History of St. George

The historical St George the growth and influence of legends about him 
in England the place of St George in English history, literature and
institutions Because the themes are interrelated and affect each other, 
Here they are chronologically. 

St George is the patron saint of England and among the most famous of
Christian figures. But of the man himself, nothing is certainly known. 
Our earliest source, Eusebius of Caesarea, writing c. 322, tells of a 
soldier of noble birth who was put to death under Diocletian at Nicomedia on 23 
April, 303, but makes no mention of his name, his country or his place of 
burial. According to the apocryphal Acts of St George current in various 
versions in the Eastern Church from the fifth century, George held the rank of 
tribune in the Roman army and was beheaded by Diocletian for protesting against 
the Emperor's persecution of Christians. George rapidly became venerated
throughout Christendom as an example of bravery in defence of the poor 
and the defenceless and of the Christian faith. 

George was probably first made well known in England by Arculpus and 
Adamnan in the early eighth century. The Acts of St George, which recounted his
visits to Caerleon and Glastonbury while on service in England, were
translated into Anglo-Saxon. Among churches dedicated to St George was 
one at Doncaster in 1061. George was adopted as the patron saint of 
soldiers after he was said to have appeared to the Crusader army at the Battle 
of Antioch in 1098. Many similar stories were transmitted to the West by
Crusaders who had heard them from Byzantine troops, and were circulated
further by the troubadours. When Richard 1 was campaigning in Palestine 
in 1191-92 he put the army under the protection of St George. 

Because of his widespread following, particularly in the Near East, and 
the many miracles attributed to him, George became universally recognized 
as a saint sometime after 900. Originally, veneration as a saint was 
authorized by local bishops but, after a number of scandals, the Popes began in 
the twelfth century to take control of the procedure and to systematize it. 
A lesser holiday in honour of St George, to be kept on 23 April, was 
declared by the Synod of Oxford in 1222; and St George had become acknowledged 
as Patron Saint of England by the end of the fourteenth century. In 1415, 
the year of Agincourt, Archbishop Chichele raised St George's Day to a 
great feast and ordered it to be observed like Christmas Day. In 1778 the 
holiday reverted to a simple day of devotion for English Catholics. 

The banner of St George, the red cross of a martyr on a white 
background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers possibly in the reign 
of Richard 1, and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of 
the Royal Navy. In a seal of Lyme Regis dating from 1284 a ship is depicted
bearing a flag with a cross on a plain background. During Edward 111's
campaigns in France in 1345-49, pennants bearing the red cross on a 
white background were ordered for the king's ship and uniforms in the same 
style for the men at arms. When Richard 11 invaded Scotland in 1385, every 
man was ordered to wear 'a signe (sic) of the arms of St George', both before 
and behind, whilst death was threatened against any of the enemy's soldiers 
'who do bear the same crosse or token of Saint George, even if they be
prisoners'. 

The fame of St George throughout Europe was greatly increased by the
publication of the Legenda Sanctorum (Readings on the Saints), later 
known as the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) by James of Voragine in 1265. 
The name 'golden legend' does not refer to St George but to the whole 
collection of stories, which were said to be worth their weight in gold. It was 
this book which popularized the legend of George and the Dragon. The legend 
may have been particularly well received in England because of a similar 
legend in Anglo-Saxon literature. St George became a stock figure in the 
secular miracle plays derived from pagan sources which continued to be 
performed at the beginning of spring. The origin of the legend remains obscure. It 
is first recorded in the late sixth century and may have been an allegory 
of the persecution of Diocletian, who was sometimes referred to as 'the 
dragon in ancient texts. The story may also be a christianized version of the 
Greek legend of Perseus, who was said to have rescued the virgin Andromeda 
from a sea monster at Arsuf or Jaffa, near Lydda (Diospolis), where the cult 
of St George grew up around the site of his supposed tomb. 

In 1348, George was adopted by Edward 111 as principal Patron of his 
new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Garter. Some believe that the 
Order took its name from a pendant badge or jewel traditionally shown in
depictions of Saint George. The insignia of the Order include a Collar 
and Badge Appendant, known as the George. The badge is of gold and presents 
a richly enamelled representation of St George on horseback slaying the
dragon. A second medal, the Lesser George, also depicting George and 
the dragon, is worn attached to the Sash. The objective of the Order was
probably to focus the efforts of England on further Crusades to 
reconquer the Holy Land. The earliest records of the Order of the Garter were
destroyed by fire, but it is believed that either in 1348 or in 1344 
Edward proclaimed St George Patron Saint of England. Although the cult of St 
George was suppressed in England at the Reformation, St George's Chapel, 
Windsor, completed in stages from 1483 to 1528, has remained the official seat 
of the Order, where its chapters assemble. The Monarch and the Prince of Wales 
are always members, together with 24 others and 26 Knights or Ladies 
Companion. 

Much later, in 1818, the Prince Regent, later George IV, created the 
Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George to recognize exemplary
service in the diplomatic field. The Order was founded to commemorate 
the British protectorate of the Ionian islands and Malta, which had begun 
in 1814. Originally membership was limited to inhabitants of the islands 
and to Britons who had served locally. In 1879 membership was widened to 
include foreigners who had performed distinguished service in Commonwealth
countries. The Order was reorganized by William 1V into three classes:
Knight Grand Cross (GCMG); Knight Commander (KCMG); and Companion 
(CMG). Nowadays there are women members of each class with the title 'Dame'. 
The medal of the Order shows St George and the Dragon on one side, and St
Michael confronting the Devil on the other with the 
inscription,'auspicium melioris aevi' ('augury of a better age').

