Saints of the Aquarius Age

SAINT GEORGE

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George the Victorious is the most revered Saint with that name and one of the most famous Saints in the Christian world.

There are many versions of his hagiography, both canonical and apocryphal.

According to the canonical Byzantine hagiography, set forth by Simeon Metaphrastus, Saint George was born in Cappadocia in the 3rd century to rich and pious parents. Some sources give the names of his parents and provide brief information about them: George’s father was Gerontius (a warrior and a senator from Armenian Sevastopol, who had an honorary dignity of a Stratelates); his mother was Polychronia (who owned rich estates near the city of Lydda in Palestinian Syria). By the way, later the city of Lydda was called Georgiopolis (naturally, in honor of George the Victorious) and Diospoliom. Now the city is called Lod and is located in Israel, 20 km southeast of Tel Aviv, close to the country’s largest airport named after David Ben Gurion.

George’s father was martyred for Jesus Christ when George was still a child.

After the death of his father, his mother moved to her homeland, to Lydda, and raised him in strict piety. It was here that George entered military service, and since he distinguished himself by intelligence, courage and bravery in battles, physical strength and beauty, therefore he was noticed by the emperor Diocletian (AD 284–305) and was accepted into his guard with one of the senior military leaders’ ranks.

George’s mother died when he was 20 years old. Having thus received a rich inheritance, George decided to go to the court of Diocletian, hoping to achieve a high position.

 

Diocletian was a talented ruler, but a fanatical follower of the Roman gods. Having set himself the goal of reviving the dying paganism in the Roman Empire, he went down in history as one of the most brutal persecutors of Christians. At the council of the senate in Nicomedia, Diocletian gave all the rulers complete freedom in reprisals against Christians and promised his all-round assistance.

George, hearing this inhuman sentence about the extermination of Christians, experienced deep and righteous compassion for them, and, foreseeing sufferings awaiting him, distributed his property to the poor, set the slaves free, came to Diocletian and, declaring himself a Christian, denounced him for cruelty and injustice. George’s speech was full of strong and convincing objections to the imperial order to persecute Christians.

Stunned by the bold speech of the valiant warrior, the emperor, who loved and exalted George, tried to persuade him not to ruin his youth, glory and honor, but to bring, according to the Roman traditions, a sacrifice to the gods. However, this was followed by a decisive answer, “Nothing in this impermanent life will weaken my desire to serve God.”

 

Therefore, after the unsuccessful persuasion of George to renounce Christ, the Emperor ordered to subject him to various torments, which medieval researchers described with thorough detail… Terrible tortures continued for seven days, but the outcome was always the same – the next morning, George was again physically and spiritually ready to accept any new torture…

On the 8th day, at the end of George’s torment, Emperor Diocletian, descending into the dungeon, once again offered the former commander of his bodyguards to renounce Jesus. To this, George asked to be escorted to the temple of Apollo… When this was done, George stood upright in front of the white stone statue of Apollo and made the sign of the cross… Enraged by this, priests rushed to beat George, and Alexandra, the wife of the Emperor, who had run into the temple, grovelled at the great martyr’s feet and, sobbing, asked to forgive her tyrant husband for his sins. She had been inverted in belief by the miracles which had happened just…

Anger flooded Diocletian, “Cut off! Cut off their heads! Cut off heads to both!”

At night, in a dream, George saw the Savior with a golden crown on his head, who said that Paradise awaited him. George immediately called a servant to write down everything that had been said (one of the apocrypha was written on behalf of this particular servant) and ordered him to take his body to Palestine after death…

The next day, George, having prayed for the last time, laid his head on the chopping block with a calm smile. It happened on 23 April 303.

 

Well… Saint George could have become a talented commander and could have surprised the world with military exploits, but he died when he was not even 30 years old…

Together with George, Empress Alexandra of Rome was martyred, named in the Hagiography as the wife of Emperor Diocletian (although, according to historical sources, the real wife of the emperor was called Priska).

 

By the way, in addition to Simeon Metaphrastes the legends about Saint George were also expounded by Andrew of Jerusalem and Gregory of Cyprus. Moreover, in the Byzantine tradition there is a legendary connection between George the Victorious and the Holy Warriors Theodores – Theodore Stratilates and Theodore Tiron. Researchers explain this by the fact that Galatia and Paphlagonia, which were the centers of veneration of Saint Theodores, were located not far from Asia Minor and Cappadocia, where Saint George was venerated.

There is another connection between Theodore Stratilates and George the Victorious. In Russian spiritual poetic works, Theodore (without specifying which one) is the father of Egory (that is, George the Victorious). There is also a German medieval poem in which the warrior Theodore is named as the brother of George (and it is also unclear from the context whether Tiron or Stratilates).

