46 Facts About St George

Saint George, George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity.

Saint St George was a soldier of Cappadocian Greek origin and member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian, who was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith.

St George became one of the most venerated saints and megalomartyrs in Christianity, and he has been especially venerated as a military saint since the Crusades.

St George is respected by Christians, Druze, as well as some Muslims as a martyr of monotheistic faith.

St George went on to become a soldier for the Roman army, but, because of his Christian faith, he was arrested and tortured, "at or near Lydda, called Diospolis"; on the following day, he was paraded and then beheaded, and his body was buried in Lydda.

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In later versions of the Greek legend, this name is rationalised to Diocletian, and St George's martyrdom is placed in the Diocletian persecution of AD 303.

St George's body was buried in Lydda, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr.

St George's martyrdom was greatly extended to more than twenty separate tortures over the course of seven years.

When St George finally died, the wicked Dacian was carried away in a whirlwind of fire.

St George was apparently martyred there, at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century; that is all that can be reasonably surmised about him.

Bishop St George was slain by Gentile Greeks for exacting onerous taxes, especially inheritance taxes.

St George adds that: "the connection of St George with a dragon-slaying legend does not relegate him to the region of the myth".

St George is included in some Muslim texts as a prophetic figure.

St George is described as a rich merchant who opposed erection of Apollo's statue by Mosul's king Dadan.

St George is able to convert the queen but she is put to death.

St George then prays to God to allow him to die, which is granted.

St George was killed many times by the king of Mosul, and resurrected each time.

Veneration of St George spread from Syria Palaestina through Lebanon to the rest of the Byzantine Empire – though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium – and the region east of the Black Sea.

The first description of Lydda as a pilgrimage site where St George's relics were venerated is De Situ Terrae Sanctae bythe archdeacon Theodosius, written between 518 and 530.

St George did not rise to the position of "patron saint" of England until the 14th century, and he was still obscured by Edward the Confessor, the traditional patron saint of England, until in 1552 during the reign of Edward VI all saints' banners other than St George's were abolished in the English Reformation.

St George is renowned throughout the Middle East, as both saint and prophet.

Saint St George is the patron saint of Lebanese Christians, Palestinian Christians, and Syrian Christians.

St George is described as a prophetic figure in Islamic sources.

St George is venerated by some Christians and Muslims because of his composite personality combining several biblical, Quranic and other ancient mythical heroes.

St George killed the dragon in this country; and the place is shown close to Beyroot.

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The church at Lydda is dedicated to St George; so is a convent near Bethlehem, and another small one just opposite the Jaffa gate, and others beside.

The Arabs believe that George can restore mad people to their senses, and to say a person has been sent to St George's is equivalent to saying he has been sent to a madhouse.

St George is very much honoured by the Eastern Orthodox Church, wherein he is referred to as a "Great Martyr", and in Oriental Orthodoxy overall.

The sacred relics of St George were brought to Antioch from Mardin in 900 and were taken to Kerala, India, from Antioch in 1912 by Mar Dionysius of Vattasseril and kept in the Orthodox seminary at Kundara, Kerala.

St George is a highly celebrated saint in both the Western and Eastern Christian churches, and many Patronages of Saint St George exist throughout the world.

St George is the patron saint of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; George slaying the dragon is one of the most frequently used subjects of icons in the church.

St George is one of the patron saints of the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo.

St George is the protector of the island of Gozo and the patron of Gozo's largest city, Victoria.

The flag of St George was carried by the Portuguese troops and hoisted in the fortresses, during the 15th century.

St George is the unofficial patron saint of the city of Rio de Janeiro and of the city of Sao Jorge dos Ilheus.

Additionally, St George is the patron saint of Scouts and of the Cavalry of the Brazilian Army.

St George is revered in several Afro-Brazilian religions, such as Umbanda, where it is syncretized in the form of Ogum.

St George became the patron saint of the former Kingdom of Aragon and Crown of Aragon when King Pedro I of Aragon won the Battle of Alcoraz in 1096.

Legend has it that victory eventually fell to the Christian armies when St George appeared to them on the battlefield, helping them secure the reconquest of the city of Huesca which had been under the Muslim control of the Taifa of Zaragoza.

Cross of St George, known in Aragon as The Cross of Alcoraz, continues to emblazon the flags of all of Aragon's provinces.

In Valencia, Catalonia, the Balearics, Malta, Sicily and Sardinia, the origins of the veneration of St George go back to their shared history as territories under the Crown of Aragon, thereby sharing the same legend.

St George's cross appears in many buildings and local flags, including the flag of Barcelona, the Catalan capital.

In 1469, the Order of St George was founded in Rome by Emperor Friedrich III of Habsburg in the presence of Pope Paul II in honor of Saint George.

Term "Saint St George's cross" was at first associated with any plain Greek cross touching the edges of the field.

St George is most commonly depicted in early icons, mosaics, and frescos wearing armour contemporary with the depiction, executed in gilding and silver colour, intended to identify him as a Roman soldier.

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Eastern Orthodox iconography permits St George to ride a black horse, as in a Russian icon in the British museum collection.