History A
titular church built in
Diospolis during the reign of
Constantine the Great () was consecrated to "a man of the highest distinction", according to the
Church History of
Eusebius; the name of the "
patron" was not indicated. The
Church of Saint George and Mosque of Al-Khadr located in the city is believed to have housed his
relics. Nowadays, in the basement of the monastery, pilgrims find the tomb and fragments of saint's relics. The veneration of George spread from
Syria Palaestina through Lebanon to the rest of the
Byzantine Empire – though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac
Breviarium The early cult of the saint was localised in
Diospolis (Greek: City of God), in
Syria Palaestina. The first description of Diospolis as a pilgrimage site where George's relics were venerated is
De Situ Terrae Sanctae by the archdeacon Theodosius, written between 518 and 530. By the end of the 6th century, the center of his veneration appears to have shifted to
Cappadocia. The
Life of
Saint Theodore of Sykeon, written in the 7th century, mentions the veneration of the relics of the saint in Cappadocia. ,
Konrad von Grünenberg, 1487 By the time of the
early Muslim conquests of the mostly Christian and
Zoroastrian Middle East, a
basilica in Lydda dedicated to George existed. A new church was erected in 1872 and is still standing, where the feast of the translation of the relics of Saint George to that location is celebrated on 3 November each year. In England, he was mentioned among the martyrs by the 8th-century monk
Bede. The
Georgslied is an adaptation of his legend in
Old High German, composed in the late 9th century. The earliest dedication to the saint in England is a church at
Fordington, Dorset, that is mentioned in the will of
Alfred the Great. George did not rise to the position of "patron saint" of England, however, 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 George's were abolished in the
English Reformation. , 1643 Belief in an apparition of George heartened the
Franks at the
Battle of Antioch in 1098, and a similar appearance occurred the following year at Jerusalem. The chivalric military
Order of Sant Jordi d'Alfama was established by king
Peter the Catholic from the
Crown of Aragon in 1201,
Republic of Genoa,
Kingdom of Hungary (1326), and by
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.
Edward III of England put his
Order of the Garter under the banner of George, probably in 1348. The chronicler
Jean Froissart observed the English invoking George as a battle cry on several occasions during the
Hundred Years' War. In his rise as a national saint, George was aided by the very fact that the saint had no legendary connection with England, and no specifically localised shrine, as that of
Thomas Becket at Canterbury: "Consequently, numerous shrines were established during the late fifteenth century," Muriel C. McClendon has written, "and his did not become closely identified with a particular occupation or with the cure of a specific malady." of George at
São Jorge parish church,
São Jorge,
Madeira Island, Portugal In the wake of the Crusades, George became a model of
chivalry in works of literature, including
medieval romances. In the 13th century,
Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, compiled the
Legenda Sanctorum, (
Readings of the Saints) also known as
Legenda Aurea (the
Golden Legend). Its 177 chapters (182 in some editions) include the story of George, among many others. After the invention of the printing press, the book became a best seller. The establishment of George as a popular saint and protective giant in the West, that had captured the medieval imagination, was codified by the official elevation of his feast to a
festum duplex at a church council in 1415, on the date that had become associated with his martyrdom, 23 April. There was wide latitude from community to community in celebration of the day across late medieval and early modern England, and no uniform "national" celebration elsewhere, a token of the popular and vernacular nature of George's
cultus and its local horizons, supported by a local guild or confraternity under George's protection, or the dedication of a local church. When the
English Reformation severely curtailed the saints' days in the calendar, Saint George's Day was among the holidays that continued to be observed. In April 2019, the parish church of São Jorge, in
São Jorge,
Madeira Island, Portugal, solemnly received the
relics of George, patron saint of the parish. During the celebrations the 504th anniversary of its foundation, the relics were brought by the new Bishop of Funchal, D.
Nuno Brás.
Veneration in the Levant George is renowned throughout the Middle East, as both saint and prophet. His veneration by Christians and Muslims lies in his composite personality combining several biblical, Quranic and other ancient mythical heroes.
