Myths: George and the dragon Myths about Saint George The image of George most familiar to us today, the saint dressed in a white tunic bedecked with a red cross, astride his stallion, and skewering a dragon as he rescues a fair maiden, depends more on a late medieval and Renaissance ideal of this miles Christi knight of Christ than on his legend in its earlier forms, in which the dragon and the maiden play no part and George's role is one of verbal jousting and violent suffering rather than knightly derring-do.
This infuriated Diocletian, and George was imprisoned and tortured - but he refused to deny his faith.
The demons that lived in the idol then confessed in terror that Christ alone is the true God, and they escaped with a great hubbub, leaving the inert statues to fall to the ground.
A Great Vespers may be conducted on the evening before the day of the Feast. Some believe he never existed or that he's a Christianised version of an older pagan myth. During the reign of John I of Portugal —Saint George became the patron saint of Portugal and the King ordered that the saint's image on the horse be carried in the Corpus Christi procession.
In the 15th century his feast day was as popular and important as Christmas. If this had happened in a less factious period of history, one cannot help concluding that his career would at this point have come to an untimely and inglorious end — and the thousands of people living today who are called George or Georgina would have been christened with a different name.
The Empress Alexandra April 21 also declared herself to be a Christian, but Magnentius constrained her to withdraw to the palace. Early life What we believe to be the truth is that George was born in Cappadocia, an area which is now in Turkey, in the 3rd century; that his parents were Christians; and that when his father died, George's mother returned to her native Palestine, taking George with her.
By your intercessions, O Holy One, all are granted forgiveness of sins. His blood flowed down but, at the first blows, their weapons became twisted as thought they were made of some soft material.