BRITISH CHURCH
THE
MYSTERIOUS IDENTITY OF SAINT GEORGE
by Laurence Gardner
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Introduction
Unlike the
patron saints, Andrew of Scotland, David of Wales and Patrick
of Ireland, who are all historically recognizable figures, St
George of England is a patron saint with no immediately apparent
historical provenance. Apart from what seems to begin with 5th-century
folklore, most reference books relate that there are no contemporary
or other historical documents relating to St George. Under such
circumstances, it is rather odd that George became not only
the patron saint of England, but also of numerous other countries,
orders and occupations. The most perplexing anomaly is that,
although George rose to prominence in the saintly ranks, he
was originally deemed personally unsuitable by the Vatican,
and the written accounts of his life were proscribed by Pope
Gelasius in AD 496. But why would Gelasius have denounced George
as a known individual if he were mythical as so often supposed?
Clearly, there was an aspect of George’s character of which
the Church did not approve – an aspect that was subsequently
veiled and conveniently forgotten as the centuries passed. In
this regard, the literature concerning the saint identifies
an evolutionary strategy of character manipulation through more
than 1,000 years. This ongoing creation of an acceptable heritage
for George actually led to the emergence of an entirely mythical
figure, in the course of which the real history of the man was
lost.
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The Mysterious Identity of Saint George by Laurence Gardner
Laurence
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