It is celebrated on the Saturday between May 1 and 7 each year.
Saint George lived in Gomati in Halkidiki at the beginning of the 19th century AD, when Greece was enslaved by the Turks. He had a family with children and worked as a miller. His love and charity was known throughout the region. He ground wheat for free to the poor and gave flour to the helpless. The ruins of his mill can still be seen today.
During that difficult period of Turkish rule and continuous revolutionary movements in Halkidiki, he lost his family and was forced to leave the world. He went up to the mountain that was above his mill, to live the ascetic life, alone, with God.
Tradition states that a Turkish askeri (military detachment) was to pass through the area. Because he feared that the Turks would surely pass through the mill to seize flour and wheat, he advised his wife and children to go and stay inside the village for safety.
But she did not obey and when the Turkish army passed, they found the family and captured them. When the Saint returned, he found the mill destroyed, the flour stolen and the family lost.
His soul ached from the destruction of his family and property. Then he made the great decision of dedicating himself to God. He chose a cave for his practice and spiritual struggles.
There he spent his life in unceasing prayer, with perfect fasting and strictest exercise. The grasses of the mountain were his only food. We assume that he lived as a hermit, without taking the form of a monk.
And in this phase of his life, he did not fail to show love and compassion to his fellow human beings, to the Christians of his village. He would secretly descend from his hermitage at night, and leave wood and grass outside the doors of the houses of pregnant women, the sick and the poor. He tended the gardens and vineyards of his poor neighbors and looked after the animals of those in need.
When once his tracks were lost, his familiar shepherds sought him out. They went up to his hermitage and there they found him in his cave dead, degenerate and fragrant. He had thawed out from exercise and fasting and the whole place was fragrant. Other Christians and the village priest also went and lifted his Holy relic with respect, to take it to the village cemetery for burial. On the way, the honest tent became dislodged. So much so that they can no longer move it. The priest said that this is a sign and he should be buried here. They actually buried him in the place where the church of Agios is built today, on the road to Gomati.
Later, a small church was built with dry stones above the grave. Then the new small church was built.
After his sleep, the Saint began to perform many miracles, proof of his holiness. God gave the Saint a special gift to heal the ear pain of little children.
