23 April - Georges de Lydda was born around 275/280 in Mazaca, Cappadocia, to a relatively well-to-do family. At the age of fifteen, he went to Nicomedia and became an officer in the Roman army. He appeared before the Emperor Diocletian, who recognized him as the son of his former comrade-in-arms and made him a knight, head of his private guard.
Georges was later promoted to tribune. Both his skill and his mother's origin prompted the authorities to entrust him with the command of military regions deemed difficult, such as Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Libya. He was then raised to the rank of prefect by the same Diocletian. In this capacity, he was responsible for the often conflictual relations between the Roman authorities and the various local populations.
One day he crossed the town of Silene in the Roman province of Libya on his white horse. The city is terrorized by a fearsome dragon that devours all the animals of the region and demands from the inhabitants a daily tribute of two young men drawn by lot. Georges arrives on the day that fate falls on the king's daughter, just as she is about to fall victim to the monster. Georges engages the dragon in a fierce fight; with the help of Christ, and after a sign of the cross, he pierces it with his spear. The princess is freed and the dragon follows her like a faithful dog to the city. The inhabitants of the city having agreed to convert to Christianity and receive baptism, Georges kills the dragon with a scimitar blow because he still frightens them, and then the corpse of the beast is dragged outside the city walls, pulled by four oxen.
After the publication of Diocletian's edicts against the Christians, Georges is imprisoned. Since his faith could not be shaken, he suffered a terrible martyrdom: subjected to many tortures, he miraculously survived and was finally beheaded on April 23, 303.
The cult of St. Georges is attested as early as the 4th century in Palestine. Churches are dedicated to him, as well as a monastery in Jerusalem and another in Jericho. In Egypt, he patronized some forty churches and three monasteries; in Constantinople, Constantine, who became emperor in 324, had a church built in his memory, and Saint Georges became one of the protectors of the Byzantine militias. In Greece sanctuaries were built in Mytilene, Bizana, Thessaloniki and Athens, while in Cyprus there are more than sixty churches. In Italy his cult arrived via Sicily, Naples and Ravenna, where it is attested as early as the 6th century, as well as in Ferrara.
The popularity of his cult was such that the process of Christianization accelerated, especially after the death of Diocletian and his Tetrarchy. The Church of the East, which called him Grand Martyr, transmitted his cult to the Latin Church at a very early stage. Pope Gelasius I, in the name of the Universal Church, canonized him in the year 494.
In the Christian West. In the kingdom of the Franks, under the influence of Clotilde, Clovis (466 - king from 481 to 511) had a monastery built in his honour. Later, Saint Germain de Paris (died in 576) spread the cult in the Merovingian kingdom.
During the Christianization, Gregory of Tours (538 or 539 - 594) mentions the passage of relics, his blood, in Auvergne to the Abbaye-aux-Dames in Normandy his cult, especially in the Germanic area, as shown by the consecration of a basilica in Mainz in 570.
Icon of Saint Georges, mixing Byzantine and Western European elements, 13th century. Collections of the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, Greece. Tradition has it that the cult of Saint Georges was established in Rome during the pontificate of Pope Leo II in 682, with his dedication of the Basilica of San Giorgio in Velabro. In the following century, under the high altar of this basilica, Pope Zechariah, of Greek origin, solemnly deposited, in the year 741, relics of St. Georges brought from the East, including an arm bone and part of his skull. These relics, later formally authenticated by the Holy See in the eighteenth century, are still found today under the high altar of this early Christian Roman basilica, where Pope Zechariah had consigned them in the thirteenth century, a thousand years earlier.
In Lyon, the church of Saint-Georges, is dedicated to Saint Georges by Leidrade around the 800s. The cult flourished in the 9th century, probably also thanks to the Crusades and will not weaken during the Middle Ages. He became the patron saint of the Order of the Temple, the Teutonic Order, the Order of the Garter...
In the 12th - 13th centuries, Saint Georges became one of the fourteen so-called auxiliary saints, whose invocation was supposed to protect the faithful from recurring epidemics. Thus it is supposed to protect Venice, which in 1205 receives with veneration an arm of Saint Georges, then part of his skull in 1462.
In his book, Scouts, Lord Baden-Powell devotes a chapter to chivalry, one of the foundations of Scouting, and urges all Scouts to take St. Georges, the patron saint of the United Kingdom, as a model of life, in order to overcome difficulties with courage, confidence and energy.
Contenu soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA. Source : Article Georges de Lydda de Wikipédia en français (auteurs)
