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During the fourth century the veneration of George spread from Palestine to the rest of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac [[Breviarium]]<ref>Butler.</ref> and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]. In Georgia the feast day on November 23 is credited to [[Saint Nino|St Nino]] of [[Cappadocia]], who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St George, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century. By the fifth century the [[cult (religion)|cult of Saint George]] had reached the [[Western Roman Empire]] as well: in [[494]], George was canonised as a [[saint]] by [[Pope Gelasius I]], among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to [[God]]." According to the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', the earliest text preserving fragments of George's narrative is in an [[Acta Sanctorum]] identified by [[Hippolyte Delehaye]] of the scholarly [[Bollandists]] to be a [[palimpsest]] of the fifth century. The compiler of this ''[[Acta]]'', according to Delehaye "confused the martyr with his namesake, the celebrated [[George of Cappadocia]], the [[Arianism|Arian]] intruder into the see of Alexandria and enemy of St. [[Athanasius]]".
During the fourth century the veneration of George spread from Palestine to the rest of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac [[Breviarium]]<ref>Butler.</ref> and [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]. In Georgia the feast day on November 23 is credited to [[Saint Nino|St Nino]] of [[Cappadocia]], who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St George, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century. By the fifth century the [[cult (religion)|cult of Saint George]] had reached the [[Western Roman Empire]] as well: in [[494]], George was canonised as a [[saint]] by [[Pope Gelasius I]], among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to [[God]]." According to the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', the earliest text preserving fragments of George's narrative is in an [[Acta Sanctorum]] identified by [[Hippolyte Delehaye]] of the scholarly [[Bollandists]] to be a [[palimpsest]] of the fifth century. The compiler of this ''[[Acta]]'', according to Delehaye "confused the martyr with his namesake, the celebrated [[George of Cappadocia]], the [[Arianism|Arian]] intruder into the see of Alexandria and enemy of St. [[Athanasius]]".



==Saint George the Roman Tribune==

Approximately in the year 283, Saint George was born in the ancient town of Cappadocia in Turkey. The name George is derived from the Greek word ‘Gorgi’ which means ‘tiller of land.’ His parents, Geronsio and Polikronia, were devout Catholics who instilled within George a love for his religion. George’s father was an enrolled Roman soldier. Regarding George it is said that his soul never suffered the corrupting results of one mortal sin. In his youth, he lived in Lydda, Palestine, and later joined the Roman army as a young but brave conscript. Once in the army his bravery earned him the title of Tribunus Militum. A ‘Tribune’ was similar in rank to today’s ‘Colonel’ and was in charge of one thousand men. George earned heroically the favour of Emperor Diocletian and as regards to his military duties, he was assigned to the city of Nikomedia in Turkey. Although Emperor Diocletian was initially not hostile to the Christians, he later chose Senator Galerius as an advisor. Galerius nurtured an intense hatred towards Christianity and together with the ogre Haruspicina, convinced the Emperor that the Christians were the reason for which the Roman gods abandoned their armies during war and the reason for which economic prosperity was on the decline. Galerius blamed the Christian soldiers, who adorned the symbol of the cross upon their shields, as the primary reason for the ‘bad luck’ the Empire was experiencing. In actual fact, the Roman gods Jupiter, Arthemis, Venus, Mars, Bacchus etc. were non other than demons, Satan in disguise. The historian, John Clemence, Chairman of the Royal Society of Saint George, said: “The main religion of the Roman Empire was Paganism and Christianity was feared by the establishment. The emerging religion was perceived to be undermining the Roman morale and order… Catholic scriptures were burnt, churches were destroyed and practicing Christians lost their right to Roman citizenship…Saint George himself is not a mythical figure. Many of the legends surrounding his deeds have been dramatised over the centuries but the truth is that he was a brave man who died for his beliefs…George tore down the Emperor’s edict and worked to alleviate the suffering of Christians in the area. His position however was unsustainable. He was taken prisoner and brought before Diocletian. George gave a passionate speech denouncing the persecution and defending Christianity…. The date of his martyrdom has become the date we celebrate Saint George’s Day. His courage and faith were exalted by the early Christians and his martyrdom elevated him to a special place in the Christian church.”

At Nicomedia, George tore down the Emperor’s edict against Christianity, which was nailed to the palace gate. He subsequently left for home, gave his possessions to the poor and freed his slaves and servants. Arrested for the supposedly ‘public offence’ and brought before Diocletian, George acknowledged that the Lord Jesus Christ was the only Saviour of humanity, that humanity cannot be saved if not through Him and that nothing could separate him from the love of Christ. The enraged Diocletian, who by luring and menacing orders did not get George to sacrifice to his gods nor return to the honourable position of Tribune, had George tortured. Firstly, the Saint was scourged at the column, this gave George much joy for he emulated Christ. Saint George was thrown in prison and there he received the apparition of Our Lord who revealed to him that he would suffer torture for seven years, die three times and be resurrected three times. Later George was taken to the wheel, a torture instrument consisting of a wooden or iron wheel with protruding knives, nails and sharp edges. Placed against the body and turned vigorously, the knives would slice through the flesh and the other blunt tips would rip bits off. During this torture Saint George cried out, “Who can separate me from the love of Christ?” and he offered his suffering for those who would later remember this day of martyrdom. George was slit in half and killed. Following this martyrdom an angel descended from heaven and as was reported to the Emperor, George came back to life. The Roman Commander Anatolio and his men converted to the Faith and were put to the sword. The Saint was subsequently thrown into a furnace, he died and was once again by angelic intervention resurrected. Following this event, the oger Atanasio converted to the Faith and was immediately martyred. Saint George then resurrected seventeen people through his prayer, the seventeen lived four hundred and sixty years previously, George baptised them and they vanished. Following this second supernatural event, the Emperor’s wife Prisca Alexandra converted to the Faith and was martyred together with her daughter Princess Valeria. Saint George was later beheaded for testimony to the Faith on April 23, 303. Before his decapitation he prayed to God for the destruction of the Emperor and his seventy-two kings, which later occurred. Interestingly, on April 22, 296, the Catholic Pope Caius died martyred during the Diocletian persecutions. The martyrdom of Pope Caius and George occurred on April 22, 23 respectively and Emperor Diocletian was Pope Caius’s uncle.

