Our saintly father, Abba George, the archimandrite of the monastery of our holy father Theodosius, that is in the desert of the holy city of Christ our God, told this story to me and to brother Sophronius the Sophist:
“I had there (in Theodosius’ monastery) a brother called George the Cappadocian, and he had an office at Phasaelis. Now, one day, while the brothers made bread, brother George was lighting the fire under the oven. Then, after he had lighted the fire, he found nothing to wipe the oven with, for the brothers had hidden the sponge, in order to try him. So he went into the oven and wiped it with his cloak, and came out without having suffered any damage from the fire. But when I heard this, I rebuked the brothers for having tried him.”
Our father told us also the following story about the same brother George: One day he was grazing pigs in Phasaelis, and two lions came upon him, intending to carry off a pig. But he seized his rod and chased them as far as the holy Jordan. Our father George told us yet another story:
“I was making preparations for the building of the church of saint Ciricus at Phasaelis, and I had just dug the foundations of the church. In my sleep I saw a monk of ascetic appearance, wearing a tunic made of rope and a small cloak of woven rush on his shoulders; and he said to me with a mild voice: “Say, Master Abba George, do you think quite fit to leave me out of the church you are building, after so many labours (I have sustained) and so great an asceticism (of mine)?” I stood in awe at the old man’s holy bearing, and so I asked him: “Really then, Sir, who are you?” and he said: “I am Peter, the grazer of the holy Jordan.” And when I rose in the morning, I enlarged the outline of the church; and while I was digging, I found his body lying (in the ground), exactly as I had seen him in my dream. And I built the church and made a beautiful grave in the right aisle, and I laid him there.
(transl. Leah Di Segni)