The Church of Saint George in the city of Lod, Israel, is a Greek Orthodox church containing a sarcophagus venerated as the tomb of the fourth-century Christian martyr Saint George.
The church building is based on the partially rebuilt 900 year old Crusader-period church, which had itself been built over part of the remains and footprint of the 1,600 year old Byzantine-period predecessor.
Saint George, also known as George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army. He was of Cappadocian Greek origin and a member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian, but was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith.
Saint George is 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.
Saint George is respected by Christians, Druze, as well as some Muslims as a martyr of monotheistic faith.
The saint's veneration dates to the 5th century with some certainty, and possibly even to the 4th. The addition of the dragon legend dates to the 11th century.
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. It reached 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 instead of the two sheep. The human to be sacrificed was elected by the city's own people and one time the king's daughter was chosen to be sacrificed but 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.
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.
Photo: The Church of Saint George in the city of Lod. Nir Topper (C).
Source for some of the information: Wikipedia
Comments