Saint George the Martyr, in Legend, Ceremonial, Art, etc

Probably no saintly legend has, to use the words of a well-known advertisement, had " such a world-wide circulation " as that usually connected with S. George, and certainly no military hero has enjoyed a greater celebrity in either Eastern or Western Christendom.In the former he soon became known as THE GREAT MARTYR, and very shortly after his death, which took place about A.D. 300, a church was dedicated to his memory at Constantinople ; whilst in the west his fame in the fifth century had become so great, that Pope Gelasius I. judged it fit to expunge from the church offices various apocryphal stories which had already debased the history of the saintly warrior.Some have doubted the existence of S. George, 1 but the extremely rapid growth of the honour paid him all over Christendom points conclusively to the truth of his personality, though beyond the fact of his having been a Christian soldier and martyr, very little, if anything, can be safely asserted respecting him.According to Metaphrastes, he was born in Cappadocia, embraced the profession of a soldier, and was preferred to a high position by Diocletian, but on the persecution of the Christians by that emperor, he expostulated with him on his savage edicts, was thrown into prison, tortured, and finally beheaded by the sword.This history, quoted by Alban Butler, 2 is in no way improbable, but the ordinary legend of the saint is scouted by the above-named author and all recent writers on the subject

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