George’s former servants removed the body and entombed his corpse in Nikomedia. In 326 in Lydda, Palestine, Emperor Constantine built the first Church dedicated to Saint George. After the translation of the relics of Saint George, which occurred on November 3, 330, from Nikomedia to Lydda, the City of Lydda would be henceforth called Giorgiopolis. Many miracles occurred at George’s tomb for many centuries. Emperor Constantine built a second Church dedicated to this Saint in Constantinople and other churches dedicated to the megalomartyr were in future years built in Mesopotamia, Ethiopia, Lybia, Egypt, Italy, France, Germany, England, Poland, Russia and Spain. In ancient Constantinople there stood six churches devoted to Saint George. Emperor Justinian erected one in honour to the Saint at Bizanes, in Armenia. Later, Queen Clotilda, the wife of the converted French King Clovis, erected a Church dedicated to Saint George in Chelles, and consecrated altars to him all over France. The cult of Saint George in the later Muslim countries would be extinguished (not at Saint Catherine’s monastery in Egypt). But in Russia the faith of his intercession was not wiped out during the Communist years. In 494 Pope Gelasius cannonized George.

In the year 900, the Moors besieged the city of Morgeto in Reggio Calabria, Italy for six months. An apparition of Saint George was reported to have put the Moors to flight. The city was named San Giorgio Morgeto in 1864. In the Eleventh Century the First Crusaders sought his emblem and protection. During the military campaigns Saint George was, along side the Blessed Virgin, particularly invoked. According to the writer named Zosimo, the feast in Jerusalem of the 22 September commemorated the translation of the relics together with the relics of Saints Peter and Paul in a building founded by Saint Ischio. The second translation of relics occurred together with the relics of another five saints, which were all deposited in the church of Saint Alexander in Engiglon. During the First Crusade while the Catholic army marched on its way to Jerusalem, Count Raymond, was urged by a priest to search for the relics of four martyrs of the faith in the Church of Saint Leontius. When questioned by Count Raymond how he came to know of the relics, the priest replied that a certain beautiful youth had appeared to him in vision. Together with Count Ysoard, the Count of Die, the Bishop of Orange and the Count of Saint Gilles, the priest carried lit candles and in procession visited the Church of Saint Leontius. In the Church the pilgrims prayed that they would recover the relics and for the saints to whom the relics belonged, to assist them in their pilgrimage towards Jerusalem and especially to intercede for them before the Lord our God. The relics recovered belonged to Cyprian, Omechios, Leontius and John Chrysostom. Together with the remains, the crusading pilgrims discovered a chest filled with other relics, however knowledge to whom these belonged was unknown. The priest’s intention was to remove the chest together with the rest, however, Count Raymond rebuked the priest ordering that if the saint to whom the bones within the chest belonged, wished to travel with them to Jerusalem, “let him make known his name and wish; otherwise let him remain here.” Raymond’s thoughts were on the following lines, ‘Why should the army weight itself with unknown bones and carry them along all the way to Jerusalem?’ For the crusaders own sake, Count Raymond eventually translated the relics to Jerusalem and the following events explain the reason for Raymond’s change in decision. The priest collected the relics of the four saints, rolled them in cloths and on the following night as the priest lay awake he received a visitation of a fifteen year old youth who was, as he later described “exceedingly beautiful.” The youth enquired why had he not removed the relics within the chest together with the rest? The priest asked who was he and the youth replied, “Do you not know who is the standard bearer of the army?” The priest who replied in the negative was asked once again the same question this time in a threatening manner. The priest replied that the army’s standard bearer was Saint George and the youth promptly said, “I am he.” Now George commanded the priest to remove his relics from the Church and translate them to Jerusalem. The priest delayed this order and Saint George re-appeared a second time and commanded him to remove his relics and an ampule containing the blood of a martyr named Saint Tecla and not to delay this order till morning. Accordingly, the priest performed Saint George’s desire and subsequently celebrated Holy Mass. Following, this event Saint George appeared before a major battle at Antioch and miraculously intervened bringing victory to the Christians. This victory increased the devotion to the Saint and Godfrey of Bouillon promulgated the cult and devotion with his soldiers and held Saint George’s relics in great honour. In 1199, during the Third Crusade, the French King of England, Richard I, was to call at the tomb of Saint George in Lydda. There, Richard received a vision of Saint George who promised him victory over the Saracens. Invoking the Saint, he won a great victory and consequently placed himself and his army under Saint George's protection. In another apparition of the fifteenth century Saint George protected the people of Pizzo in the province of Catanzaro, Italy from Scipione Cigala and his band. Again in 1429, when the Moors raided Malta’s city of Mdina. Saint George together with Saint Paul and Saint Agata appeared fighting the Moors. An apparition of Saint George in Gozo (the Sister Island of Malta) also witnessed the Saint’s miraculous action as he exited his Cathedral in the Capital City and with sword in hand and upon his white steed he chased the Moors.

