St. George icon

St. George of Lydda icon
© Cecilia Lawrence
April 20th, 2018
4.5 x 6 inches
Ink, watercolor, gold leaf

“For the law of God this holy man engaged in combat even unto death.
He feared no wicked threats;
his faith was founded on solid rock, alleluia!
He renounced earthly joys,
and so gained the Kingdom of Heaven. Alleluia!”
~ Responsory for the Feast of St. George

“To the thirsty I will give a gift
from the spring of life-giving water.
The victor will inherit these gifts,
and I shall be his God,
and he will be my son.”
~ Revelations 21:6-7

“A gentle knight was pricking on the plain,
Yclad in mighty arms and silver shield…
And on his breast a bloody cross he bore,
the dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
for whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore,
and dead (as living) ever Him adored:
upon his shield the like was also scored,
for sovereign hope which in His help he had.
Right faithful true he was in deed and word…”
~ from The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser

I’ve gotten a lot of requests in the past to make an icon of St. George, so now, here he is! I’ve depicted St. George as a young man, wearing the uniform of a Roman military tribune, based on the contemporaneous depictions of the Tetrarchy. He holds a spear in his right hand while his other hand grips the hilt of his sword while resting it on an oval-shaped Roman cavalry shield. I chose to have the shield painted like the flag of Georgia (which is named after St. George). The palm branch is a symbol of his victorious martyrdom, and I also chose to depict the famous scene of him spearing the dragon as another symbol of his victory and triumph over evil.



:+: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE SAINT :+:

Saint George of Lydda (c. 270 A.D. – April 23rd 303 A.D.), or Georgius was an early Christian soldier and was martyred during the persecution of Diocletian. According to tradition, his parents were pious, wealthy and noble Christians of Greek descent. His father Gerontius was a Roman officer from Cappadocia, and his mother Polychronia was from Diospolis (or Lydda) in the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. George’s father died when he was still a young man, so his mother took him back with her to live in her hometown of Lydda. She too, died a few years later, and George followed his father’s footsteps and joined the Roman army at Nicomedia. He proved himself to be a steadfast and capable soldier, and was promoted to the rank of military tribune. He rose so highly in the favor of the Emperor Diocletian that he was made part of the imperial bodyguard.

On February 24th 303, Diocletian and Galerius issued the first edict against Christianity in Nicomedia. The published edict proclaimed that all Christian churches should be razed to the ground; that all writings of Sacred Scriptures should be found and burnt; that those Christians who held political, military, or other noble offices would be stripped of their positions, and furthermore, be deprived of their liberty and sold into slavery unless they offered sacrifice to the Roman gods. Venturius, the commander of the army, prosecuted the persecution viciously in the Roman army, and those Christian officers who refused to sacrifice to the gods were mercilessly tortured and put to death.

In his account of the persecution under Diocletian, the Church historian Eusebius of Caesarea wrote: “When the edict against the churches was issued at Nicomedia and posted up in a conspicuous public place, a well-known person, by worldly standards of pre-eminence a man of the greatest distinction, was so stirred by religious enthusiasm and carried away by burning faith that he promptly seized it and tore it to shreds, as something unholy and utterly profane…But he was only the first of many who at the time distinguished themselves in this way and suffered the natural consequences of such bold conduct, preserving a cheerful, confidant bearing to their last breath.” This man is often thought to have been St. George himself, when, hearing of the edict, first dismissed his servants, distributed his money to the poor, and then went before the Emperor to confront him with the injustice of the edict. Standing before the Emperor, he boldly confessed the Christian faith.

Diocletian was greatly perturbed by this refusal to sacrifice to the gods by one of his own imperial guards, so he first tried to win George over by promises of wealth, honors, position, lands, and slaves if George would only consent to sacrifice. George stoutly refused, so the enraged Emperor had him thrown into prison and brutally tortured. In the midst of his torments, George said, “You will grow tired of tormenting me sooner than I will tire of being tormented by you.” Diocletian even tried to weaken the tribune’s resolve by sending a woman to him to tempt his chastity, but George instead converted her, and the woman too confessed herself to be a Christian and suffered for her confession. Alexandra, the wife of the prefect Dacian, and a secret Christian approached him in his prison cell where George encouraged her to be faithful to Christ. She too, confessed Christ boldly, and was martyred. Others too, visited him in prison seeking his counsel and aid and through his prayers people obtained many miraculous cures and witnessed various prodigies.

