A monk of the celebrated desert monastery in the Judean wilderness near Jericho, still an active pilgrimage site carved into the cliffs of Wadi Qelt.

Saint George of Choziba was a monk who died around the year 625, a member of the community at Choziba Monastery, a striking house built into the cliffs of the Judean desert near Jericho, in the Wadi Qelt gorge. His life belongs to the flourishing tradition of Palestinian desert monasticism that made this region one of the great centers of Christian ascetic life in late antiquity.

Quick Facts

• Died: c. 625, Choziba, Palestine
• Role: Monk of Choziba Monastery
• Location: Wadi Qelt, Judean desert, near Jericho
• Era: The flourishing of Palestinian desert monasticism

Who Was Saint George of Choziba?

George is remembered as a monk of the Monastery of the Theotokos of Choziba, founded in the fifth century and built dramatically into the cliff face above the Wadi Qelt gorge between Jerusalem and Jericho. He lived and died there around 625, during a period when Palestinian monasticism, following the earlier example of the Egyptian desert fathers, had developed its own distinctive and highly organized tradition of laurae and coenobia across the Judean wilderness.

Historical Setting

The early seventh century was a turbulent period for Palestine, which endured a Persian Sassanid invasion in 614 that devastated many of the region’s monasteries and Christian holy sites, followed not many years later by the beginning of the Arab conquests that would permanently reshape the political landscape of the Christian East. Choziba itself, like many Judean desert monasteries, endured real disruption and violence during exactly this period, even as it continued its ancient tradition of prayer and hospitality to pilgrims traveling the dangerous road between Jerusalem and Jericho.

Why the Church Remembers George of Choziba

The Church remembers George through the monastery he belonged to, a community that has remarkably endured, with periods of abandonment and restoration, into the present day — Choziba remains an active Christian monastery and pilgrimage site to this very day, one of the very few Judean desert monasteries never permanently lost, a living continuity stretching back well over fifteen centuries to the era George himself knew.

Canonization and Feast Day

George’s sainthood was never confirmed by any formal canonization procedure; the monastery of Choziba’s own unbroken life, active as a place of prayer to this day, has been the surest evidence of how seriously his community regarded him.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

George lived in a monastery that has survived invasion, earthquake, and centuries of political upheaval to remain a place of prayer to this day — proof that some forms of faithfulness really are built to outlast the crises of any one era. Catholics can take encouragement from Choziba’s endurance: institutions and communities rooted deeply enough in prayer have a way of surviving what seems, at the time, like it should have ended them.

A Prayer to Saint George of Choziba

Saint George of Choziba, monk of the cliffside desert, your monastery has outlasted invasion and centuries of upheaval. Help our own communities of faith find that same rootedness and endurance. Amen.

Sources

• Antony of Choziba, Life of Saint George of Choziba (near-contemporary account)
• New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, ‘Palestine, Monasticism in’
• Roman Martyrology