Saint George is generally depicted on steed piercing a dragon with his lance. This association of George battling the ‘Dragon/Devil’ has the same symbolic meaning attributed to Saint Michael and the Blessed Virgin in Revelation 12. The primary reason Saint George is associated to Our Lady is therefore his battle stance against the ‘Serpent’ or ‘Dragon/Devil.’ Since the early four hundreds and five hundreds, the English considered England to be ‘the Virgin’s dowry.’ In the sixth century on the precepts of Emperor Constantine who asserted that Saint George was the “champion of Christendom,” King Arthur chose Saint George as the Patron Saint for his chivalrous ‘Order of the Round Table.’ In England in 1222, a national council commanded his Feast to be kept in all the Country and Edward III in 1330-1348, established the ‘Order of the Knights of the Garter.’ An Order dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint George and Saint Edward the Confessor. At Windsor Castle, carvings, which allude to England herself represented by Saint George, show reverence to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1415, William Bruges became the first Garter King of Arms, he set out to restore a Church dedicated to Saint George in Lincolnshire. Within the Church there existed depictions which showed the beheading of Saint George before an altar bearing the Virgin’s Image. Other depictions showed his resurrection and the Saint being armed as the ‘Virgin’s Knight.’ Saint George also intervened miraculously in the Battle of Agincourt during the reign of Henry V. In 1475, King Edward IV rebuilt a Chapel dedicated to Saint George at Windsor Castle as a thanksgiving for the Saint’s intercession at recovering his crown from Henry VI. One of the images of the Saint within the Chapel of Windsor Castle depicts George kneeling on one knee before the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Later Pope Benedict XIV made this Saint the Patron Saint of England and in 1573, Saint George was to become the most prominent of the fourteen auxiliary Patron Saints of the Roman Catholic Church. As England was considered to be ‘Our Lady’s Dowry’ and George was referred to as ‘Our Lady’s Knight’ it is therefore understandable that George was, and still is, protecting England and Christianity by following the orders of the Blessed Virgin. Similarly to Saint Michael, his intercession in all Christendom is ever under the direction of the Queen of Martyrs. Russian icons such as the Icon of Saint George at the Dormition Cathedral at the Kremlin in Moscow, which has its origins in Kiev, bear the image of George on one side and the Image of the Blessed Virgin and Child on the other. The Blessed Virgin is of the type ‘Hodegitria’ meaning ‘Our Lady of the wayfarers’ or ‘Our Lady who shows the way of Salvation.’ This Icon was brought to Moscow by Ivan the Terrible from Novgorod and was probably painted in 1050. The cult of the military martyrs was very popular and ‘Our Lady of Odegon’ (the original name of this Icon) was the Patron Saint of the entire Empire. Another particular Russian icon depicts Saint Theodorus, Saint George and the Blessed Virgin of Tichvin. At the monastery of Saint Catherine, upon Mount Sinai Egypt, there exists a miraculous Icon portraying Saint George, Saint Theodorus and the Virgin Mary upon a throne with two angels on their sides. Saint George’s connection to Our Lady is most evidently displayed by the Christian Church of Ethiopia where Saint George is regarded as a great Saint. Many icons depicting the martyr on one side and the Blessed Virgin on the other, are found within Ethiopian churches. The Ethiopian Church relates Saint George to the Blessed Virgin, as on November 3, the same day the relics of Saint George were translated from Nikomedia to Lydda, the Feast of the translation of the body of the Blessed Virgin during Dormition is celebrated. Therefore, Saint George is also by this occasion of translation associated with Our Lady. The Cathedral of Saint George in Modica, Sicily was built in 1090 by the Norman Count Roger of Hautville. Count Roger, after experiencing in vision Saint George, was able to defeat his enemies, probably Moors, and later built the Cathedral in honour of the Saint and over the ruins of an earlier Church dedicated to the Holy Cross and destroyed by Moorish invaders in 845. This Cathedral has a statue dedicated to Our Lady under the title of the ‘Madonna della Neve’ or ‘Our Lady of the Snows,’ just like Salus Popoli Romani at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

The red cross on a white field which represents Saint George’s standard was later adopted by the Knights of the Temple. During the Second World War in April 22, 1945 Hitler realizing that the war was over and his end was near, refused to leave his bunker. The next day, on Saint George’s day, the Soviet forces completely surrounded the City of Berlin and Reichsführer-SS Himmler began secret negotiations for a separate peace in the West with Count Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross. In 1995, for the fiftieth anniversary commemorating the end of the Second World War on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, a monument bearing the names of all the Russian soldiers who died in the Second World War was erected together with an obelisk bearing a statue of Saint George on steed defeating the ‘Dragon/Devil’ beneath. On May 9 every year, the Russian people gather to celebrate this victory and their liberation from Communism, beneath the obelisk bearing Saint George the dragon slayer. In 1956 Pope Pius XII made Saint George the Patron Saint of all the Italian cavalry. In 1978 a study commissioned by the Institute of Anthropology of the University of Bologna Italy, confirmed that the relics of Saint George, found in Como, Venice, Ferrara and Rome (Velabro), belong to the same individual of age eighteen to twenty, had a height of 165 cms and lived during the turn of the third to the fourth centuries. Saint George’s Feasts are celebrated on April 23, November 3 and 23, he is accredited as the liberator of slaves, the defender of the poor, the healer of the infirm and the strength of rulers, leaders and kings.


