Happy St George's Day

Saint George

From Wikipedia

Introduction

Saint George (c. 275/281 – 23 April 303) was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and an officer of the guard of Emperor Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Roman Catholic (Western and Eastern Rites), Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. He is immortalized in the tale of Saint George and the dragon and is one of the fourteen holy helpers. His feast is celebrated on 23 April and he is one of the most prominent military saints.

Many patronages of Saint George exist around the world, including those of: England, Georgia, Egypt, Bulgaria, Aragon, Catalonia, Romania, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia, as well as the cities of Genoa, Amersfoort, Beirut, Fakiha, Bteghrine, Cáceres, Ferrara, Freiburg, Kumanovo, Ljubljana, Pomorie, Preston, Qormi, Rio de Janeiro, Lod, Lviv, Barcelona, Moscow, Tamworth and the Maltese island of Gozo, as well as the Scout Movement[3] and a wide range of professions, organizations and patients.

Life of Saint George

Historians have debated the exact details of the birth of Saint George for over a century, although the approximate date of his death is subject to little debate.[4][5] The Catholic Encyclopedia takes the position that there seems to be no ground for doubting the historical existence of Saint George, but that little faith can be placed in some of the fanciful stories about him.[6]

The work of the Bollandists, Danile Paperbroch, Jean Bolland and Godfrey Henschen, in the seventeenth century was one of the first pieces of scholarly research to establish the historicity of the saint's existence, via their publications in Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca and paved the way for other scholars to dismiss the medieval legends.[7][8] Pope Gelasius stated that George was among those saints "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God."[9]

The traditional legends have offered a historicized narration of George's encounter with a dragon: see "St. George and the dragon" below. The modern legend that follows below is synthesized from early and late hagiographical sources, omitting the more fantastical episodes, to narrate a purely human military career in closer harmony with modern expectations of reality. Chief among the legendary sources about the saint is the Golden Legend, which remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxton's 15th-century translation.[10]

It is likely that Saint George was born to a Christian noble family in Lod, Syria Palaestina, during the late third century between about 275 AD and 285 AD, and he died in Nicomedia.[1][2] His father, Gerontius, was a Roman army official from Cappadocia and his mother, Polychronia, was from Palestine. They were both Christians and from noble families of Anici, so the child was raised with Christian beliefs. They decided to call him Georgius, meaning 'worker of the land'. At the age of fourteen George lost his father; a few years later George's mother, Polychronia, died.[11][12][13][14] Eastern accounts give the names of his parents as Anastasius and Theobaste.

Then George decided to go to Nicomedia, the administrative capital of the eastern empire, and present himself to Emperor Diocletian in hope of a military appointment. Diocletian welcomed him with open arms, as he had known his father, Gerontius — one of his finest soldiers. By his late twenties, George had been promoted to the rank of tribunus militum and stationed as an imperial guard of the emperor at Nicomedia.[15]

In the year AD 302, Diocletian (influenced by Galerius) issued an edict that every Christian soldier in the army should be arrested and every other soldier should offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods of the time. However George dissented and with the courage of his faith approached the emperor. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune and the son of his best official, Gerontius. George loudly denounced the emperor's edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and military tribunes professed himself a Christian and confessed his worship of Jesus Christ. Diocletian attempted to convert George, even offering gifts of land, money and slaves if he made a sacrifice to the Roman gods. The Emperor made many offers, but George never accepted.[16]

Finally, recognizing the futility of his efforts, Diocletian commanded that George be executed for his refusal. Before the execution George gave his wealth to the poor and prepared himself. After various torture sessions, including laceration on a wheel of swords in which he was resuscitated three times, George was executed by decapitation before Nicomedia's city wall, on April 23, 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra and Athanasius, a pagan priest, to become Christians as well, and so they joined George in martyrdom. His body was returned to Lydda in Palestine for burial, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr.[17][18]:166

