ST. GEORGE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3675, 25 April 1883, Page 3

ST. GEORGE.

[To the Editor op the Daily Telegraph.] Sip,—As the correspondence on tho above subject has not yet ceased perhaps you Avould find space for a few words from me, Avhieh may tend to elucidate some of the chief points under dispute. George, surnamed The Cappadocian, was a famous heretic and intruder into the patriarchal chair of Alexandria when Athanasius rvas driven away from it in 356. He was filling the office of receiver of taxes at Constantinople, when he was nominated by Constantius to the See of Alexandria. There he joined the Arian party, and persecuted the orthodox without compunction, Avhile at the same time he insulted the pagans. These, however, watched their opportunity when Julian was ou the throne, and, ha\dng- got the patriarch into their hands, put him to a cruel death, and then burned his body, and cast the ashes into the sea. It has suited Gibbon and others to indentify this parasite embezzler and heretic AA-ith* St. George, the patron saint of the Crusaders and of England, but there can bo no question as to their being entirely different persons, which becomes more aud more apparant to those Avho take pains to trace the origin and life of the individuals in question. A St. George, indeed, appears anions' the saints of the church of the Abyssinians, and he is their patron ; but, seeing that that church adopted the Arian heresy, it is more than probable that their patron saint Avasthe Arian George of Alexandria. The Saint George, patron saint of England, lived in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. He joined the army and rose to responsible posts in it; but when the persecution broke out against his fellowChristians, he complained to the Emperor of his severe and bloody edicts, and Avas himself imprisoned in Nicomedia, and after mmy tortures, decapitated. Hence he was regarded iv the Greek Church as a martyr, and was canonised by Pope Gelasius in 494. His relics were in time transported to Lydda, said to have been his native place, and a splendid church, magnificent ruins of which exist at the present day, rvas erected over them, according to AA T illiam of Tyre, by Justinian, though other authorities Avith more probability acribe it to Constantino. AVhen the Crusaders, under Godfrey of Bouillon, reached Lydda in 1099, they found the church in ruins, but the sepulchre of St. George untouched. Here they celebrated a festival to St. George, and installed him as their patron saint. He is also the patron saint of Valencia, and Arragon, and Barcelona, of the city of Genoa, and the Isle of Malta, of Russia, and of England. It Avas at a Synod of Oxford, in 1220, that ho Avas first acknorvledged patron saint of England, superseding Edward the Confessor, avlio had been so regarded up to that time. The legend of his combat with the dragon, or as it appears in a painting at Rhodes AA-ith a crocodile, probably arose out of his supposed help of the crusaders at Antioch, and was intended to typify the triumph of Christian cluvalry over the paynim. Not rvishing to trespass further on your valuable space. —I am, kc, An Outsider. Napier, April 24th, 1883. [Our correspondent evidently knoAVS all about St. George the Orthodox, and St. George the Arian, but more reliance could bo placed on his oracular statements if lie had been good enough to quote his authorities.—Ed. D.T.]