==Hymn of Saint George==
==Hymn of Saint George==

Revision as of 18:32, 4 June 2007

For other uses, see Saint George (disambiguation).
Saint George
St George
Bornbetween ca. AD 275 and 281
Nicomedia, Bithynia
Diedca. AD 303
Lydda, Palestine
Venerated inChristianity
Major shrineChurch of Saint George, Lod
FeastApril 23
AttributesLance, Dragon, Horseback Rider, Knighthood, St George's Cross
PatronageAmersfoort, Netherlands; Aragon; agricultural workers; archers; armourers; Beirut, Lebanon; Scouts; butchers; Canada; Cappadocia; Catalonia; cavalry; chivalry; Constantinople; Corinthians (Brazilian soccer team);Crusaders; England (by Pope Benedict XIV); equestrians; Ethiopia; farmers; Ferrara, Italy; field workers; Genoa; Georgia; Gozo; Bulgaria; Greece; Haldern, Germany; Heide; herpes; horsemen; horses; husbandmen; knights; lepers; leprosy; Lithuania; Lod; Malta; Modica, Sicily; Moscow; Order of the Garter; Palestine; Palestinian Christians; plague; Portugal; Ptuj, Slovenia; riders; saddle makers; sheep; shepherds; skin diseases; soldiers; syphilis; Teutonic Knights; Venice [1]

In Christian hagiography Saint George - The Saint who killed the Dragon (ca. 275-281–April 23, 303) was a soldier of the Roman Empire, from Anatolia, now modern day Turkey, who was venerated as a Christian martyr. Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Immortalised in the tale of George and the Dragon, he is the patron saint of Canada, Aragón, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, the cities of Beirut, Istanbul, Ljubljana, Freiburg and Moscow, as well as a wide range of professions, organisations and disease sufferers.

Life

There are no historical sources on Saint George.[1] The legend that follows is synthesized from early and late hagiographical sources. Chief among these sources is the Golden Legend, which remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxton's 15th century translation.

George was born to a Christian family during the late 3rd century. His father was from Cappadocia and served as an officer of the Roman army. His mother was from Lydda, Iudaea (now Lod, Israel). She returned to her native city as a widow along with her young son, where she provided him with an education.

St. George being broken on the wheel

The youth followed his father's example by joining the army soon after coming of age. He proved to be a good soldier and consequently rose through the military ranks of the time. By his late twenties he had gained the title of Tribunus (Tribune) and then Comes (Count), at which time George was stationed in Nicomedia as a member of the personal guard attached to Roman Emperor Diocletian.

According to the hagiography, in 303 Diocletian issued an edict authorizing the systematic persecution of Christians across the Empire. The emperor Galerius was supposedly responsible for this decision and would continue the persecution during his own reign (305–311). George was ordered to participate in the persecution but instead confessed to being a Christian himself and criticized the imperial decision. An enraged Diocletian ordered his torture and execution.

After various tortures, including laceration on a wheel of swords, George was executed by decapitation before Nicomedia's defensive wall on April 23, 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra and Athanasius, a pagan priest, to become Christians as well, and so they joined George in martyrdom. His body was returned to Lydda for burial, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr.

Veneration as a martyr

A 15th-century icon of St. George from Novgorod
Scenes from the life of St. George, Kremikovtsi Monastery, Bulgaria

A church built in Lydda during the reign of Constantine I (reigned 306–337), was consecrated to "a man of the highest distinction", according to the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea; the name of the patron was not disclosed, but later he was asserted to have been George. The church was destroyed in 1010 but was later rebuilt and dedicated to Saint George by the Crusaders. In 1191 and during the conflict known as the Third Crusade (1189–1192), the church was again destroyed by the forces of Saladin, Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty (reigned 1171–1193). A new church was erected in 1872 and is still standing.

During the fourth century the veneration of George spread from Palestine to the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire, though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium[2] and Georgia. In Georgia the feast day on November 23 is credited to St Nino of Cappadocia, who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St George, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century. By the fifth century the cult of Saint George had reached the Western Roman Empire as well: in 494, George was canonised as a saint by Pope Gelasius I, among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the earliest text preserving fragments of George's narrative is in an Acta Sanctorum identified by Hippolyte Delehaye of the scholarly Bollandists to be a palimpsest of the fifth century. The compiler of this Acta, according to Delehaye "confused the martyr with his namesake, the celebrated George of Cappadocia, the Arian intruder into the see of Alexandria and enemy of St. Athanasius".

Hymn of Saint George

A commonly sung troparion in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Hymn of St. George:

"Liberator of captives,
and defender of the poor,
physician of the sick,
and champion of kings,
O trophy-bearer,
and Great Martyr George,
intercede with
Christ our God that
our souls be saved."

Sources

A critical edition of the Syriac Acta of Saint George, accompanied by an annoted English translation was published by E.W. Brooks (1863-1955) in 1925. The hagiography was originally written in Greek.