Although the above distillation of the legend of George connects him to the conversion of Athanasius, who according to Rufinus was brought up by Christian ecclesiastical authorities from a very early age,[19] Edward Gibbon[20][21] argued that George, or at least the legend from which the above is distilled, is based on George of Cappadocia,[22][23] a notorious Arian bishop who was Athanasius' most bitter rival, who in time became Saint George of England. According to Professor Bury, Gibbon's latest editor, "this theory of Gibbon's has nothing to be said for it". He adds that: "the connection of St. George with a dragon-slaying legend does not relegate him to the region of the myth".[24]

In 1856 Ralph Waldo Emerson published a book of essays entitled "English Traits". In it, he wrote a paragraph on the history of Saint George. Emerson compared the legend of Saint George to the legend of Amerigo Vespucci, calling the former "an impostor" and the latter "a thief".[25][26] The editorial notes appended to the 1904 edition of Emerson's complete works state that Emerson based his account on the work of Gibbon, and that current evidence seems to show that real St. George was not George the Arian of Cappadocia.[25] Merton M. Sealts also quotes Edward Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson's youngest son as stating that he believed his father's account was derived from Gibbon and that the real St. George "was apparently another who died two generations earlier".[27]

Saint George and the dragon

Eastern Orthodox depictions of Saint George slaying a dragon often include the image of the young maiden who looks on from a distance. The standard iconographic interpretation of the image icon is that the dragon represents both Satan (Rev. 12:3) and the Roman Empire. The young maiden is none other than the wife of Diocletian, Alexandra. Thus, the image as interpreted through the language of Byzantine Iconography, is an image of the martyrdom of the saint.

The episode of St George and the Dragon was a legend[28] brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance. The earliest known depiction of the legend is from early eleventh-century Cappadocia, (in the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church, George had been depicted as a soldier since at least the seventh century); the earliest known surviving narrative text is an eleventh-century Georgian text.

In the fully developed Western version, which developed as part of the Golden Legend, a dragon or crocodile makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of "Silene" (perhaps modern Cyrene in Libya or the city of Lydda in the Holy Land, depending on the source). Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, and if no sheep can be found, then a maiden must go instead of the sheep. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but there appears Saint George on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the Cross,[29] slays the dragon, and rescues the princess. The grateful citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity.

The dragon motif was first combined with the standardised Passio Georgii in Vincent of Beauvais' encyclopaedic Speculum historale and then in Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend, which guaranteed its popularity in the later Middle Ages as a literary and pictorial subject.

The parallels with Perseus and Andromeda are inescapable. In the allegorical reading, the dragon embodies a suppressed pagan cult.[30] The story has other roots that predate Christianity. Examples such as Sabazios, the sky father, who was usually depicted riding on horseback, and Zeus's defeat of Typhon the Titan in Greek mythology, along with examples from Germanic and Vedic traditions, have led a number of historians, such as Loomis, to suggest that George is a Christianized version of older deities in Indo-European culture.

In the medieval romances, the lance with which St George slew the dragon was called Ascalon, named after the city of Ashkelon in the Levant.[31]

Veneration as a martyr

A church built in Lydda during the reign of Constantine I (reigned 306–37), was consecrated to "a man of the highest distinction", according to the church history of Eusebius of Caesarea; the name of the patron[32] was not disclosed, but later he was asserted to have been George.

By the time of the Muslim conquest in the seventh century, a basilica dedicated to the saint in Lydda existed.[33] The church was destroyed in 1010 but was later rebuilt and dedicated to Saint George by the Crusaders. In 1191 and during the conflict known as the Third Crusade (1189–92), the church was again destroyed by the forces of Saladin, Sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty (reigned 1171–93). A new church was erected in 1872 and is still standing.

During the fourth century the veneration of George spread from Palestine through Lebanon to the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire – though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium[18] – and Georgia. In Georgia the feast day on November 23 is credited to St Nino of Cappadocia, who in Georgian hagiography is a relative of St George, credited with bringing Christianity to the Georgians in the fourth century. By the fifth century, the cult of Saint George had reached the Western Roman Empire as well: in 494, George was canonized as a saint by Pope Gelasius I, among those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to [God]."

