St George Slayer of Dragons
The Legend of St George and the dragon is a well-known myth and popular part of many cultures including England. He was born in the late 2nd Century in Cappadocia and died on 23rd of April 303 AD in Nicomedia. His Feast day is April 23rd, this is widely celebrated, especially in the East. He is the patron Saint of many countries, cities and walks of life. He is the patron Saint of England, Georgia, Milan, Soldiers and Scouts to name just a few.
It is often remarked by some that St George was a Turk, the Turks however would not even form into a confederacy for another 700 hundred years or so and it would be closer to 1000 years before they arrived in Anatolia. St George as far as we know, is from Cappadocia a Greek City at the time. There are some sources that say his mother was from what is modern day Palestine but of Armenian descent, note, at this time the Palestinians where not Arabic in any sense and the Arabs would not invade for several hundred years. Well, that is that out of the way, I love my Turkish and Palestine Saints the same as I love my English and Italian Saints it should make zero difference to a Catholic, but alas for the sake of probity and historical accuracy I wanted to state this information.
St George has been venerated in the Christian faith since his death in the 3rd century. He was the son of a senior official in Diocletian's court. St George was a soldier and rose through the ranks to become a senior officer in the household guard of the Emperor, I deliberately do not use Roman ranks because at the time of the Tetrarchy the rank structure of the army was a little confusing, but we can be sure he was at the rank of Tribune or Prefect, equivalent to a modern day Major or Lt Colonel.
Tradition states he had been a noted soldier and had an excellent reputation, that is why during one of the Christian persecutions orchestrated by Diocletian or perhaps more so by his junior emperor Galerius, St George was presented as were all citizens, with the option to sacrifice to the Roman Gods or face death and St George took the latter option and remained loyal to Christ, we know he must have been a popular man and one of influence because the Emperor offered him several chances to change his mind.
This is where some theorise the legend of the Dragon comes in. In one story a beautiful young prostitute was sent to him to persuade him to lay with her and so prove he was not truly loyal to God, it turns out she was so convinced by St George she converted and instead accepted death and a martyrs crown herself! Here we see the symbology of George the valiant Knight saving the girls soul against the devil, by whom she had been previously ensnared. Through his courage, steadfastness and using the lance of truth he slays the dragon, often the depiction of the devil in theology, freeing the princess from her trap, as in the legend a young maid is captured but freed.
While St George has been venerated as a Saint throughout the church as a whole, it was mainly in the east until the middle ages and the arrival of the crusaders in the Holy Land. It is often believed he along with other knightly Saints fought alongside the crusaders to free the Holy Land. From here we know the many legends of the dragon, permeated medieval culture in the west and during the renaissance, this is where we get a lot of the tales of George and the dragon, the people of the renaissance never being ones to allow the truth to get in the way of romantic chivalric stories or tales.
Whatever else we know about him, we know he chose death over offering sacrifice to the demons mascaraing as Roman Gods, he chose to stay by the Cross of Jesus Christ so we can always look to his example and follow it.
St George Pray for us