George and the Dragon

One of the earliest extant depictions of St. George survives in a church at the Russian village of Ladoga.
Main article: Saint George and the Dragon

The episode of St George and the Dragon was Eastern in origin,[3] brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance (Loomis; Whatley). The earliest known depiction of the mytheme is from early eleventh-century Cappadocia (Whately), (in the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church, George had been depicted as a soldier since at least the seventh century); the earliest known surviving narrative text is an eleventh-century Georgian text (Whatley).

In the fully-developed Western version, a dragon makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of Cyrene in Libya or the city of Lydda, depending on the source. Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, in order to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon a human sacrifice. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happened to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life with no result. She is offered to the dragon, but there appears the saint on his travels. He faces the dragon, slays it and rescues the princess. The grateful citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity.

The dragon motif was first combined with the standardized Passio Georgii in Vincent of Beauvais' encyclopedic Speculum historale and then in Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend, which guaranteed its popularity in the later Middle Ages as a literary and pictorial subject (Whatly).

The parallels with Perseus and Andromeda are inescapable. In the allegorical reading, the dragon embodies a suppressed pagan cult.[4] The story has roots that predate Christianity. Examples such as Sabazios, the sky father, who was usually depicted riding on horseback, and Zeus's defeat of Typhon the Titan in Greek mythology, along with examples from Germanic and Vedic traditions, have led a number of historians, such as Loomis, to suggest that George is a Christianized version of older deities in Indo-European culture.

In the medieval romances, the lance with which St George slew the dragon was called Ascalon, named after the city of Ashkelon in Israel. [5]

Saint George and the Dragon, Paolo Uccello, c. 1470. This small one has the look of a griffin or a wyvern.

In Sweden, the princess rescued by Saint George is held to represent the kingdom of Sweden, while the dragon represents an invading army. Several sculptures of Saint George battling the dragon can be found in Stockholm, the earliest inside Storkyrkan ("The Great Church") in the Old Town.

The façade of architect Antoni Gaudi's famous Casa Batlló in Barcelona, Spain depicts this allegory.

Iconography

St. George is most commonly depicted in early icons, mosaics and frescos wearing armour contemporary with the depiction, executed in gilding and silver colour, intended to identify him as a Roman soldier. After the Fall of Constantinople and the association of St George with the crusades, he is more often portrayed mounted upon a white horse. At the same time St George began to be associated with St. Demetrius, another early soldier saint. When the two saints are portrayed together mounted upon horses, they may be likened to earthly manifestations of the archangels Michael and Gabriel. St George is always depicted in Eastern traditions upon a white horse and St. Demetrius on a red horse[6] St George can also be identified in the act of spearing a dragon, unlike St Demetrius, who is sometimes shown spearing a human figure, understood to represent Maximian.

Later depictions and occurrences

File:Poklonka tsereteli.jpg
Moscow has probably more sculptures of St. George slaying the dragon than any other city: the iconography is even represented on Moscow's (and Russia's) coat of arms.

During the early 2nd millennium, George came to be seen as the model of chivalry, and during this time was depicted in works of literature, such as the medieval romances.

Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, compiled the Legenda Sanctorum, (Readings of the Saints) also known as Legenda Aurea (the Golden Legend) for its worth among readers. Its 177 chapters (182 in other editions) contain the story of Saint George.

Colours

Main article: St George's Cross

The "Colours of Saint George", or St George's Cross) are a white flag with a red cross, frequently borne by entities over which he is patron (e.g. England, Georgia, Liguria, Catalonia etc).

The origin of the St George's Cross came from the earlier plain white tunics worn by the early crusaders.

The same colour scheme was used by Viktor Vasnetsov for the facade of the Tretyakov Gallery, in which some of the most famous St. George icons are exhibited and which displays St. George as the coat of arms of Moscow over its entrance.

Patronage and remembrance

In 1969, Saint George's feast day was reduced to an optional memorial in the Roman Catholic calendar; the solemnity of his commemoration depends on purely local observance. He is, however, still honoured as a saint of major importance by the Eastern Orthodox Church and in Oriental Orthodoxy.

England

File:SVH06 2.jpg
A 2006 gold proof half sovereign by the Royal Mint depicting St George killing the dragon

The cult of St George probably first reached the Kingdom of England when the crusaders returned from the Holy Land in the 12th century. King Edward III of England (reigned 1327 – 1377) was known for promoting the codes of knighthood and in 1348 founded the Order of the Garter. During his reign, George came to be recognised as the patron saint of England; prior to this, Saint Edmund had been considered the patron saint of England, although his veneration had waned since the time of the Norman conquest, and his cult was partly eclipsed by that of Edward the Confessor. Edward dedicated the chapel at Windsor Castle to the soldier saint who represented the knightly values of chivalry which he so much admired, and the Garter ceremony takes place there every year. In the 16th Century, William Shakespeare firmly placed St George within the national conscience in his play Henry V in which the English troops are rallied with the cry “God for Harry, England and St George.” On June 2 1893, Pope Leo XIII demoted St George as Patron Saint for the English, relegating him to the secondary rank of 'national protector' and replaced him with St Peter as the Patron Saint of England. The change was solemnly announced by Cardinal Herbert Vaughan in the Brompton Oratory. This papal pronouncement served to exclude the Catholic Church in England from a day which is part of English tradition. In 1963, in the Roman Catholic Church, St George was further demoted to a third class minor saint and removed him from the Universal Calendar, with the proviso that he could be honoured in local calendars. Pope John Paul II, in 2000, restored St George to the Calendar, and he appears in Missals as the English Patron Saint.