In England the earliest dedication to George, who was mentioned among the martyrs by Bede, is a church at Fordington, Dorset, that is mentioned in the wars of Alfred the Great. "Saint George and his feast day began to gain more widespread fame among all Europeans, however, from the time of the Crusades."[34] The St. George's flag, a red cross on a white field, was adopted by England and the City of London in 1190 for their ships entering the Mediterranean to benefit from the protection of the Genoese fleet during the Crusades and the English Monarch paid an annual tribute to the Doge of Genoa for this privilege.[citation needed] An apparition of George heartened the Franks at the siege of Antioch, 1098, and made a similar appearance the following year at Jerusalem. Chivalric military Order of St. George were established in Aragon (1201), Genoa, Hungary, and by Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor,[35] and in England the Synod of Oxford, 1222 declared St George's Day a feast day in the kingdom of England. Edward III put his Order of the Garter under the banner of St. George, probably in 1348. The chronicler Froissart observed the English invoking St. 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 localized shrine, as of Thomas Becket at Canterbury: "Consequently, numerous shrines were established during the late fifteenth century," Muriel C. McClendon has written,[36] "and his did not become closely identified with a particular occupation or with the cure of a specific malady."

The establishment of George as a popular saint and protective giant[37] in the West that had captured the medieval imagination was codified by the official elevation of his feast to a festum duplex[38] 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,[39] 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 Reformation in England severely curtailed the saints' days in the calendar, St. George's Day was among the holidays that continued to be observed.

Sources

The Coat of Arms of Moscow depicts a horseman often informally identified with Saint George.According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the earliest text preserving fragments of George's narrative is in an Acta Sanctorum identified by Hippolyte Delehaye of the scholarly Bollandists to be a palimpsest of the fifth century. However, this Acta Sancti Georgii was soon banned as heresy by Pope Gelasius I (in 496).

The compiler of this Acta, according to Hippolyte Delehaye "confused the martyr with his namesake, the celebrated George of Cappadocia, the Arian intruder into the see of Alexandria and enemy of St. Athanasius". A critical edition of a Syriac Acta of Saint George, accompanied by an annotated English translation was published by E.W. Brooks (1863–1955) in 1925. The hagiography was originally written in Greek.

In Sweden, the princess rescued by Saint George is held to represent the kingdom of Sweden, while the dragon represents an invading army. Several sculptures of Saint George battling the dragon can be found in Stockholm, the earliest inside Storkyrkan ("The Great Church") in the Old Town.

The façade of architect Antoni Gaudi's famous Casa Batlló in Barcelona, Spain depicts this allegory.

In Islamic cultures Saint George is somewhat of an exception among saints and legends, in that he is known and venerated by Muslims, as well as Christians throughout the Middle East, from Egypt to Asia Minor.[40] His stature in these regions derives from the fact that his figure has become somewhat of a composite character mixing elements from Biblical, Koranic and folkloric sources, at times being partially identified with Al-Khidr.[40] He is said to have killed a dragon near the sea in Beirut and at the beginning of the 20th century Muslim women used to visit his shrine in the area to pray to him.[40]

Feast days

In the General Calendar of the Roman Rite the feast of Saint George is on April 23. In the Tridentine Calendar it was given the rank of "Semi-double". In Pope Pius XII's 1955 calendar this rank is reduced to "Simple". In Pope John XXIII's 1960 calendar the celebration to just a "Commemoration". In Pope Paul VI's 1969 calendar it is raised to the level of an optional "Memorial". In some countries, such as England, the rank is higher.

St 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 April 23 (Julian Calendar April 23 currently corresponds to Gregorian Calendar May 6). 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 St. George: one on November 3 commemorating the consecration of a cathedral dedicated to him in Lydda during the reign Constantine the Great (305–37). When the church was consecrated, the relics of the St. George were transferred there. The other feast on November 26 for a church dedicated to him in Kiev, ca. 1054.

In Egypt the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria refers to St George as the "Prince of Martyrs" and celebrates his martyrdom on the 23rd of Paremhat of the Coptic Calendar equivalent to May 1. The Copts also celebrate the consecration of the first church dedicated to him on June 10.