Palestinian Christians and
Syrian Christians. , 15th century
William Dalrymple, who reviewed the literature in 1999, tells us that
J. E. Hanauer in his 1907 book
Folklore of the Holy Land: Muslim, Christian and Jewish "mentioned a shrine in the village of
Beit Jala, beside
Bethlehem,
Palestine which at the time was frequented by
Christians who regarded it as the birthplace of St. George." The site is actually located in a small village directly adjacent to Beit Jala and named
Al-Khader, in honour of St. George, and it is
St. George's Monastery, Al-Khader. According to Hanauer, in his day the monastery was "a sort of madhouse. Deranged persons of all the three faiths are taken thither and chained in the court of the chapel, where they are kept for forty days on bread and water, the Eastern Orthodox priest at the head of the establishment now and then reading the Gospel over them, or administering a whipping as the case demands." In the 1920s, according to
Tawfiq Canaan's
Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine, nothing seemed to have changed, and all three communities were still visiting the shrine and praying together." Dalrymple visited the place in 1995. "I asked around in the
Christian Quarter in
Jerusalem, and discovered that the place was very much alive. With all the greatest shrines in the Christian world to choose from, it seemed that when the local
Palestinian Christians had a problem – an illness, or something more complicated – they preferred to seek the intercession of George in his grubby little shrine at Beit Jala rather than praying at the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or the
Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem." The
Encyclopædia Britannica from 1911 quoted the Scottish theologian
G. A. Smith in his
Historic Geography of the Holy Land (1894), assuming: "The Mahommedans who usually identify St. George with the prophet Elijah, at Lydda confound his legend with one about Christ himself. Their name for Antichrist is
Dajjal, and they have a tradition that Jesus will slay Antichrist by the gate of Lydda. The notion sprang from an ancient
bas-relief of George and the Dragon on the Lydda church. But Dajjal may be derived, by a very common confusion between
n and
l, from
Dagon, whose name
two neighbouring villages bear to this day, while one of the gates of Lydda used to be called the Gate of Dagon." The connection of Saint George with a dragon was familiar since the
Golden Legend of
Jacobus de Voragine and can be traced to the close of the 6th century. At
Apollonia–Arsuf or
Joppa — neither of them far from Lydda — the
mythological hero Perseus had slain the sea-monster that threatened the
virgin Andromeda, and George, like many other Christian saints, entered into the inheritance of veneration previously enjoyed by a pagan hero as the French
archaeologist Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau wrote. Apollonia–Arsuf was one of several places where pagan imagination placed the exposure of Andromeda. Clermont-Ganneau derives Arsuf from Reseph, the
Phoenician deity whom he identifies with Perseus. The myth travelled to Lydda (al-Lydd), where Perseus became George; and from there, mainly by the influence of the
crusaders, Perseus and his dragon walked into the medieval European imagination. Due to the
Christian influence on the Druze faith, two
Christian saints have become among the
Druze's most venerated figures: Saint George and
Saint Elias. Thus, in all the villages inhabited by Druze and Christians in central
Mount Lebanon a Christian church or Druze
maqam is dedicated to either one of them. According to
Elizabeth Anne Finn's
Home in the Holy land (1866): The mosque of Nabi Jurjis, which was restored by
Timur in the 14th century, was located in Mosul and supposedly contained the tomb of George. It was destroyed in July 2014
by the occupying Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who also destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Sheeth (
Seth) and the
Mosque of the Prophet Younis (
Jonah). The militants claimed that such mosques have become places for apostasy instead of prayer. George or
Hazrat Jurjays was the patron saint of Mosul. Along with
Theodosius, he was revered by both Christian and Muslim communities of
Jazira and
Anatolia. The wall paintings of
Kırk Dam Altı Kilise at
Belisırma dedicated to him are dated between 1282 and 1304. These paintings depict him as a mounted knight appearing between donors including a Georgian lady called Thamar and her husband, the Emir and Consul Basil, while the Seljuk Sultan
Mesud II and Byzantine Emperor
Andronicus II are also named in the inscriptions. A
shrine attributed to prophet George can be found in
Diyarbakır, Turkey.
