St.
George, born in Cappadocia to a Christian family, entered the Roman
army. Once he was traveling through a city terrorized by a dragon, which
had devoured all the cattle and now was eating people. George arrived at
the moment when the dragon was about to swallow the king’s daughter, princess
Sabra. With the help of Christ George overcame the dragon and, according
to one version, killed him, according to another, tamed and put on leash.
Later George fell the victim of Diocletian’s persecutions and was martyred:
after surviving being burnt, boiled and crushed under a wheel, he was beheaded.
His cult was born in the east and remains particularly strong in Greece
and Russia. Thanks to crusaders his cult spread in the west, where St.
George became one of the patron saints of Genoa, Venice and Barcelona,
as well as that of England and of Teutonic Order. St. George was also the
patron of all Christian knights.
See: Albrecht Altdorfer St.
George.
Altichiero da Zevio. The Beheading of St. George. The Martyrdom of St. George.
Hans Baldung The Three
Kings Altarpiece.
Giovanni Bellini. Pesaro
Altarpiece. Predella: St. George Fights the Dragon.
Sir Edward Burne-Jones St.
George and the Dragon, Princess
Sabra (The King's Daughter).
Vittore Carpaccio. St.
George and the Dragon. Triumph
of St. George.
Correggio Madonna
and Child with St. George.
Lucas Cranach the Elder. St.
George.
Gentile da Fabriano. St.
Mary Magdalene, St. Nicholas of Bari, St. John the Baptist, St. George.
Andrea Mantegna. St.
George.
Hans Memling The
Virgin and Child with an Angel, St. George and a Donor.
Mikhail Nesterov St.
George and Dragon.
Raphael St. George;
St.
George and the Dragon.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The
Wedding of St. George and the Princess Sabra.
Peter Paul Rubens St. George
and the Dragon.
Russian Icon. St. George.
St.
George and the Dragon.
St. George
on Foot.
Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto. Saint
George, Saint Louis, and the Princess. Saint
George, the Princess and the Dragon. St.George
and the Dragon.
Cosme Tura. St. George and the
Dragon.
Paolo Uccello. St.
George and the Dragon.
Rogier van der Weyden St.
George and the Dragon, Sforza
Triptych. St. Jerome and St. George.
Recommended reading:
The
Book of Saints: The Lives of the Saints According to the Liturgical Calendar
by George Angelini, Victor Hoagland (Editor). Regina Press, Malhame &
Company, 1986.
365
Saints: Your Daily Guide to the Wisdom and Wonder of Their Lives
by Woodeene Koenig-Brick (Author). Harper SanFrancisco, 1995.
Saint
George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, Trina Schart Hyman
(Illustrator). Little Brown & Company, 1990.
St
George: Hero, Martyr and Myth by Samantha Riches. Sutton Publishing,
2001.