With the revival of Scottish and Welsh nationalism, there has been renewed interest within England in St George, whose memory had been in abeyance for many years. This is most evident in the St George's flags which now have replaced Union Flags in stadiums where English sports teams compete. Nevertheless, St George’s Day still remains a relatively low-key affair with the City of London not publicly celebrating the patron saint. However, the City of Salisbury does hold an annual St George’s Day pageant, the origins of which are believed to go back to the thirteenth century.

Palestine

Saint George is the patron saint of the Palestinian Christians, who lay claim to him as Saint George was from Palestine. In the areas around Bethlehem, where Saint George is said to have lived in his childhood, many Christians and many Muslims as well have a picture of St-George (known as Mar Girgius) in front of their homes, for his protection. In one hotel in Bethlehem, the Saint appears over the elevator, as well as other places throughout the structure.

Lebanon

Saint George is the patron saint of Beirut.[7] Many bays around Lebanon are named after Saint George, particularly the Saint George Bay in Beirut.

The Saint George Bay in Beirut is believed to be the place where the dragon lived and where it was slain.[8] In Lebanon, Saint George is believed to have cleaned off his spear at a massive rocky cave running into the hillside and overlooking the beautiful Jounieh Bay. Others argue it is at the Bay of Tabarja. The waters of both caves are believed to have miraculous powers for healing ailing children.[9]

An ancient gilded icon of St. George at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Beirut has been a major attraction for believers, Copts, Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Maronites and some Muslims, for many centuries.[10] Many churches are named in honor of the saint in Lebanon:

Georgia

Alaverdi Monastery of Kakheti, in Georgia

Saint George is a patron saint of Georgia. According to Georgian author Enriko Gabisashvili, Saint George is most venerated in the nation of Georgia. An 18th century Georgian geographer and historian Vakhushti Bagrationi wrote that there are 365 Orthodox churches in Georgia named after Saint George according to the number of days in one year. [11] There are indeed many churches in Georgia named after the Saint and Alaverdi Monastery is one of the largest.

The Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates St. George's day twice a year, on May 6 (O.C. April 23) and November 23. The feast day in November was instituted by St Nino of Cappadocia, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century. She was from Cappadocia like Saint George and was his relative. This feast day is unique to Georgia and it is the day of St. George's martyrdom.

White George on Georgian COA

There are also many folk traditions in Georgia that vary from Georgian Orthodox Church rules, because they portray the Saint differently than the Church does and show the veneration of Saint George in common people of Georgia. Different regions of Georgia have different traditions and in most folk tales Saint George is adored as Christ himself. Kakheti province has the icon of White George. White George is also seen on the current Coat of Arms of Georgia. Pshavi region has the icons of Cuppola St. George and Lashari St. George. Khevsureti region has Kakhmati, Gudani, Sanebi icons dedicated to the Saint. Pshavs and Khevsurs used to call Saint George the God while they prayed in the Middle Ages. Another notable icon is Lomisi Saint George in Mtiuleti and Khevi provinces of Georgia. [11]

File:StGeorge.jpg
Statue of Saint George in the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia

An example of folk tale about St. George: Once Jesus Christ, prophet Elijah and St. George were going through Georgia. When they became tired and hungry they stopped to dine. They saw a Georgian shepherd man and decided to ask him to feed them. First, Elijah went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep. After the shepherd asked his identity Elijah said that, he was the one who sent him rain to get him a good profit from farming. The shepherd became angry at him and told him that he was the one who also sent thunderstorms, which destroyed the farms of poor widows.

After Elijah, Jesus Christ himself went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep and told him that he was the god, the creator of everything. The shepherd became angry at Jesus and told him that he is the one who takes the souls away of young men and grants long lives to many dishonest people.

After Elijah and Christ's unsuccessful attempts, St. George went up to the shepherd, asked him for a sheep and told him that he is Saint George who the shepherd calls upon every time when he has troubles and St. George protect him from all the evil and saves him from troubles. After hearing St. George, the shepherd fell down on his knees and adored him and gave him everything. This folk tale shows the veneration of St. George in the Middle Ages provinces of Georgia and similar tales are told in the northern mountainous parts of the country.[11]

An interesting facts are Georgian sources, some of which are testified by Persian ones, that Georgian Army during the battles were led by the knight on the white horse who came down from the heaven. Catholicos Besarion of Georgia also testified this fact.

Cross of St. George, Russian imperial decoration for military heroism.

Bulgaria

Possibly the most celebrated name day in the country, St George's Day (Гергьовден, Gergyovden) is a public holiday that takes place on 6 May every year. A common ritual is to prepare a whole lamb and eat lamb, which is an ancient practice possibly related to Slavic pagan sacrificial traditions and the fact that he is the patron saint of the shepherds.

St. George's Day is also the Day of the Bulgarian Army (made official with a decree of Knyaz Alexander of Bulgaria on 9 January 1880) and parades are organised in the capital Sofia to present the best of the army's equipment and manpower.

Spain and Portugal

On the Iberian peninsula, Saint George also came to be considered as patron to the Crown of Aragon and Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca; (Spanish language: San Jorge, Catalan language: Sant Jordi) and Portugal (Portuguese language: São Jorge). Already connected in accepting George as their patron saint, in 1386 England and Portugal agreed to an Anglo-Portuguese Alliance. Today this treaty between the United Kingdom and Portugal is still in force.