Evliya Çelebi states in his
Seyahatname that he visited the tombs of prophet
Jonah and prophet George in the city. The reverence for Saint George, who is often identified with
Al-Khidr, is deeply integrated into various aspects of Druze culture and religious practices. He is seen as a guardian of the
Druze community and a symbol of their enduring faith and resilience. Additionally, Saint George is regarded as a protector and healer in Druze tradition. (1857) In the
General Roman Calendar, the feast of George is on 23 April. In the
Tridentine calendar of 1568, it was given the
rank of "Semidouble". In
Pope Pius XII's
1955 calendar this rank was reduced to "Simple", and in
Pope John XXIII's
1960 calendar to a
"Commemoration". Since
Pope Paul VI's
1969 revision, it appears as an
"optional memorial". In some countries such as England, the rank is higher – it is a Solemnity (Roman Catholic) or Feast (
Church of England): if it falls between
Palm Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter. George is very much honoured by the Eastern Orthodox Church, wherein he is referred to as a "Great Martyr", and in
Oriental Orthodoxy overall. His
major feast day is on 23 April (Julian calendar 23 April currently corresponds to Gregorian calendar 6 May). If, however, the feast occurs before
Easter, it is celebrated on
Easter Monday, instead. The
Russian Orthodox Church also celebrates two additional feasts in honour of George. One is on 3 November, commemorating the
consecration of a
cathedral dedicated to him in Lydda during the reign of
Constantine the Great (305–337). When the church was consecrated, the
relics of George were transferred there. The other feast is on 26 November for a church dedicated to him in
Kiev, . In
Bulgaria, George's day () is celebrated on 6 May, when it is customary to slaughter and roast a lamb. George's day is also a
public holiday. In
Serbia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
Serbian Orthodox Church refers to George as
Sveti Djordje (
Свети Ђорђе) or
Sveti Georgije (
Свети Георгије). George's day (
Đurđevdan) is celebrated on 6 May, and is a common
slava (patron saint day) among ethnic
Serbs. In
Egypt, the
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria refers to George () as the "Prince of Martyrs" and celebrates his martyrdom on the 23rd of
Paremhat of the
Coptic calendar, equivalent to 1 May. The
Copts also celebrate the consecration of the first church dedicated to him on the seventh of the month of Hatour of the Coptic calendar usually equivalent to 17 November. In India, the
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, one of the oriental catholic churches (
Eastern Catholic Churches), and
Malankara Orthodox Church venerate George. The main pilgrim centres of the saint in India are at Aruvithura and Puthuppally in Kottayam District,
Edathua in
Alappuzha district, and
Edappally in
Ernakulam district of the southern state of
Kerala. The saint is commemorated each year from 27 April to 14 May at Edathua. On 27 April after the flag hoisting ceremony by the parish priest, the statue of the saint is taken from one of the altars and placed at the extension of the church to be venerated by devotees till 14 May. The main feast day is 7 May, when the statue of the saint along with other saints is taken in procession around the church. Intercession to George of Edathua is believed to be efficacious in repelling snakes and in curing mental ailments. The sacred relics of 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. H.H. Mathews II Catholicos had given the relics to St. George churches at Puthupally, Kottayam District, and
Chandanappally, Pathanamthitta district. George is
remembered in the
Church of England with a
Festival on 23 April. Catholic Church feast days: • 23 April – main commemoration • 24 April – commemoration in
Poland (23 April – commemoration of
Saint Wojciech) • 7 May –
martyrdom in
Lydda • 20 June – commemoration of
translation of
relics to
Anchin Abbey Eastern Orthodox Church feast days: • 27 January – Commemoration of the Miracle (deliverance of the island of
Zakynthos from the plague) of the Great Martyr George in
Zakynthos in 1689/1688. (
Greek Orthodox Church) • 12 April – Gerontius from Cappadocia,
martyr, father of George, husband of Polychronia () • 23 April – Holy Glorious
Great-martyr, Victory-bearer and
Wonderworker George (303) • 23 April – Polychronia from Cappadocia, martyr, mother of George, wife of Gerontius (303/304) • 6 May –
George's Day in Spring • 3 November – Dedication of the
Church of the Great-martyr George in
Lydda (4th century) • 10 November – Commemoration of the torture of Great-martyr George in 303 • 26 November – Dedication of the
Church of St. George at
Kyiv (1051) ==Patronages==