Patronages

A highly celebrated saint in both the Western and Eastern Christian churches, a large number of Patronages of Saint George exist throughout the world.[41]

St. George is the patron saint of England; his cross forms the national flag of England, and features within the Union Flag of the United Kingdom. Traces of the cult of Saint George in England pre-date the Norman Conquest in the eleventh century; by the fourteenth century the saint had been declared both the patron saint and the protector of the royal family.[42]

The country of Georgia, where devotions to the saint date back to the fourth century, is not technically named after the saint, but is a well-attested backward derivation of the English name. However, a large number of towns and cities around the world are. Saint George is one of the patron Saints of Georgia; the name Georgia (Sakartvelo in Georgian) is an anglicisation of Gurj, derived from the Persian word for the frightening and heroic people in that territory.[43] However, chronicles describing the land as Georgie or Georgia in French and English, date from the early Middle Ages "because of their special reverence for Saint George",[44] but these accounts have been seen as folk etymology; compare Land of Prester John.

There are exactly 365 Orthodox churches in Georgia named after Saint George according to the number of days in a year. According to myth, St. George was cut into 365 pieces after he fell in battle and every single piece was spread throughout the entire country.[45][46][47] According to another myth, Saint George appeared in person during the Battle of Didgori to support the Georgian victory over the Seldjuk army and the Georgian uprising against Persian rule. Saint George is considered by many Georgians to have special meaning as a symbol of national liberation.[48]

Devotions to Saint George in Portugal date back to the twelfth century, and Saint Constable attributed the victory of the Portuguese in the battle of Aljubarrota in the fourteenth century to Saint George. During the reign of King John I (1357–1433) 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 fact, the Portuguese Army motto means Portugal and Saint George, in perils and in efforts of war.[49]

Saint George is also one of the patron saints of the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. In a battle between the Maltese and the Moors, Saint George was alleged to have been seen with Saint Paul and Saint Agata, protecting the Maltese. Besides being the patron of Victoria where St. George's Basilica, Malta is dedicated to him, St George is the protector of the island of Gozo.[50]

Colours and flag

The "Colours of Saint George", or St George's Cross are a white flag with a red cross, frequently borne by entities over which he is patron (e.g. the Republic of Genoa and then Liguria, England, Georgia, Catalonia, Aragon, etc).

The cross was originally the personal flag of another saint and key Christian figure, St. Ambrose. Adopted by the city of Milan (of which he was Archbishop) at least as early as the Ninth century, its use spread over Northern Italy including Genoa. Genoa's patron saint was St. George and through the flag's use by the vast Genoese trading fleet, the association was carried throughout Europe.

The same colour scheme was used by Viktor Vasnetsov for the façade of the Tretyakov Gallery, in which some of the most famous St. George icons are exhibited and which displays St. George as the coat of arms of Moscow over its entrance.

In 1606, the flag of England (St George's Cross), and the flag of Scotland (St Andrew's Cross), were joined together to create the Union flag.[57]

Iconography and models

St George is most commonly depicted in early icons, mosaics and frescos wearing armour contemporary with the depiction, executed in gilding and silver colour, intended to identify him as a Roman soldier. After the Fall of Constantinople and the association of St George with the crusades, he is more often portrayed mounted upon a white horse.

At the same time St George began to be associated with St. Demetrius, another early soldier saint. When the two saints are portrayed together mounted upon horses, they may be likened to earthly manifestations of the archangels Michael and Gabriel. St George is always depicted in Eastern traditions upon a white horse and St. Demetrius on a red horse[58] St George can also be identified in the act of spearing a dragon, unlike St Demetrius, who is sometimes shown spearing a human figure, understood to represent Maximian.

A 2003 Vatican stamp issued on the anniversary of the Saint's death depicts an armoured Saint George atop a white horse, killing the dragon.[59]

During the early second millennium, George came to be seen as the model of chivalry, and during this time was depicted in works of literature, such as the medieval romances.

Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, compiled the Legenda Sanctorum, (Readings of the Saints) also known as Legenda Aurea (the Golden Legend) for its worth among readers. Its 177 chapters (182 in other editions) contain the story of Saint George.

