Icon of St George astride a white horse in the local church of Etara Architectural-Ethnographic Complex open air museum Bulgaria
Icon of St George astride a white horse in the local church of Etara Architectural-Ethnographic Complex open air museum Bulgaria. Historians have argued the exact details of the birth of Saint George for over a century, although the approximate date of his death is subject to little debate. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia takes the position that there seems to be no ground for doubting the historical existence of Saint George, but that little faith can be placed in some of the fanciful stories about him. It is likely that Saint George was born to a Greek Christian noble family in Lydda, in what was Palestine at that time, and today Israel, during the late third century between about 275 AD and 285 AD. He died in the Greek city of Nicomedia in Asia Minor. His father, Gerontios, was a Greek from Cappadocia, an officer in the Roman army; and his mother, Polychronia, was a Greek native of Lydda. They were both Christians from noble families of the Anici, so their child was raised with Christian beliefs. They decided to call him Georgios (Greek), meaning "worker of the land" (, farmer). At the age of fourteen, George lost his father; a few years later, George's mother, Polychronia, died. Eastern accounts give the names of his parents as Anastasius and Theobaste. The episode of St. George and the Dragon was a legend brought back with the Crusaders and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of Romance. The earliest known depiction of the legend is from early eleventh-century Cappadocia (in the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church, George had been depicted as a soldier since at least the seventh century); the earliest known surviving narrative text is an eleventh-century Georgian text. In England the earliest dedication to George, who was mentioned among the martyrs by Bede, is a church at Fordington, Dorset, that is mentioned in the wars of Alfred the Great. He did not rise to the position of "patron saint", however, until the 14th century
Size: 2848px × 4287px
Location: Etara Architectural-Ethnographic Complex open air museum Orthodox Church Bulgaria
Photo credit: © Roland Pargeter / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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