Dusty Feasts

Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.

It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.

THE FEAST DAY OF ST. GEORGE

This is a Christian religious celebration of St. George, who was according to tradition, a member of the Praetorian Guard for the Roman emperor Diocletian, who was martyred for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The Feast Day has become popular in the many places wherein St. George is venerated, such that the celebration now is also secular as well as religious.

Who is St. George?

Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος, translit. Geṓrgios; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army. Of Cappadocian Greek origin, he became a member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian, but was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith. He became one of the most venerated saints and megalomartyrs in Christianity, and he has been especially venerated as a military saint since the Crusades. He is respected by Christians, Druze, as well as some Muslims as a martyr of monotheistic faith.

In hagiography, as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and one of the most prominent military saints, he is immortalized in the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. His feast day, Saint George’s Day, is traditionally celebrated on 23 April. Historically, the countries of England, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Ukraine, Malta, Ethiopia, as well as Catalonia and Aragon in Spain, and Moscow in Russia, have claimed George as their patron saint, as have several other regions, cities, universities, professions, and organizations. The Church of Saint George in Lod (Lydda), Israel, contains a sarcophagus traditionally believed to contain St. George’s remains.

Very little is known about George’s life. It is thought that he was a Roman military officer of Cappadocian Greek descent, who was martyred under Roman emperor Diocletian in one of the pre-Constantinian persecutions of the 3rd or early 4th century. Beyond this, early sources give conflicting information.

The saint’s veneration dates to the 5th century with some certainty, and possibly even to the 4th, while the collection of his miracles gradually began during the medieval times. The story of the defeat of the dragon is not part of Saint George’s earliest hagiographies, and seems to have been a later addition.

The earliest text which preserves fragments of George’s narrative is in a Greek hagiography which is identified by Hippolyte Delehaye of the scholarly Bollandists to be a palimpsest of the 5th century. An earlier work by Eusebius, Church history, written in the 4th century, contributed to the legend but did not name George or provide significant detail. The work of the Bollandists Daniel Papebroch, Jean Bolland, and Godfrey Henschen in the 17th century was one of the first pieces of scholarly research to establish the saint’s historicity, via their publications in Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca. Pope Gelasius I stated in 494 that George was among those saints “whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God.”

The most complete version, based upon the fifth-century Greek text but in a later form, survives in a translation into Syriac from about 600. From text fragments preserved in the British Library, a translation into English was published in 1925.

In the Greek tradition, George was born to Greek Christian parents, in Cappadocia. After his father died, his mother, who was originally from Lydda, in Syria Palaestina, returned with George to her hometown. He went on to become a soldier for the Roman army; but, because of his Christian faith, he was arrested and tortured, “at or near Lydda, also called Diospolis“; on the following day, he was paraded and then beheaded, and his body was buried in Lydda. According to other sources, after his mother’s death, George travelled to the eastern imperial capital, Nicomedia, where he was persecuted by one Dadianus. In later versions of the Greek legend, this name is rationalised to Diocletian, and George’s martyrdom is placed in the Diocletian persecution of AD 303. The setting in Nicomedia is also secondary, and inconsistent with the earliest cults of the saint being located in Diospolis.

George was executed by decapitation on 23 April 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra of Rome to become a Christian as well, so she joined George in martyrdom. His body was buried in Lydda, where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr.

The Latin Passio Sancti Georgii (6th century) follows the general course of the Greek legend, but Diocletian here becomes Dacian, Emperor of the Persians. His martyrdom was greatly extended to more than twenty separate tortures over the course of seven years. Over the course of his martyrdom, 40,900 pagans were converted to Christianity, including the Empress Alexandra. When George finally died, the wicked Dacian was carried away in a whirlwind of fire. In later Latin versions, the persecutor is the Roman emperor Decius, or a Roman judge named Dacian serving under Diocletian.

