Venerable Saint George of Drama

Saint George of Drama (Greek: Ὁ Ὅσιος Γεώργιος τῆς Δράμας; born 1 January 1901), born Athanasios Karslidis, was a Greek Orthodox monk of Caucasian origin. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church and associated with both Greek and Georgian Orthodox traditions. He was noted for both his spiritual guidance and ascetic lifestyle. Karslidis died on 4 November 1959 in Greece at the age of 58. He is buried behind the katholikon (main church) of the Monastery of the Ascension, where he served for thirty years. The relics of Athanasios Karslidis are preserved at the Monastery of the Ascension of Christ in Taxiarches, Drama, Greece. Reports indicate that his skull bears an imprint resembling a cross. One relic was transferred to Wuppertal, Germany in 2013. He was officially canonized on 2 November 2008, during a visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Drama. In 2016, a portion of his relics was donated to the Episcopal Church of Tsalka, Georgia, under the Georgian Orthodox Church. On 24 December 2008, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church included Athanasios Karslidis in the Menology of the Russian Orthodox Church, designating his feast day as 24 October (Old Style) / 6th November (New Style). George Karslidis was born in 1901 in Chadik, Tsalka, then part of the Russian Empire. His parents were Savva and Sophia Karslides. His grandparents were refugees from Gümüşhane in the Ottoman Empire, having fled following the Crimean War. At a young age, he lost both of his parents on the same day and was placed in the care of his older brother. According to anonymous accounts, after suffering unspecified abuse from his brother, Karslidis fled to the mountains, where he was found by Turkish villagers and taken to Pontus. In 1938 he founded the Monastery of the Ascension of Christ in Taxiarches, where he eventually served as an elder.