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By George, He’s History

I live across the street from a beautiful Antiochene Orthodox Church that goes by the name of St. George’s. It used to have, front and center, a cool stained-glass window depicting a gigantic eye, which was underscored by the words “The Eye of God Is on You.” Alas, several years ago, the church replaced the eye with a nice cross. I keep a color photo of the old window above my desk, just to remind me.

April 23 is St. George’s feast day, so it’s good for us to remember him, even though he’s trumped this year, among us Romans, by Mercy Sunday. St. George was a soldier and a martyr, and he’s usually depicted making shish-kebab out of dragon meat. The old Catholic Encyclopedia has this to say about him:

Martyr, patron of England, suffered at or near Lydda, also known as Diospolis, in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. According to the very careful investigation of the whole question recently instituted by Father Delehaye, the Bollandist, … the above statement sums up all that can safely be affirmed about St. George, despite his early cultus and pre-eminent renown both in East and West … This, however, by no means implies that the martyr St. George never existed. An ancient cultus, going back to a very early epoch and connected with a definite locality, in itself constitutes a strong historical argument. Such we have in the case of St. George. The narratives of the early pilgrims … from the sixth to the eighth century, all speak of Lydda or Diospolis as the seat of the veneration of St. George, and as the resting-place of his remains. The early date of the dedications to the saint is attested by existing inscriptions of ruined churches in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, and the church of St. George at Thessalonica is also considered by some authorities to belong to the fourth century. Further the famous decree “De Libris recipiendis,” attributed to Pope Gelasius in 495, attests that certain apocryphal Acts of St. George were already in existence, but includes him among those saints “whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are only known to God.”

More here.

3 thoughts on “By George, He’s History

  1. Michael:
    And an excellent day to buy books too. ;) In Catalunya, it’s been tradition since the low Middle ages to the wife/sister/mom/female relative buy a book and offer it to a male relative; and the dad/son/nephew to buy a rose and give it to a woman relative. Of course time have changed and women can get both the book and the rose :)

    xavier

  2. This is why I love multiculturalism. In Sicily my ancestors did nothing so wonderful.

  3. Michael:
    Well the Norman kings were rather busy with other activities to promote books and roses ;)

    xavier

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