Historicity

There is little information on the early life of George. Herbert Thurston in The Catholic Encyclopedia states that, based upon an ancient cultus, narratives of the early pilgrims, and the early dedications of churches to George, going back to the fourth century, “there seems, therefore, no ground for doubting the historical existence of St. George”, although no faith can be placed in either the details of his history or his alleged exploits.

The Diocletianic Persecution of 303, associated with military saints because the persecution was aimed at Christians among the professional soldiers of the Roman army, is of undisputed historicity. According to Donald Attwater,

No historical particulars of his life have survived, … The widespread veneration for St George as a soldier saint from early times had its centre in Palestine at Diospolis, now Lydda. St George was apparently martyred there, at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century; that is all that can be reasonably surmised about him.

Edward Gibbon argued that George, or at least the legend from which the above is distilled, is based on George of Cappadocia, a notorious 4th-century Arian bishop who was Athanasius of Alexandria‘s most bitter rival, and that it was he who in time became George of England. This identification is seen as highly improbable. Bishop George was slain by Gentile Greeks for exacting onerous taxes, especially inheritance taxes. J. B. Bury, who edited the 1906 edition of Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall, wrote “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”. Saint George in all likelihood was martyred before the year 290.

St. George and the dragon

The earliest known record of the legend of Saint George and the Dragon occurs in the 11th-century, in a Georgian source, reaching Catholic Europe in the 12th-century. In the Golden Legend, by 13th-century Archbishop of Genoa Jacobus de Voragine, George’s death was at the hands of Dacian, and about the year 287.

The tradition tells that a fierce dragon was causing panic at the city of Silene, Libya, at the time George arrived there. In order to prevent the dragon from devastating people from the city, they gave two sheep each day to the dragon, but when the sheep were not enough they were forced to sacrifice humans, elected by the city’s own people, instead of the two sheep. Eventually, the king’s daughter was chosen to be sacrificed, and no one was willing to take her place. George saved the girl by slaying the dragon with a lance. The king was so grateful that he offered him treasures as a reward for saving his daughter’s life, but George refused it and instead he gave these to the poor. The people of the city were so amazed at what they had witnessed that they became Christians and were all baptized.

Saint George’s encounter with a dragon, as narrated in the Golden Legend, would go on to become very influential, as it remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxton‘s 15th-century translation.

In the medieval romances, the lance with which George slew the dragon was called Ascalon, after the Levantine city of Ashkelon, today in Israel. The name Ascalon was used by Winston Churchill for his personal aircraft during World War II, according to records at Bletchley Park. Iconography of the horseman with spear overcoming evil was widespread throughout the Christian period.

Muslim legends

George (Arabic: جرجس, Jirjis or Girgus) is included in some Muslim texts as a prophetic figure. The Islamic sources state that he lived among a group of believers who were in direct contact with the last apostles of Jesus. He is described as a rich merchant who opposed erection of Apollo‘s statue by Mosul‘s king Dadan. After confronting the king, George was tortured many times to no effect, was imprisoned and was aided by the angels. Eventually, he exposed that the idols were possessed by Satan, but was martyred when the city was destroyed by God in a rain of fire.

Muslim scholars had tried to find a historical connection of the saint due to his popularity. According to Muslim legend, he was martyred under the rule of Diocletian and was killed three times but resurrected every time. The legend is more developed in the Persian version of al-Tabari wherein he resurrects the dead, makes trees sprout and pillars bear flowers. After one of his deaths, the world is covered by darkness which is lifted only when he is resurrected. He is able to convert the queen but she is put to death. He then prays to God to allow him to die, which is granted.

Al-Thaʿlabi states that he was from Palestine and lived in the times of some disciples of Jesus. He was killed many times by the king of Mosul, and resurrected each time. When the king tried to starve him, he touched a piece of dry wood brought by a woman and turned it green, with varieties of fruits and vegetables growing from it. After his fourth death, the city was burnt along with him. Ibn al-Athir‘s account of one of his deaths is parallel to the crucifixion of Jesus, stating, “When he died, God sent stormy winds and thunder and lightning and dark clouds, so that darkness fell between heaven and earth, and people were in great wonderment.” The account adds that the darkness was lifted after his resurrection.