Finally, after being subjected to the most horrendous and ingenious tortures, Diocletian had the young tribune beheaded outside the walls of Nicomedia. St. George’s body was taken to his mother’s native city of Lydda (now Lod, Israel) and later during the reign of Emperor Constantine, a church was built there to commemorate him. The church was destroyed by Muslim invaders in 1010, but was rebuilt on the site by Crusaders. Saladin’s forces had the church destroyed, and another church was later built on the site in 1872 which stands there today.

The Golden Legend (a very popular collection of lives of the saints in the Middle Ages) by Jacobus da Varagine is the one that recounts St. George’s famous exploit with the dragon. According to the medieval romance, St. George was passing through the city of Ascalon (or Silene, in Libya), where he learned from the frightened townspeople that a dreadful dragon living in a nearby lake was terrorizing the countryside. The leader of the city, to protect the townspeople, had sent livestock, then later human victims chosen by lottery, to be sacrificed to the monster. When the lottery fell to the ruler’s daughter, she was led off to be the beast’s next victim, when St. George came to her rescue, made the Sign of the Cross, and speared the dragon through the throat. He then told the girl to tie her sash around the dragon’s neck and led it back to the city, where before the eyes of the terrified populace, he then killed it with his sword. The majority of the townspeople then converted to Christianity, and a church was built there in honor of the Virgin Mary and St. George. A healing stream sprung up on the site where St. George had killed the dragon and it became a site for healing and miraculous cures through the intercession of St. George. This story is often taken to be an allegorical depiction of St. George’s victorious martyrdom and triumph over Diocletian (who in his cruelty towards Christians was sometimes referred to as a “dragon”) and the princess of the story is often thought to symbolize Alexandra, the wife of the prefect who also became a martyr and was saved through St. George’s influence.

St. George has been venerated as one of the greatest martyrs and miracle workers and has always been popular with soldiers, paired alongside with other soldier-saints such as St. Demetrius. In the Middle Ages, he was invoked as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and during the Crusades, his popularity spread greatly in Western Europe and he became one of the patron saints of England.

“Dear brothers, our joy in today’s feast is heightened by our joy in the glory of Easter, just as the splendor of a precious jewel enhances the beauty of its gold setting.
Saint George was a man who abandoned one army for another: he gave up the rank of tribune to enlist as a soldier for Christ.  Eager to encounter the enemy, he first stripped away his worldly wealth by giving all he had to the poor.  Then, free and unencumbered, bearing the shield of faith, he plunged into the thick of the battle, an ardent soldier for Christ.

Clearly what he did serves to teach us a valuable lesson: if we are afraid to strip ourselves of our worldly possessions, then we are unfit to make a strong defense of the faith.

As for Saint George, he was consumed with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Armed with the invincible standard of the cross, he did battle with an evil king and acquitted himself so well that, in vanquishing the king, he overcame the prince of all wicked spirits, and encouraged other soldiers of Christ to perform brave deeds in his cause.

Of course, the supreme invisible arbiter was there, who sometimes permits evil men to prevail so that his will may be accomplished.  And although he surrendered the body of his martyr into the hands of murderers, yet he continued to take care of his soul, which was supported by the unshakable defense of its faith.

Dear brothers, let us not only admire the courage of this fighter in heaven’s army but follow his example.  Let us be inspired to strive for the reward of heavenly glory, keeping in mind his example, so that we will not be swayed from our path, though the world seduce us with its smiles or try to terrify us with naked threats of its trials and tribulations.

We must now cleanse ourselves, as Saint Paul tells us, from all defilement of body and spirit, so that one day we too may deserve to enter that temple of blessedness to which we now aspire.

Anyone who wishes to offer himself to God in the tent of Christ, which is the Church, must first bathe in the spring of holy baptism; then he must put on the various garments of the virtues.  As it says in the Scriptures, Let your priests be clothed in justice.  He who is reborn in baptism is a new man.  He may no longer wear the things that signify mortality.  He has discarded the old self and must put on the new.  He must live continually renewed in his commitment to a holy sojourn in this world.

Truly we must be cleansed of the stains of our past sins and be resplendent in the virtue of our new way of life.  Then we can be confident of celebrating Easter worthily and of truly following the example of the blessed martyrs.”
~ from a sermon by St. Peter Damian

The Feast of St. George is celebrated on April 23rd.

St. George is the patron saint of England, Greece, Georgia, Genoa, Bavaria, Bulgaria, Cappadocia, Moscow, members of the Order of the Garter, cavalry, equestrians, knights, soldiers and others serving in the military, and numerous other cities and countries.

Extolling your might, O Lord,
we humbly implore you,
that, as Saint George imitated the Passion of the Lord,
so he may lend us ready help in our weakness.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.