It is St George's Day in England today, although why St George should have become the patron saint of England is somewhat of a mystery. However, he is a man that does get about a bit, holding a revered status in places as diverse as Georgia, Egypt, Bulgaria, Catalonia, Rio de Janeiro, Lviv, and Victoria among many others too numerous to mention.
According to tradition, George (Georgios) was a Greek who was born in either (Roman controlled) Greek Asia Minor or the Palestinian city of Lydda (also part of the Roman Empire) in the latter part of the third century AD. Like his father before him, he joined the Roman legions and, so tradition would have it, rose to the rank of Tribune under the Emperor Diocletian; his father is noted as being one of Diocletian's favourite generals.
Diocletian tends to get a bit of a bum deal as an emperor, largely because, in 'Christian' countries he is seen as a major persecutor of the early Christians, however he almost certainly saved the Roman Empire from imminent collapse in the late third century with his reformations of the army and the bureaucracy. He was also, as far as I know, the only Emperor to have willingly given up the position 'pour cultiver son jardin'*, although he was, in effect, only a ruler of one quarter of the Empire, having given day-to-day control of the remaining portion to three 'mini-Caesars'.
In 302AD, Diocletian, a devout Pagan, made his first move against the religious beliefs, which he believed were undermining the Empire, by persecuting the Manicheans who were followers of the 'prophet' Mani, a third century religious fanatic who had preached a gnostic religion which had its roots in early Christianity and Judaism but which came with all kinds of added enhancements revealed to him by divine revelation; usual story of a prophet there then. Following the persecution of the Manicheans, Diocletian moved onto the Christians.
It is, to my mind at least, unclear as to whether Diocletian originally intended to martyr the Christians or merely confiscate their property and bar them from office in the army and the Roman administration. It does not much matter now as their fate was to become the same as the Manicheans; death....and the confiscation of their property.
Tradition has it that George was raised a Christian by Christian parents and therefore, likely as not, would not engage in apostasy to try and salvage his position as Tribune. Needless to say, he did not and was put to death after the obligatory torture beforehand; the Romans seldom did things by halves, just ask Jesus of Nazareth.
In 311, Galerius rescinded the persecution edicts and twenty or so years later, Constantine would not only make Christianity the Empire's preferred religion but also handed back the confiscated property to the Christians.
George was canonized as a saint by Pope Gelasius I in 494 and from there on in, his fame was assured, although you do have to feel a little sorry for him; if only he had been born just that little bit later.
While there is a little evidence to suggest that a 'cult' of St George existed in Anglo-Saxon times, he really only comes to the fore with the middle ages; returning Crusaders bought back his tales, not the least of which was the slaying of the dragon in defence of the 'maiden', which appealed to the romantic and chivalric notions of the day. As early as 1190, English ships en route to the Holy Land were flying the Cross of St George as protection from the warships of Genoa. (The English made an annual payment to the Doge of Genoa in this earlier Italian 'Protection racket'.)
Whether the dragon slaying has any basis in fact, a chivalrous deed to protect women drawing water from a river infested with Nile crocodiles perhaps, or whether it is a simple allegory of the saint (George) defeating Satan (the dragon) thereby protecting the Church (the maiden) is both largely irrelevant and hugely relevant; that tale has assured him of such widespread fame that it will live long in the minds of the Western world.
* Yes I know that it is 'cultiver notre jardin'; allow me the artistic licence.
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