Some Russians interpret the icon not as a killing but as a struggle, against ourselves and the evil among us. The dragon never actually dies but the saint perseveres, with his horse (the will and support of the people) and his spear (technical means) in his fight. Within the Eastern Orthodox church tradition one finds icons of St.George on a black horse, such as at least one in the British Museum.

Notes

1.^ a b c Foakes-Jackson, FJ (2005), A History of the Christian Church, Cosimo Press, p. 461, ISBN 1-59605-452-2 .

2.^ a b c Ball, Ann (2003), Encyclopedia of Catholic Devotions and Practices, p. 568, ISBN 0-87973-910-X .

3.^ Baden-Powell, Robert (1908). Scouting for Boys. Horace Cox. ASIN B001IWO5VO. , Yarn No. 20 - Chivalry to others

4.^ Mills, Charles (1825), The History of Chivalry, Longman, Rees, p. 9 .

5.^ Spenser, Edmund (1998), Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves, Cannon Press, p. 196, ISBN 978-1-885767-39-4 .

6.^ "St. George". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

7.^ Walter, Christopher (2003), The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition, Ashgate Publishing, p. 110, ISBN 1-84014-694-X

8.^ Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca 271, 272.

9.^ "Saint George", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1911, "In the canon of Pope Gelasius (494) George is mentioned in a list of those "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God""

10.^ De Voragine, Jacobus (1995), The Golden Legend, Princeton University Press, p. 238, ISBN 978-0-691-00153-1 .

11.^ Murray, J (1863), Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom, Royal Society of Literature, p. 133

12.^ Heylin, A (1862), The Journal of Sacred Literature and Biblical Record, 1, p. 244 .

13.^ Darch, John H (2006), Saints on Earth, Church House Press, p. 56, ISBN 978-0-7151-4036-9 .

14.^ Walter, Christopher (2003), The Warrior Saints in Byzantine Art and Tradition, Ashgate Publishing, p. 112, ISBN 1-84014-694-X .

15.^ Smith, William (1867), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Little Brown & Co, p. 249 .

16.^ Gibbs, Margaret (1971), Saints beyond the White Cliffs, Ayer Press, p. 2, ISBN 0-8369-8058-1 .

17.^ Hackwood, Fred (2003), Christ Lore the Legends, Traditions, Myths, Kessinger Publishing, p. 255, ISBN 0-7661-3656-6 .

18.^ a b Butler, Alban (2008), Lives of the Saints, ISBN 1-4375-1281-X .

19.^ Tyrannius Rufinus, History of the Church, 1:14

20.^ Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2:23:5

21.^ Richardson, Robert D; Moser, Barry, eds. (1996), Emerson, p. 520, "George of Cappadocia… [held] the contract to supply the army with bacon… embraced Arianism… [and was] promoted… to the episcopal throne of Alexandria… When Julian came, George was dragged to prison, the prison was burst open by a mob, and George was lynched… [he] became in good time Saint George of England" .

22.^ Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 2:23:5

23.^ "Saint George", Catholic Encyclopedia, "it is not improbable that the apocryphal Acts have borrowed some incidents from the story of the Arian bishop" .

24.^ "Catholic encyclopedia on Gibbons and Saint George". Newadvent.org. 1909-09-01. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06453a.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-23.

25.^ a b The complete works of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Edward Waldo Emerson, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1904, page 355

26.^ Text of the essay at bartleby.com

27.^ Journals & Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Merton M. Sealts Jr. 1973 ISBN 0674484738 page 168

28.^ Robertson developed by Crusaders returned from the Holy Lands. The Medieval Saints' Lives (pp 51–52) suggested that the dragon motif was transferred to the George legend from that of his fellow soldier saint, Saint Theodore Tiro. The Roman Catholic writer Alban Butler (Lives of the Saints) credited the motif as a late addition: "It should be noted, however, that the story of the dragon, though given so much prominence, was a later accretion, of which we have no sure traces before the twelfth century. This puts out of court the attempts made by many folklorists to present St. George as no more than a christianized survival of pagan mythology."