 The Chapel of the Order is 
StPaul's Cathedral. 

Saint George is a leading character in one of the greatest poems in the
English language, Spencer's Faerie Queene (1590 and 1596). St George 
appears in Book 1 as the Redcrosse (sic) Knight of Holiness, protector of the
Virgin. In this guise he may also be seen as the Anglican church 
upholding the monarchy of Elizabeth1: 

But on his breast a bloody Cross he bore The dear remembrance of his 
dying Lord, For whose sweet sake that glorious badge we wore And dead (as 
living) ever he adored. 

The legend of St George and the dragon took on a new lease of life 
during the Counter Reformation. The discoveries in Africa, India and the 
Americas, in areas which maps had previously shown as populated by dragons, 
presented vast new fields for Church missionary endeavour, and St George was once
again invoked as an example of danger faced and overcome for the good 
of the Church. Meanwhile, the Protestant author, John Bunyan (1628-88), 
recalled the story of George and the Dragon in the account of the fight between
Christian and Apollyon in Pilgrim's Progress (1679 and 1684). 

The cult of St George was ridiculed by Erasmus after his visit 
(sometime between 1511 and 1513) to the saint's shrine at Canterbury, where the
supposed arm of George attracted a large pilgrim traffic. Edmund Gibbon
claimed that St George was originally George of Cappadocia, the Arian
opponent of St Athanasius, but this theory, says Gibbon's 
nineteenth-century editor, J.B.Bury, 'has nothing to be said for it'. Research which
established what little we actually know about the historical George 
was carried out around the turn of the century by the Bollandists, a 
scholarly society within the Jesuits. On the evidence of fourth century 
inscriptions found in Syria, one dating from c346, and the testimony of the pilgrim
Theodosius, who visited Lydda in 530 and is the first to mention the 
tomb of St George, they concluded that George had indeed actually existed. 

In more modern times, St George was chosen by Baden-Powell, its 
founder, to be patron of the Scouting Movement, and on St George's Day, scouts are
bidden to remember their Promise and the Scout Law. Baden-Powell 
recounted in Scouting for Boys that the Knights of the Round Table 'had as their
patron saint St George because he was the only one of all the saints 
who was a horseman. He is the patron saint of cavalry, from which the word 
chivalry is derived'. 

In 1940, when the civilian population of Britain was subjected to mass
bombing by the Luftwaffe, King George V1 instituted the George Cross 
for 'acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in
circumstances of extreme danger'. The award, which is second only to 
the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration, is usually given to
civilians and can be given posthumously. The award consists of a silver
cross. On one side is depicted St George slaying the dragon, with the
inscription,'For Gallantry'; on the other appear the name of the holder 
and the date of the award. For lesser, but still outstanding acts of 
courage, the King created the George Medal. This also is a silver cross, with on 
one side the reigning monarch and on the other St George slaying the 
dragon. The island of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its heroism in 
resisting attack during World War 11. 

Some confusion has arisen from the revision of its Calendar of Saints 
by the Roman Catholic Church in 1969. Saints have long been honoured with 
different degrees of solemnity. What the Catholic Church did was to downgrade the
recollection of St George to the lowest category, commemoration, an 
optional memorial for local observance. The Church did not abolish St George. 
Indeed, it maintains a fine Cathedral named for him, opposite the Imperial War
Museum in London. 

The reason the Church now simply commemorates St George is that, 
although he certainly existed, so little is definitely known about him. Most of the
legends about George are apochryphal and indeed incredible. The Church 
has never officially held that these legends are literally true, but made 
use of them to illustrate some of its teachings in times when people were more
comfortable with such materials. As early as 496, Pope Gelasius in De  libris
recipiendis includes George among those saints 'whose names are rightly
reverenced among us, but whose actions are known only to God'. The 
virtues associated with St George, such as courage, honour and fortitude in  defence
of the Christian faith, indeed remain as important as ever. St George 
is also, of course, venerated in the Church of England, by the Orthodox
churches and by the Churches of the Near East and Ethiopia. The 
supposed tomb of St George can still be seen at Lod, south-east of Tel-Aviv; and 
a convent in Cairo preserves personal objects which are believed to have
belonged to George. 

St George is still venerated in a large number of places, by followers 
of particular occupations and sufferers from certain diseases. George is 
the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, 
Portugal, Germany and Greece; and of Moscow, Istanbul, Genoa and Venice (second 
to St Mark). He is patron of soldiers, cavalry and chivalry; of farmers and 
field workers, Boy Scouts and butchers; of horses, riders and saddlers; and 
of sufferers from leprosy, plague and syphilis. He is particularly the 
patron saint of archers, which gives special point to these famous lines from
Shakespeare's Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1, l. 31: 

'I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,  Straining upon the  start.
The game's afoot: Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge Cry God for
Harry, England and St George!'. 

Indirectly, the spirit of George the soldier saint played a part in 
modern English history when Sir Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V was issued 
in 1944 as an encouragement to our armies fighting for the liberation of France. 

St. George Chapel An Orthodox Christian Ministry  

clergymen@yahoo.com