the Father, "Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me," (John 17:24). And the Apostles express the desire to depart and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), knowing that they have "a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1).

The Resurrection of Christ is "the foundation and the crown of ourT Orthodox Christian Faith." The Resurrection of Christ is the first and most important, great truth, with the proclamation of which the most Holy Apostles began their preaching of the Gospel after the descent of the Holy Spirit. Just as by the death of Christ on the Cross our Redemption was accomplished, so by His Resurrection "eternal life was given to us." Therefore, the Resurrection of Christ is the object of the Church's constant triumph, its unceasing rejoicing, which reaches its summit in the Feast of the Holy Christian Pascha--"today all creation is glad and rejoices, for Christ has Risen" (Canon of Pascha, Canticle 9).