Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-11-14
.. A I PATRON SAINT.

ALBloN's PATRON SAINT.
4 short History OF the Life and Heroic
Deeds Of st. George.
Tho historian Gibbon, in his DE
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire, !"
asserts that the patron saint of En-
gland was George Of Cappadocia, the
turbulent Arian Bishop OF Alexandria,
torn to pieces by the populace in 800
A. D., and revered as saint by his
followers. This assertion, however, is
authoritatively disproved by the his
torians Minor, Milman and others.
The true saint was George of Lydia,
who was undoubtedly veritable char
acter, and is known to have been a
native of Armorica, and to have been
beheaded in Diocletian's persecution,
April %, 303 A. d. Critics are gener-
ally agreed that it is to this person that
Eusebius refers in his Ecclesiastical
History in speaking of "a man of no
mean origin, but highly esteemed for
his temporal dignities," who, when
Diocletian's edict against the Christians
was posted up in Nicomedia, ''took it
down and tore it in pieces" AS the
Emperor was then in the city, this deed
brought upon the offender quick and
cruel punishment. The fame of the
noble sufferer for conscience sake soon
extended through all the provinces
where the Christians were represented.
A Greek inscription, dated 346 A. D.,
on an ancient church in Ezra, Syria,
speaks of George as a holy martyr.
St. Jerome, at near. the same time,
records his name in the martyrology OF
the church. Constantine the Great
built a church over the tomb of the
saint near LYDIA, and in the next
century number of churches were
built to his name. Pope Gelasius l., in
404, sanctioned the honors paid to this
martyr, but declared the miracles
ascribed to him in popular legends to
be unworthy of credit. As to his con-
nection with English history, Ashmole,
in his History of the Order of the
Carter" says that King Arthur, in the
sixth century, placed the picture of St..
George on his banners, and he was also
honored in the country in Anglo-Saxon
times. Under Canute a mon astery OF
St. George was founded at Thetford; St.
Georges, Southwark, was built little
later, and in the reign of the Conqueror
a collegiate church of St. George was
built at Oxford. In 1922 a council at
Oxford decreed that St. Georges should
be a national holiday, and in 1880 Ed
ward III. made him the patron of the
Order of the Garter. The story of St..
George and the Dragon may be regard
ed as a common allegory meant to ex-
press the triumph of the Christian over
evil; or perhaps it is a confusion of the
identity of the patron saint with that
of a mythical St. George of Coventry,
whose story is given in ballad form in
Percy's 'Reliques. Richard johnson,
in his book, s'The Seven Champions of
Christendom, written about the mid
die of the seventeenth century, gives
this story of st. George of Coventry.
He was one of the heroes of the cru
sades. After fighting valiantly against
the Saracens he went to Sylene, city
of Lybya, where there was a stag
nant lake infested by a huge
dragon, whose poisonous breath chad
many a city slain,'' and whose hide
mo spear nor sword could pierce -
Every day virgin was sacrificed to it,
and at length it came to the lot of a
Sabra, the Kings daughter, to become
its victim. She was tied to the stake
and left to be devoured, when St.
George came up and vowed to rescue
her. On came the dragon, "breathing
blood and fame" when the valiant
hero thrust his lance into it's capacious
mouth and killed it on the spot. After
encountering considerable opposition
on the part of the young lady's proud
relatives, and having been imprisoned
in a dungeon, from which he miracu-
lousy escaped, young Lord George
carried off the fair Sabra to England,
where sho became his wife. and they
lived happily at Coventry, until their
death. 1t is very possible that this
popular tale was invented to account
for the categorical representation OF
the true St. George and the spirit OF
evil, and thus illustrates the ignorant
literal tendency of the Chicago
Inter- Ocean.