Newsletter Issue 31 – April 2008

The story of St. George and the Dragon is considered to be older than the written Christian Gospels and supposedly took place in a place called “Silene”, in Libya. There was no such place, the name being perhaps a corruption of Cyrene.

This town had a pond large as a lake where a plague-bearing dragon dwelled that envenomed all the countryside. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene used to feed it a sheep every day, and when the sheep failed, they fed it their children, chosen by lottery.

It happened that the lot fell on the king’s daughter. The king, distraught with grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, decked out as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.

Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess, trembling, sought to send him away, but George vowed to remain.

The dragon reared out of the lake while they were conversing. St. George fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross, charged it on horseback with his lance and gave it a grievous wound. Then he called to the princess to throw him her girdle and put it around the dragon’s neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash. She and St. George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the people at its approach. But St. George called out to them, saying that if they consented to become Christians and be baptised, he would slay the dragon before them.

The king and the people of Silene converted to Christianity, George slew the dragon, and the body was carted out of the city on four ox-carts. “Fifteen thousand men baptized, without women and children.” On the site where the dragon died, the king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George, and from its altar a spring arose whose waters cured all disease.

The story is possibly derived from many ancient myths but for a long time has been taken to represent the conquest of good over evil. Historians believe that such a good man existed and that the stories of his exploits were brought back from the Crusades. I am not sure how long St. George has been the patron saint of England with his non-English origin (was St. Patrick Irish?) However on April 23rd all churches and public places in England fly the cross of St George – as do Anglican churches in Canada – look for the one in Lion’s Head.