GEORGE, saint and martyr. — Venerated with great reverence from earliest antiquity both in the East and in the West. The sanctuary built over his tomb at Lydda (Diospolis) in Palestine, a frequent pilgrimage destination since the 4th century (CSEL, 39, p. 139, 176; V. pp. 288 ff.), still existed in the 9th century. Unfortunately, this veneration is not matched by reliable information about the life and martyrdom of the saint. His identity remains unknown, to the extent that attempts have been made to identify him with one of the martyrs attested in authentic sources: with the anonymous youth who tore down Diocletian’s edict of persecution at Nicomedia (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VIII, 5), with Elpidius, a martyr of Mesopotamia venerated on the same day as G., and even with the homonymous Arian bishop of Alexandria who perished in a popular uprising under Julian the Apostate (Socrates, Hist. eccl., III, 3).
The *dies natalis*, recorded in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* on 23 April, derives from the indication in the *Passio*. This text is very ancient and certainly existed by the 5th century, since it is mentioned and condemned in the famous *Decretum Gelasianum De libris recipiendis et non recipiendis*; yet it is entirely fabulous and fantastic. Over the centuries, various recensions were made, gradually stripping it of clearly suspect passages and enriching it with arbitrarily chosen historical elements. Many versions exist in Latin, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and other languages.
According to the oldest redaction, G. was a native of Cappadocia but lived in Palestine, where he served as a military tribune. When the persecution of Diocletian broke out, he distributed his goods to the poor and openly professed Christianity. Brought before the emperor, he was invited to sacrifice; he refused resolutely and, after being tortured, was imprisoned and forced to spend the night with a large stone on his belly. There he received a vision from God, who foretold a long series of torments lasting seven years, during which he would die and rise three times. The prophecy was fulfilled, and G. endured terrible martyrdoms, emerging unscathed each time, until he was finally beheaded. The absurd narrative was supposedly written by a certain Pasicrates, an eyewitness. During the Crusades, the cult of G. greatly increased, as he was chosen as the patron of chivalry, and numerous churches and monasteries were dedicated to him in his honor. From the same period, the famous episode of the maiden exposed to a dragon and rescued by G.’s intervention spread in the West. This likely arose from a misinterpretation of a Constantinopolitan image of Constantine (Vita, III, 3: PG 20, 1058), linked to a passage in the panegyric delivered by St. Andrew of Crete in honor of G. (ibid., 87, 1189).
Iconography. — In depictions of the saint, from the 10th century onward in the Christian East, he appears as a young, beardless figure without special attributes, usually accompanied by St. Demetrius. Over time, the representation of St. G. in armor with marked heroic character becomes more frequent, often placed among other warrior saints. The Sicilian mosaic depictions of the 12th century (Cefalù, Monreale, the Palatine Chapel in Palermo) derive from the Byzantine iconographic model.
In Western Europe, from the 12th century onward, depictions of the saint on horseback, slaying a dragon, appear. This model was especially followed in late Gothic art in France and Germany and in the Italian Renaissance. Among the prototypes may be cited, besides certain sculptures in the Museum of Lucca, the two panels by Paolo Uccello, one in the Lanckoronski collection in Vienna and the other in the Jacquemart-André collection in Paris; the panel by Il Francia in the Corsini Gallery in Rome; and the small panel in the Louvre, an early work by Raphael.
In Italian Renaissance art, however, he is often depicted standing, armed and armored, omitting the dragon, as in Donatello’s statue for the tabernacle of Orsanmichele, now in the Bargello Museum in Florence, or with the dragon lying behind the slain beast, as in Mantegna’s panel in the Accademia in Venice. Dürer’s engraving of 1514 follows this same manner.
The entire legend of St. G. was frescoed in 1377 by Jacopo degli Avanzi in the Basilica del Santo in Padua, and in 1505 by Vittore Carpaccio in San Giorgio degli Schiavoni in Venice. The same painter also left a predella of the altarpiece of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, with Stories of the Saint.