 

The Latin texts of Saint George’s Hagiography, being originally translations of Greek texts, over time began to differ greatly from them. They say that at the instigation of the devil, the Roman Emperor Dacian, the ruler of 72 kings, subjected Christians to severe persecution, that at that time there lived a certain George from Cappadocia, a native of Melitene, a region in the southern part of historical Lesser Armenia, between Antitaurus and the Euphrates, and that he lived there with a certain pious widow. He was subjected to numerous tortures. Though they were somewhat different from those listed and picturesquely described in Byzantine sources, but the essence remained the same – after each torture, George was healed again… The torment lasted 7 days, and his fortitude and miracles converted 40,900 people to Christianity, including Queen Alexandra. When, on the orders of Dacian, George and Alexandra were executed, a fiery whirlwind descended from the sky and incinerated the Emperor.

In the 13th century, Rehbock von Thurn retold this legend, somewhat simplifying it: 72 kings turned into seven, and countless tortures were reduced to eight (actually, there also was some difference in the nomenclature of tortures).

In the same century, Yakov Voraginsky also participated in the description of Saint George’s tortures, introducing a certain variety… Again, this is not the main thing, but the fact that, through the prayer of George, lightning came down from heaven and incinerated all the idols, and the earth opened up and swallowed the priests… The wife of Dacian (Diocletian’s proconsul), seeing this was inverted in belief; for which she and George were beheaded, and after that, Dacian was also incinerated…

 

George was named THE VICTORIUS for his miraculous help to people in danger…

One of the most famous posthumous miracles of Saint George was the murder of a serpent (a dragon) with a spear… It devastated the land of one pagan king in Berit (modern Beirut), although chronologically this territory had long been under the rule of the Roman Empire… As the legend says, when the lot fell to give the king’s daughter to be torn to pieces by the monster, Saint George appeared on a white horse and pierced the serpent with a spear, saving the princess from death. Of course, the appearance of the Saint contributed to the mass conversion of local residents to Christianity.

 

Of course, legends are meant to consider historical truth that cannot be verified… Legends are (so to speak) … about historical events… These are stories about fantastic biographies of historical figures… However, legends about Saint George have a lot in common. It is clear that the Saint was an outstanding personality, a martyr who patiently endured all tortures, courageously gaining a spiritual victory over the tormentors… He was, for sure, a WARRIOR and a WINNER!

He was a HERO, like all those who were inspired by his exploits and are inspired today – they do not abandon their comrades, and they save the wounded, carrying them from the battlefield under fire… Heroes are symbols for us of all the qualities we would like to possess and all the ambitions we would like to satisfy… Heroes begin with emotional intelligence. These are individuals who are self-aware and assured. They have realistic expectations of the world and their abilities to overcome obstacles. They are willing to take risks for what they deem important. They manage themselves and their inner resources in special ways to serve the needs of their communities and teams in exceptional ways. Heroism also demands savvy connection and interpersonal relationships to answer needs and generate the self-sacrifice that places others first… And at the same time, HEROES have the ability to be optimistic – to smile, to joke…, which always helps to overcome the difficult moments of service and life… HEROES always go above and beyond, they take the blow, saving the lives of others… They see the sky as blue and peaceful… as in childhood… Therefore, they are always ready to defend it…

However, “The new hero… must return home”! By all means!

 

According to legend, Saint George, as he had asked, was buried in Lydda, and a temple of Saint George was built over his tomb, where the ark with part of his relics is located. Part of the head of the Saint is located under the main altar in the Roman basilica of San Giorgio in Velabro. By the way, in 1821, de Plancy described a dozen heads that were kept in churches and monasteries and were considered the head of Saint George the Victorious. They were located: in Venice, San Salvador, Prague, Cologne, Le Mans, Auvergne, Trier, Constantinople, Rome… It is also known that part of the relics is held in the temple-reliquary of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. The French king Louis preserved the relic; it repeatedly served at church festivities in honor of Saint George. The right hand of Saint George is kept in Greece, in a silver shrine on Mount Athos, in the monastery of Xenophon.

 

Saint George has become extraordinarily popular since the time of early Christianity. In the Roman Empire, starting from the 4th century, churches dedicated to him began to appear, first in Syria and Palestine, and then throughout the East. In the West of the Empire, the cult of Saint George also appeared early – no later than the 5th century, as it was evidenced by both apocryphal texts and hagiographies, and by places of worship known in Rome from the 6th century, and in Gaul from the 5th century.

In folk tradition, George is considered to be The Patron of warriors, farmers (after all, the name George comes from the Greek “γεωργός” – “farmer”) and cattle breeders (probably, this is also connected with the myth of how he resurrected an ox). In Serbia, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, believers turn to him with prayers for rain. In Georgia, Saint George is asked for protection from evil, for good luck in hunting, for the harvest and livestock, for healing from ailments, for childbearing. In Western Europe, it is believed that prayers to Saint George help get rid of poisonous snakes and contagious diseases. The Islamic peoples of Africa and the Middle East know Saint George under the name of Al-Nabi Jirjis.