29.^ "He drew out his sword and garnished him with the sign of the cross, and rose hardily against the dragon which came toward him, and smote him with his spear and hurt him sore, and threw him to the ground", according to Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: or Lives of the Saints as Englished by William Caxton, F.S. Ellis, ed. (London, 1900), vol. III:123–45), quotation p. 128.

30.^ Loomis 1948:65 and notes 111–17, giving references to other saints' encounters with dragons. "To Loomis's list might be added the stories of Martha . . . and Silvester, which is vigorously summarized (from a fifth-century version of the Actus Silvestri) by the early English writer, Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury (639–709), in his De Virginitate (see Aldhelm: The Prose Works, pp. 82–83). On dragons and saints, see now Rauer, Beowulf and the Dragon." Saint Mercurialis, the first bishop of the city of Forlì, in Romagna, is often portrayed in the act of killing a dragon.

31.^ Incidentally, the name Ascalon was used by Winston Churchill for his personal aircraft during World War II, according to records at Bletchley Park.

32.^ For patrons of fourth-century churches, see titulus.

33.^ Pringle, Denys (1998), The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, p. 25, ISBN 0-521-39037-0 .

34.^ McClendon 1999:6.

35.^ Catholic Encyclopedia 1913, s.v. "Orders of St. George" omits Genoa and Hungary: see David Scott Fox, Saint George: The Saint with Three Faces (1983:59–63, 98–123), noted by McClellan 999:6 note 13. Additional Orders of St. George were founded in the eighteenth century (Catholic Encyclopedia).

36.^ McClendon 1999:10.

37.^ Erasmus, in The Praise of Folly (1509, printed 1511) remarked "The Christians have now their gigantic St. George, as well as the pagans had their Hercules."

38.^ Only the most essential work might be done on a festum duplex

39.^ Muriel C. McClendon, "A Moveable Feast: Saint George's Day Celebrations and Religious Change in Early Modern England" The Journal of British Studies 38.1 (January 1999:1–27).

40.^ a b c Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam by Richard G. Hovannisian, Georges Sabagh 2000 ISBN 0521623502, Cambridge University Press pages 109-110

41.^ Seal, Graham (2001), Encyclopedia of folk heroes, p. 85, ISBN 1-57607-216-9 .

42.^ Hinds, Kathryn (2001), Medieval England, Marshall Cavendish, p. 44, ISBN 0-7614-0308-6 .

43.^ Spilling, Michael (2008), Georgia, Winnie Wong, p. 63, ISBN 0761430334 .

44.^ David Marshall Lang, The Georgians, (New York: Frederick A Praeger, 1966), 17–18. The terms Georgia and Georgians appeared in Western Europe in numerous early medieval annals. The French chronicler Jacques de Vitry and the English traveller Sir John Mandeville wrote that Georgians are called Georgian because they especially revere Saint George.

45.^ Gabidzashvili, Enriko (1991), Saint George: In Ancient Georgian Literature, Tbilisi, Georgia: Armazi – 89 .

46.^ Foakes-Jackson, FJ (2005), A History of the Christian Church, p. 556, ISBN 1-59605-452-2 .

47.^ Eastmond, Antony (1998), Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia, Penn State Press, p. 119, ISBN 0-271-01628-0 .

48.^ The Saint George's Victory order, among other civilian and military decorations, is one of the highest decorations in Georgia.

49.^ de Oliveira Marques, AH; André, Vítor; Wyatt, SS (1971), Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages, University of Wisconsin Press, p. 216, ISBN 0-299-05584-1 .

50.^ de Bles, Arthur (2004), How to Distinguish the Saints in Art, p. 86, ISBN 1-4179-0870-X .

57.^ British flags, from the Flag Institute site. Accessed 2 May 2007

58.^ The red pigment may appear black if it has bitumenized.

59.^ "Vatican stamps". Vaticanstate.va. http://www.vaticanstate.va/EN/Services/Philatelic_and_Numismatic_Office/_listing_emissioni--id--Shop%20Francobolli--cat--2003.htm. Retrieved 2011-04-23.