Giyorgis' work has had great influence on Ethiopian monastic calendars, hymns and Ge'ez literature.
Giyorgis was involved in a controversy concerning Sabbath in Christianity and consequentially fell into disfavor of emperor Dawit I.
Ethiopian education of the time relied heavily on memorization, and without showing ability one would not get very far in studies where knowledge was preserved orally.
It has been told that:[1] Faced with this problem, Giyorgis went daily to church, where he prayed with tears and total concentration to God and the Blessed Virgin.
[1] Giyorgis was among the most important (theological) authors in Ge'ez language during the fifteenth century in medieval Ethiopia.
[4][13][14][15] His stature can be compared to those of emperor Zara Yaqob and a pseudonymous author known only by the name Ritu'a Haymanot ("The One with the Orthodox Faith").
[6][2] Notably Giyorgis' student and future emperor Zara Yaqob held very similar theological views throughout his life.
[19] Ethiopia of that time had much contact with the outside world, which brought many missionaries of competing traditions and other travelers into the country.
A foreigner called Bitu, who had wielded great influence on the emperor, was involved in a decision to imprison Giyorgis.
[1] At one point, Giyorgis held the position of abbot (Nebura'ed) of the important monastery of Debre Damo.
[15] At the monastery named after him, there is a crosscut in warka tree's bark claimed to have been left behind by Giyorgis himself.
[24] Under Giyorgis' leadership, scholars from Debre Negudgad and Debre-Egziabiher separated hymns of the fasting season into their own section.
[25] The full extent of Giyorgis' compositions is unknown, and various local anaphoras of the Divine Liturgy may have been originally composed by him.
[1] Giyorgis sought to justify Christian observation of the Sabbath on Sunday based on Old Testament scripture.
He reasoned that if Jesus had come to fulfill the Mosaic Law, then one would expect to find hints of the Sunday Sabbath in the Pentateuch.
The features of these calendars are a 364-day-year,[27] a seven-year cycle culminating in the Jubilee (year of the release),[28] and a particular arrangement of biblical Jewish holidays.
The 30th hour of Sabbath ("the fourth day after the birth of ṭəntəyon") is Sunday midnight, the approximate time of Christ's resurrection.