page_title: Patronages of Saint George
section_title: Russia and Bulgaria
hierarchical_section_title: Patronages of Saint George / National saint / Russia and Bulgaria
caption_attribution_description: Artwork of St George slaying the dragon. Mural above the entrance to a church in Sozopol, Bulgaria.
context_page_description: As a highly celebrated saint in both the Western and Eastern Christian churches, Saint George is connected with a large number of patronages throughout the world, and his iconography can be found on the flags and coats of arms of a number of cities and countries.
context_section_description: St. George is praised by the Bulgarians as "liberator of captives, and defender of the poor, physician of the sick". For centuries he has been considered by the Bulgarians as their protector. Possibly the most celebrated name day in the country, St George's Day (Гергьовден, Gergyovden) is a public holiday that takes place on 6 May every year. A common ritual is to prepare and eat a whole lamb. St. George is the patron saint of farmers and shepherds.
  St. George's Day is also the Day of the Bulgarian Army (made official with a decree of Knyaz Alexander of Bulgaria on 9 January 1880), and parades are organised in the capital Sofia to present the best of the army's equipment and manpower.
  In Russia, the cult of Saint George arrived in the 11th century during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (1010–19). The earliest icon of Saint George is at Staraya Ladoga, in a church dedicated to him, dating from the 12th century. The cult, as in Lithuania, displaced that of a pagan deity, the sun god Dazhbog, which involved shepherds bringing their flocks to pastures. Saint George was Yaroslav's patron saint, and also that of his descendant Yuri Dolgorukiy (reigned 1149–51 and 1155–57), who founded what was to become the Russian capital city, Moscow, in 1156 (Yuri is Russian for George). 
  The city's coat of arms originally displayed a mounted soldier slaying a dragon. However, it was not until 1730 that Saint George was officially adopted as Moscow's patron saint, and the mounted soldier would be interpreted as Saint George. There are several statues of Saint George and the dragon in Moscow, all of which are recent, owing to the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church forbade sculptural representations of saints, and the Soviets discouraged religious emblems.
  The arms of Moscow also appears on the coat of arms of Russia, as a small shield on the breast of the double-headed eagle. Two of Russia's highest decorations are called the Cross of St. George and the Order of St. George.
caption: Mural above the entrance to a church in Sozopol, Bulgaria
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