 

By the way, Saint George The Victorious was The Patron of several great builders of Russian statehood and Russian military power. The son of Saint Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles, Yaroslav the Wise, was baptized under the name of George and, naturally, contributed in every possible way to the veneration of Saint George – he built the city of Yuryev, founded the Yuryev monastery in Novgorod, and erected the church of Saint George The Victorious in Kiev… The day of the consecration of the Kyiv Saint George’s Church, performed on November 26, 1051 by Hilarion of Kiev, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Rus’, has forever become a special holiday the Russian people – Saint George’s Day, named “Autumn George” or “Yuri’s Day”, celebrated after the end of the agricultural year and the gathering of the harvest. It had a special significance on the calendar of Russian peasants during the centuries when the system of Russian serfdom was becoming established. The Sudebnik of 1497 defined the two weeks’ period around the Autumn Yuri’s Day (one week before the feast and one week after it), as the only time of the year when Russian peasants were free to move from one landowner to another. A century later, in 1597, Boris Godunov’s regency forbade the movement of peasants on Yuri’s day, thus finalizing the evolution of Russian serfdom.

A popular Russian expression harking back to that unfortunate event still survives (“вот тебе, бабушка, и Юрьев день”, roughly translated as “so much for Yuri’s Day, Granny”, referring to a broken promise or, more generally, to any failed expectation). The Russian word “объегорить” (meaning to deceive or fool someone, literally, “to Yegor around”, with Yegor (Russian – Егор) also being one of the variants of the name “George”) has the same historical origin.

 

Yuri Dolgorukiy or The Long Arm (meaning “Far-Reaching”), a Rurikid prince, the Grand Prince of Kiev, the legendary founder of Moscow, the creator of many Saint George’s churches, and the builder of Yuryev-Polsky (town), was named after Saint George. In 1238, the Grand Prince of Vladimir Yuri (George) Vsevolodovich led the heroic struggle of the Russian people against the Mongol hordes. He laid down his head in the battle of the Sit River, and his memory, as Yegor the Brave, the defender of his native land, was reflected in Russian spiritual poems and epics,. The first Grand Prince of Moscow, at the time when Moscow began gathering Russian lands, was Yuri Danilovich – the oldest son of Saint Daniel of Moscow, a grandson of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Since that time Saint George the Victorious – an equestrian slaying a serpent – became the coat of arms of Moscow and the emblem of the Russian state.

The name of Saint George the Victorious is also associated with “the ribbon of Saint George” (also known as “Saint George’s ribbon” or “the Georgian ribbon”), which traces its history from the ribbon to the soldier’s order of Saint George the Victorious, established on 26 November 1769 by Empress Catherine II. The colors of the ribbon – black and orange (yellow), meaning “smoke and flame” – are a symbol of military prowess and glory. In 1806, distinctive Georgian banners were introduced as a further battle honor awarded to meritorious Guards and Leib Guard regiments. These banners had the Cross of Saint George as their finials and were adorned with 4.44 cm wide Georgian ribbons. Since 1917, the ribbon was banned, and it was revived only in 1941 in orange and black and under the name “Guards ribbon”.

In 1992, the former Order of Saint George and the distinctive sign “Saint George’s Cross” were restored. As in the time of Catherine II, the ribbon again symbolizes courage, valor and continuity of traditions from different eras.

 

Definitely, Saint George the Victorious is The Patron of all Christians, since, for their spiritual future, he gave his life, but the Saint also pays special attention to soldiers – those who defend the Native land and stand for the truth. Of course, people, whose loved ones serve in the army and are exposed to dangers, first turn to Saint George. It is believed that a prayer to the Saint in difficult times can save many lives and grant victory.

 

Saint George the Victorious may be asked to:

  • defeat the enemy, to grant victory in battles for a just cause;
  • protect against ill-wishers, hidden and obvious enemies, attacks of predators in human and animal form;
  • grant recovery, promote healing from ailments;
  • help farmers and pastoralists, to give a harvest and fertility of livestock;
  • protect the economy from natural disasters – storms, fires, loss of livestock;
  • protect farms from robbers and ruin;
  • help to gain firmness, determination and stamina, to find the right solutions in difficult issues;
  • help strengthen faith, get rid of doubts, resist temptations, not lose God in the soul;
  • help to find peace, calm, be sure of the right choice;
  • help in work, sports competitions, trade;
  • contribute to the settlement of litigations.

 

Days to remember Saint George the Victorious:

  • 23 April 23 (6 May) – the day of memory of the Holy Glorious Great Martyr the Victorious and Wonderworker George;
  • 3 (16 November) – the day of the dedication of the Great Martyr George’s Church in the city of Lod (formerly Lydda), in Israel;
  • 10 November 10 (23 November) – the day when the Georgian Orthodox Church especially honors the miracle of deliverance of Saint George from terrible torment on the torture wheel;
  • 26 November (9 December) – the day of the dedication of the Saint George’s Church in Kiev;
  • On 30 November 1918, the Supreme Ruler of the Russian State and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army, Admiral A. V.Kolchak, signed Order No. 110 on the celebration of the Day of the Knights of Saint George on 9 December. According to it “this day considered to be a holiday for the entire Russian Army, whose valiant representatives, with their exploits, bravery and courage, imprinted their love and devotion to our Great Fatherland on the battlefields. This day should be solemnly celebrated annually in all military units”;
  • since 9 December 9, 2007, the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland has been celebrated.