The national flag of many countries – including England – is that of St. George. (from wiki)

In heraldry, Saint George’s Cross (or the Cross of Saint George) is a red cross on a white background, which from the Late Middle Ages became associated with Saint George, the military saint, often depicted as a crusader.

Associated with the crusades, the red-on-white cross has its origins in the 10th century. It has been used as the ensign of the Republic of Genoa from perhaps as early as the 10th century.

The symbol was adopted by the Swabian League in the pre-Reformation Holy Roman Empire. George became associated as patron saint of England in the fourteenth century, replacing St Edmund the Martyr. Since then this flag is commonly identified as the national flag of England. Saint George is the patron saint of the Spanish semi-autonomous region of Catalonia and of the country of Georgia. It figures in the coat of arms of Barcelona. The national flag of Georgia supplements this cross with Jerusalem crosses.

Across the rest of Northern Italy as the symbol of Bologna, Genoa, Padua, Reggio Emilia, Mantua, Vercelli and Alessandria, the form has only received a cult of Saint George bolstering and simplification to the cross of Saint Ambrose, the origin of the cross in their civic designs, as the latter was adopted by the Commune of Milan in 1045, Ambrose having been a late 4th-century bishop of that city.

Origins and medieval use

Saint George became widely venerated as a warrior saint during the Third Crusade. There was a legend that he had miraculously assisted Godfrey of Bouillon; also that Richard the Lionheart had placed himself under his protection. According to legend, the crusaders received miraculous help at the siege of Antioch on 28 June 1098 from a great army on white horses, clothed in white and bearing white banners, led by St George, St Demetrius, and St Mercurius. However, there was no association of the red cross with St George before the end of the crusades.

The red cross in particular was associated with the Knights Templar, from the time of the Second Crusade (1145), but in 1188 red and white crosses were chosen to identify the French and English troops in the “Kings’ Crusade” of Philip II of France and Henry II of England, respectively. Together with the Jerusalem Cross, the plain red-on-white became a recognizable symbol of the crusader from about 1190, and in the 13th century it came to be used as a standard or emblem by numerous leaders or polities who wanted to associate themselves with the crusades. The red-on-white combination was chosen by the Kingdom of Aragon, among others.

Saint George was depicted as a crusader knight during this time, but the red cross had no particular association with him. A crusader-era fresco in the crypt of Trani cathedral shows Saint George wearing a white cross on a red surcoat. The white-on-red version was chosen as the Reichsbanner (“imperial banner”) by the German crusaders in the 12th century, and Emperor Frederick II used it in his European campaigns of the 1250s after he had returned from the crusades. It continued to be used as the Reichssturmfahne (“imperial war flag”) of the Holy Roman Empire, eventually giving rise to the flag of Savoy and the present-day flags of Switzerland and Denmark. Via the conflict between (pro-Pope) Guelphs and (pro-Imperial) Ghibellines, the cross entered the heraldry of several north Italian principalities.

A vexillum beati Georgii is mentioned in the Genovese annals for the year 1198, referring to a red flag with a depiction of St George and the dragon. An illumination of this flag is shown in the annals for the year 1227. The Genoese flag with the red cross was used alongside this “George’s flag”, from at least 1218, and was known as the insignia cruxata comunis Janue (“cross ensign of the commune of Janua”). The flag showing the saint himself was the city’s principal war flag, but the flag showing the plain cross was used alongside it in the 1240s.

The cross ceased to be a symbol directly associated with the “taking of the cross”, the resolve to fight in a crusade, after the failure of the crusades in the 14th century. With the development of systematic heraldry, there was great demand for variations of the cross symbol and associated terminology. Juliana Berners reports that there were Crossis innumerabull born dayli. The term “St George’s cross” was at first associated with any plain Greek cross touching the edges of the field (not necessarily red on white).