His feast date, April 23, is one of the most important holidays in Catalonia, where it is traditional to give a present to the loved one; red roses for the women and books for the men. It's also the Day of Aragon (Spain). This, together with the anniversary of the deaths, in 1616, of Cervantes and Shakespeare, has led UNESCO to declare April 23 World Book and Copyright Day.

Belgium

In Mons (Belgium)[2], Saint Georges is honoured each year at the Trinity Sunday. In the heart of the city, a reconstitution (known as the “Combat dit Lumeçon”) of the fight between Saint Georges and the dragon is played by 46 actors [3]. According to the tradition, the inhabitants of Mons try to get a piece of the dragon during the fight. This will bring luck for one year to the ones succeeding in this challenge. This event is part of the annual Ducasse and is attended by thousands of people.

Greece

In Greece, St. George is the patron saint of the Hellenic Army. His image adorns all regimental battle flags (Colours), and military parades are held in his honour on 23 April every year in most army garrison towns and cities.

St.George (Sv. Jurij), sculpture at Croatian coast

Brazil

In the religious tradition of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé, Ogoun (as this Yoruba divinity is known in the Portuguese language) is often identified with Saint George in many regions of the country, being widely celebrated by both religions' followers.

United States

The United States Armor Association ("a non-profit organization with over 6,000 members dedicated to disseminating knowledge of the military art and sciences, with special attention to mobility in ground warfare"[12]) "recognizes its finest tankers and cavalrymen" with a bronze medal of the Order of St. George.[13]. St George is also known to be the patron saint of the Boy Scouts of America.[14]

India

There are numerous churches dedicated to St. George in India (especially in Kerala) practising Oriental Orthodoxy.

Freemasons

The Freemasons consider St. George one of their primary patron saints. The United Grand Lodge of England holds its annual festival on a day as near as possible to St. George's Day, and St. George is depicted on the ceiling of the Grand Lodge Temple on Great Queen Street, London. A number of Masonic lodges around the world bear the name of St. George.

Scouting

St George's Day is also celebrated with parades in those countries of which he is the patron saint. Also, St George is the patron saint of Scouting. On St George's day (or the closest Sunday), Scouts in some countries choose to take part in a parades and some kind of church service in which they renew their Scout Promise.

Other

In Italy, Saint George is the patron saint of Reggio Calabria. He is also apparently the patron saint of skin disease sufferers and syphilitic people.[4] In Colombia there is a school called Gimnasio Campestre which honors St. George and where they recite his hymn every Friday.

Muslim world

In Islamic cultures, the Prophet or Saint al-Khidr or Khizar; according to the Quran a companion of the Prophet Muwsa Moses, is associated with Mar Girgis (St. George), who is also venerated under that name by Christians among mainly Muslim people, especially Palestinian people, and mainly around Jerusalem, where according to tradition he lived and often prayed near the Temple Mount, and is venerated as a protector in times of crisis. His main monument is the elongated mosque Qubbat al-Khidr ('The Dome of al-Khidr') which stands isolated from any close neighbors on the northwest corner of the Dome of the Rock terrace in Jerusalem.

Interfaith shrine

There is a tradition in the Holy Land of Christians and Muslim going to an Eastern Orthodox shrine for St. George at Beith Jala, Jews also attending the site in the belief that the prophet Elijah was buried there. This is testified to by Elizabeth Finn in 1866, where she wrote, “St. George killed the dragon in this country [Palestine]; and the place is shown close to Beyroot. Many churches and convents are named after him. The church at Lydda is dedicated to St. George: so is a convent near Bethlehem, and another small one just opposite the Jaffa gate; and others beside. The Arabs believe that St. George can restore mad people to their senses; and to say a person has been sent to St. George’s, is equivalent to saying he has been sent to a madhouse. It is singular that the Moslem Arabs share this veneration for St. George, and send their mad people to be cured by him, as well as the Christians. But they commonly call him El Khudder —The Green—according to their favorite manner of using epithets instead of names. Why he should be called green, however, I cannot tell—unless it is from the colour of his horse. Gray horses are called green in Arabic.” [15] A possible explanation for this colour reference is Al Khidr, the erstwhile tutor of Moses, gained his name from having sat in a barren desert, turning it into a lush green paradise. See above for the association of Al Khidder and St George.

William Dalrymple reviewing the literature in 1999 tells us that J.E. Hanauer in his 1907 book Foklore of the Holy Land: Muslim, Christian and Jewish "mentioned a shrine in the village of Beit Jala, beside Bethlehem, which at the time was frequented by all three of Palestine’s religious communities. Christians regarded it as the birthplace of St. George, Jews as the burial place of the Prophet Elias, Muslims as the home of the legendary saint of fertility known simply as Khidr, Arabic for green. According to Hanauer, in his day the monastery was “a sort of madhouse. Deranged persons of all the three faiths are taken thither and chained in the court of the chapel, where they are kept for forty days on bread and water, the Eastern Orthodox priest at the head of the establishment now and then reading the Gospel over them, or administering a whipping as the case demands.’[16] In the 1920’s according to Taufiq Canaan’s Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine, nothing seemed to have changed, and all three communities were still visiting the shrine and praying together."[17]