Folklore. — Among the saints of antiquity, none has eclipsed the glory of St. G. His fame has spread to every part of the Christian world: the East and the West have celebrated him with enthusiasm in prose and verse, in every language (Delehaye). The folklore material concerning both the legend and popular devotion is extraordinarily rich.
Regarding the development of the legend, Delehaye himself acknowledges that it “renferme un grand nombre d'éléments empruntés au folk-lore.” It must be noted, however, that popular tradition generally ignores the first part of the saint’s life and focuses the narrative solely on the dragon episode, which, as is well known, appears quite late in hagiographic texts. This episode inspired numerous folk songs in various European countries, especially in the Slavic world. In Italy, an “oration” in epic hendecasyllables of notable force and beauty is widespread from Romagna to Calabria in numerous versions: it reveals clear connections with an unpublished Venetian poem preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (ms. II. 1069, fol. 100–111). A Tuscan poem in ottava rima from the 15th century survives in early printed editions and was reproduced several times; it recounts the entire legend of the saint as given by Jacobus de Voragine. Several lyric-narrative *laude* draw on the same source, including one preserved in a Tuscan laudario from the early 14th century (Cod. Magliabechiano 11–12), another composed by Feo Belcari, and another by Francesco di Albizzo. In Florentine Renaissance theater, there were multiple sacred representations inspired by St. G., partly because a quarter of the city was dedicated to him and the Compagnia di S. G. was charged each year with commemorating his miraculous deeds—sometimes through a procession featuring a “dragon that spewed fire from its mouth, tail, and other parts, followed by the king of Libya’s daughter on a white palfrey.”
The popular cult of St. G. is very ancient: it arose around the tomb of the warrior martyr transformed into a sanctuary at Lydda, on the road to Jerusalem, as early as the 11th century.
For its diffusion in Italy and its cult, in Rome Belisarius invoked him as the defender of the Porta San Sebastiano. The cult thus has Eastern origins and was revived in the West through the Crusades. For a time, the Dardanelles were called the Strait of St. George. Various nations, regions, and cities have him as their patron, such as England (since 1222, Synod of Oxford), Portugal, Catalonia and Aragon, Georgia, and Lithuania.
Genoa, which venerates him as its patron, has named its bank after him; Venice has dedicated three notable churches to him, renowned for their works of art. In Italy there are 118 towns that bear the name of the saint, scattered throughout the country; famous is the vernacular inscription (1135) on the façade of Ferrara Cathedral dedicated to him. Countless churches and chapels are dedicated to the saint; many of them are pilgrimage destinations and the object of particular forms of popular devotion.
The feast day, celebrated on 23 April, marks for the common people of many European countries the beginning of spring, along with all the related customs and manifestations of a rustic and propitiatory nature, similar to those associated with Calendimaggio. Among the Slavs of Carinthia, young people adorn a tree with flowers and carry it in procession amid songs of joy and music; the principal figure in the procession is the “green G.,” a boy dressed in foliage who, at the end, is thrown into the water with the intention of ensuring rain for the hay and grain. Often, at the last moment, the boy is replaced by a dummy. Similar customs are found in some districts of Russia, among the Gypsies of Transylvania and Romania, who attribute to the flower-covered tree efficacious virtues against illness or for childbirth. In many other countries as well, St. George is invoked as a healer; in France and Germany, the waters of many fountains dedicated to him are considered miraculous. As the protector of knights, he is also the patron of horses and, in general, of livestock. In Germany and the Slavic countries, he is invoked as a powerful enemy of witches. As the slayer of the dragon, he also protects against reptiles. It is believed that in some places his cult has replaced that of earlier pagan spring deities: in Lithuania, the god Pergrubius, and in Georgia (where the feast is celebrated on 14 August), the god Lano. Arbitrary comparisons have also been made with the Egyptian god Horus and the Indian Shiva.
In Italy, these springtime and rustic aspects of the popular cult of St. George have almost entirely disappeared; indeed, in many regions his feast day passes unnoticed. Yet notable traces remain in Sardinia and in northern Italy, from Piedmont to Istria.