Early representations of Saint George as a crusader knight with bearing a red-on-white cross still date to the late 13th century, and become widespread as the saint’s attributed arms in the 14th and 15th centuries. Edward III of England chose Saint George as the patron saint of his Order of the Garter in 1348, and also took to using a red-on-white cross in the hoist of his Royal Standard.

For a video on the famous saint, I direct you to the video below:

What do you eat for the Feast Day of St. George?

St. George is one of the most celebrated saints in all of Christianity, and as such is venerated far and wide. However, I decided that since the country of Georgia is named after him, I will recommend celebrating this Feast Day with a fantastic Georgian dish:

Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Bread)

Ingredients

Dough

• 3 tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (227g) milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (6g) granulated sugar or 1 tablespoon (9g) non-diastatic malt powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1 1/2 teaspoons (9g) table salt
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast or active dry yeast
• 2 3/4 cups (330g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

Filling

• 2 cups (227g) mozzarella cheese or Muenster cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup (113g) ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup (57g) crumbled feta cheese
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons (14g) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

Egg wash

• 1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Garnish

• 4 large eggs, cold from the refrigerator
• 4 teaspoons (19g) butter

Instructions

1. To make the dough: Heat the butter and milk together in a small saucepan or in the microwave until the butter melts.
2. Place the sugar (or malt powder), coriander, and salt in a large bowl, and pour the hot milk over it, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Cool to lukewarm, about 100°F to 110°F.
3. Weigh your flour; or measure it by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Stir in the yeast and flour, mixing until a shaggy mass forms. Cover with plastic wrap or a reusable bowl cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
4. After the rest, knead until smooth; 8 to 10 minutes by hand, or 6 to 8 minutes at medium speed in a mixer. Knead in an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons flour if the dough is uncomfortably sticky.
5. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until it increases in size by at least one third.
6. To make the filling: Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat to combine, or pulse everything together briefly with a food processor; leave some bits of the cheese intact.
7. To assemble: Line two baking sheets with parchment. Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into four equal pieces, about 150g each.
8. Roll each piece into an oval shape about 10″ long and 6″ wide. Cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.
9. Spoon one quarter of the cheese mixture (about 119g) into the center of each and spread to within 1″ of the edges.
10. Pull the dough’s edges up around the cheese, folding and twisting the ends to form a boat shape.
11. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes, or until puffy but not doubled. While the breads are rising, preheat the oven to 375°F with two racks toward the center.  
12. Brush the exposed edges of the khachapuri with the egg wash and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until they feel set; they won’t have started to brown nor will the filling be bubbly, but don’t worry; they’re going to continue to bake once you add their egg-and-butter garnish.
13. Remove from the oven and use the back of a spoon to make an indentation about 3″ across in the filling of each khachapuri. Crack an egg into each, place a teaspoon of butter on top, and bake for an additional 8 to 10 minutes (for soft-set eggs), or 12 to 15 minutes (for firmer eggs).
14. Remove from the oven and serve warm. Garnish with additional fresh herbs, if desired.
15. Storage information: Store any leftover khachapuri, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to five days.

What is a prayer you could say in honor of the Feast Day of St. George?

One example:

For another example: (via christiantoday.com)

Heavenly Father, give us the bravery of St George
 to stand up for the truth and the glory of God
 that we have seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
 Give us the strength to overcome
 in our lives and in the world,
 all that is contrary to your rule of justice and love.
 Help us to be good news to the poor,
 proclaim release to the captives
 and recovery of sight to the blind;
 let the oppressed go free, and
 proclaim the good news of God’s favour and Jubilee.
 Amen

When is St. George’s Day celebrated?

The Feast Day of St. George is celebrated annually on 23 April.

I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful day.