Dalrymple himself visited the place in 1995 "I asked around in the Christian Quarter in Jerusalem, and discovered that the pace was very much alive. With all the greatest shrines in the Christian world to choose from, it seemed that when the local Arab Christians had a problem – an illness, or something more complicated: a husband detained in an Israeli prison camp, for example – they preferred to seek the intercession of St George in his grubby little shrine at Beit Jala rather than praying at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem."[17] He asked the priest at the shrine "Do you get many Muslims coming here?" The priest replied, "We get hundreds! Almost as many as the Christian pilgrims. Often, when I come in here, I find Muslims all over the floor, in the aisles, up and down."[17][18][19]

The Encyclopædia Britannica quotes G.A. Smith in his Hist. Geog. of Holy Land p. 164 saying “The Mahommedans who usually identify St. George with the prophet Elijah, at Lydda confound his legend with one about Christ himself. Their name for Antichrist is Dajjal, and they have a tradition that Jesus will slay Antichrist by the gate of Lydda. The notion sprang from an ancient bas-relief of George and the Dragon on the Lydda church. But Dajjal may be derived, by a very common confusion between n and l, from Dagon, whose name two neighboring villages bear to this day, while one of the gates of Lydda used to be called the Gate of Dagon.”[20]

In Malta, St George is the patron saint of the village of Qormi.

Etymology

The name George comes from Latin Georgius, from Greek Georgios "husbandman, farmer," from geo "earth" + ergon "work".

Notes

  1. ^ The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge omitted Saint George.
  2. ^ Butler.
  3. ^ Robertson, The Medieval Saints' Lives (pp 51-52) suggested that the dragon motif was transferred to the George legend from that of his fellow soldier saint, Saint Theodore Tiro. The Roman Catholic writer Alban Butler (Lives of the Saints) was at pains to credit the motif as a late addition: "It should be noted, however, that the story of the dragon, though given so much prominence, was a later accretion, of which we have no sure traces before the twelfth century. This puts out of court the attempts made by many folklorists to present St. George as no more than a christianized survival of pagan mythology."
  4. ^ Loomis 1948:65 and notes 111-17, giving references to other saints' encounters with dragons. "To Loomis's list might be added the stories of Martha . . . and Silvester, which is vigorously summarized (from a fifth-century version of the Actus Silvestri) by the early English writer, Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury (639-709), in his De Virginitate (see Aldhelm: The Prose Works, pp. 82-83). On dragons and saints, see now Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon." (Whatley 2004). Saint Mercurialis, the first bishop of the city of Forlì, in Romagna, is often portrayed in the act of killing a dragon.
  5. ^ Incidentally, the name Ascalon was used by Winston Churchill for his personal aircraft during World War II, according to records at Bletchley Park.
  6. ^ The red pigment may appear black if it has bitumenized.
  7. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1937546.stm
  8. ^ http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197106/st.george.the.ubiquitous.htm
  9. ^ http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197106/st.george.the.ubiquitous.htm
  10. ^ http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/197106/st.george.the.ubiquitous.htm
  11. ^ a b c Gabidzashvili, Enriko. 1991. Saint George: In Ancient Georgian Literature. Armazi - 89: Tbilisi, Georgia.
  12. ^ "The U.S. Armor Association homepage". Retrieved on Jan. 17, 2007
  13. ^ "U.S. Armor Association Awards Program". Retrieved on Jan. 17, 2007
  14. ^ "St. George, Patron Saint of Scouting". Retrieved 2007-03-05.
  15. ^ Elizabeth Anne Finn (1866). Home in the Holyland. James Nisbet and Co., London. pp. 46–47.
  16. ^ "Folk-lore of the Holy Land, Moslem, Christian and Jewish, by J. E. Hanauer 1907". Retrieved on Jan. 18, 2007
  17. ^ a b c William Dalrymple. From the Holy Mountain: a journey among the Christians of the Middle East. Owl Books (March 15, 1999).
  18. ^ "Who is Saint George?". St. George's Basilica. Retrieved on Jan. 17, 2007
  19. ^ H. S. Haddad. ""Georgic" Cults and Saints of the Levant". Retrieved on Jan. 18, 2007
  20. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica - eleventh edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Co., New York, NY. 1910. p. 737. Retrieved on Jan. 18, 2007

See also

References

  • Brooks, E.W., 1925. Acts of Saint George in series Analecta Gorgiana 8 (Gorgias Press).
  • Burgoyne, Michael H. 1976. A Chronological Index to the Muslim Monuments of Jerusalem. In The Architecture of Islamic Jerusalem. Jerusalem: The British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.
  • Alban Butler, Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. 2, pp. 148-150. "George, Martyr, Protector of the Kingdom of England" (on-line text)
  • Gabidzashvili, Enriko. 1991. Saint George: In Ancent Georgian Literature. Armazi - 89: Tbilisi, Georgia.
  • Loomis, C. Grant, 1948. White Magic, An Introduction to the Folklore of Christian Legend (Cambridge: Medieval Society of America)
  • Natsheh, Yusuf. 2000. "Architectural survey", in Ottoman Jerusalem: The Living City 1517-1917. Edited by Sylvia Auld and Robert Hillenbrand (London: Altajir World of Islam Trust) pp 893-899.
  • Whatley, E. Gordon, editor, with Anne B. Thompson and Robert K. Upchurch, 2004. St. George and the Dragon in the South English Legendary (East Midland Revision, c. 1400) Originally published in Saints' Lives in Middle English Collections

(Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications) (On-line Introduction)

External links

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