Okay, let’s try this again: Unlike the post from a few days ago, today is St. George’s day.
It also happens to be the Krsna Slava of His Grace Bishop Mitrophan to whom, although he is certainly not a reader of this blog, I wish a very joyous and blessed Slava – Срећна Слава!
Inspired by last night’s Vesper service in which we sang, among other things, “…And being a divine hero, thou hast vanquished the ranks of Satans and dost abide with the angels…”, I am re-posting something I wrote for the local paper and posted here last year around this time:
The classic image one has of a hero is usually seated on a horse, fighting off the attacks of an evil monster with a sword in one hand and, in the other, a damsel who had hitherto been in distress. That image is very reminiscent of a well-known icon in Eastern Orthodox iconography; more specifically, the icon of St. George the Great Martyr. In the month of May the Serbian Orthodox community of Hermitage, whose church is dedicated to this same brave martyr, will celebrate his memory with a special festal celebration.
That having been said one wonders if St. George can truly be considered a “hero.” After all, the image we’re most familiar with, of him seated on a horse and slaying a dragon, is more legend than history, which is to say that it never happened! Perhaps the lore was prompted by the publication of “The Golden Legend,” a book by James of Voragine in 1265. Here is described how the soldier George was passing through a town that, unbeknownst to him, was being terrorized by a neighboring dragon. In order to satisfy the dragon’s appetite the villagers had been supplying it with two sheep a day, which later turned into one man and one sheep.
The king of this region devised a sort of lottery system to determine who would be the next victim. This rather ingenious system would come back to haunt him as the lot fell on his own daughter. It was when the daughter was sent to the dragon that George happened to be passing through the town and spotted a lady weeping. He asked her what the problem was but she, rather valiantly, told him to go his way unless he also be fed to the dragon. At that very instant the dragon appeared, George took out his sword and slayed the dragon, becoming the town hero. The king offered him gold and riches but George only asked that the money be given to the poor. Some fifteen thousand were baptized in that town on that occasion and Christianity was introduced to the people.
The only factual detail from this account is that he actually was a soldier. Yet, his heroism derived not from slaying dragons but from standing up to his supreme commander, the Emperor Diocletian, and confessing his Christian faith. He subsequently became known as a “great martyr” as the emperor, in his unrelenting and unabashed fury, lashed torture upon torture on him. After all, he was one of the emperor’s best soldiers and it enraged him to unimaginable levels that he would rather bow down to Christ than himself.
Would this courageous act of confession constitute heroism in our contemporary lexicon? While atheistic dictatorships are not extinct from the more remote corners of the world, they certainly have no place here. No, evil and godless rulers are not forbidding us from going to church. We have enough problems competing with our teens’ extracurricular activities to worry about evil rulers. A pious, church-going family from my parish missed almost a month of church because of their child’s sports schedule. They complained to the coach, but to no avail. Planning anything with teen groups in almost all churches has become a true task. Of course, since many of the teens rely on parents for transportation, the problem becomes all the worse. Such stories have become commonplace in the recent past and, in most cases, it’s not only clergy who are complaining.
It’s funny, even though the story of St. George with the dragon is fictional, icons still depict him seated on a horse and slaying a fiery monster. Rather than saving a damsel in distress, the slaying of a dragon is symbolic for slaying godlessness, idolatry; the sins of gluttony, greed, etc. In the end I suppose that’s what real heroes do — they save their souls.
AGAIN AND AGAIN 
I could never really understand why the fictional aspects of the lives of particular saints is the most emphasized. Perhaps it’s to catch the interest of people? I personally find that this does the exact opposite, since it reminds people of folktales.
Andrew, the fictional aspect of St. George is definably more believable compared to the story of Sts. Peter and Febronia! 😛
Romanos On a lighter note I know priests who prefer using the icons of St George without the dragon/horse as people tend to venerate them instead of the actual Saint. On the other hand I understand that there was quite a stir in the parish I am currently serving when it was suggested that the icon/mosaic above the front door be of the saint without the dragon.
As far as praying for soldiers I’m not sure about that one. I think I know of one priest who omits this petition as he says it’s used only in time of war.
Sometimes folklore finds its way into the live of the saints, but I guess with St. George it manifests itself in a apparent way that became quite popular.
I remember a friend of mine telling me a snake related story that had found its way into the life of Saints Peter and Febronia printed in Russian, which makes the dragon story of St. George seem much more believable in comparison.
Though I like the image of St George slaying the dragon as an emblem (it appears on the coins of many nations, England and Russia, for example), I know that the story is a legend, and there is something in me that gets very uncomfortable when legends attach themselves to the heros of our faith, as if what they actually did was somehow not good enough. It has always been a problem for me, too, to venerate an icon of St George shown in this fashion, instead of the “dragonless” image that you often see, the soldier St George facing you. It makes me very uncomfortable because it is a bad witness to outsiders as well. When I am explaining about Orthodoxy, in defending the icons, I tell people that one of the features of icons is that they are completely historical, altho sometimes events are combined in one icon that did not happen together. Other than that, icons can be relied on to teach one the truths of Christianity, in depicting the Bible and the Lives of the Saints in visual form, as a teaching tool, and also as an “interface” with the still living reality they represent (in the mind of God, everything and everyone shown in the icons is still in the present).
What Tony-Allen wrote is very true. Soldiers are seen as evil. So much so, that the priest at our church, who is an ardent pacifist, refuses to pray publicly in any service for “the armed forces.” At first he simply dropped any reference to the armed forces from any prayer that included the phrase. Now, after much complaint, he uses the phrase “for those who protect us.” Just this single innovation has caused members to leave the parish and go to other Orthodox churches, because many parents have sons and daughters serving in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Similarly, this priest has found or rewritten other liturgical texts to eliminate mention of armed forces and soldiers. This is very sad. Soldiers are people too. In fact, Christianity spread quickly through the Roman world precisely because many soldiers were Christians, as St George.
His example is very apt for our times, and I hope his prayers and example for us will remain strong, to encourage us in this ongoing battle with the world system.
Brother Juniper,
Thanks for that info. As I was writing this last year I asked a few priests about the dragon and, for the most part, they said the same thing. But I don’t think I had ever heard the Russian version.
Otche,
The interesting thing about St. George and the dragon is that some Russians believe this miracle took place at some point after St. George’s martyrdom. According to days.ru, St. George appeared in the town due to the supplications of the people and slew the dragon.
I always thought that it took place some time before his martyrdom. I suppose that it can run both ways.
God bless you for your posts.
There actually is a very simple solution to the sports problem — tell the kids that church is more important than sports, and encourage other parents to do the same. Once the teams start losing their best players, the idiot coaches will get the message.
Actually, neither of our kids participated in any sport during their school years, for just this reason. Today, both are still church-goers.
He’d be looked down upon nowadays for two reasons:
1) He was a soldier, and soldiers or anything having to do with war is seen as “evil” by many people today. I’ve known people who would get upset at racists for generalizing an entire people, then generalize all soldiers because of one or two events. It’s always easier to hate a vague idea than a human face.
2) He was religious, and as you said the very idea of religion is “bad” nowadays. Never mind that, as far as I know, he never shoved his religion down anyone’s throat, the fact remains he believed in a Deity and for that he would be mocked and seen as stupid.
So Saint George has two strikes against him: he’s a “baby-killer” and a “right-wing religious nut.” I suppose it is sad that in order for society to consider him a “hero,” they have to glorify the part of his life that didn’t happen 🙂