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88-530: The monastery is named after the 13th or 14th century icon of Saint George , known as Saint George the Zograf ( Светѝ Гео̀рги Зогра̀ф ). The name of the latter comes from the belief that the icon mysteriously painted itself on the prepared board ( zograf(os) in Greek means "painter" (from zoe ="life" and graphos ="scribe"). The earliest written evidence of the monastery's existence dates from 980. During

176-616: A library of major significance to Bulgarian culture , preserving medieval manuscripts such as a 15th-century copy of the passional of Saint Naum of Ohrid , the 14th-century passional of Saint Paraskevi , the original draft of Paisius of Hilendar 's Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya , and the History of Zograf . The monastic library contains 388 manuscripts in Church Slavonic and 126 in Greek, as well as about 10,000 printed books altogether. Two medieval Bulgarian royal charters ,

264-550: A church dedicated to him in Kyiv , c.  1054 . In Bulgaria , George's day ( Bulgarian : Гергьовден ) is celebrated on 6 May, when it is customary to slaughter and roast a lamb. George's day is also a public holiday . In Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina , the Serbian Orthodox Church refers to George as Sveti Djordje ( Свети Ђорђе ) or Sveti Georgije ( Свети Георгије ). George's day ( Đurđevdan )

352-626: A member of the Praetorian Guard for Roman emperor Diocletian , but was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith. He became one of the most venerated saints, heroes, and megalomartyrs in Christianity, and he has been especially venerated as a military saint since the Crusades . He is respected by Christians, Druze , as well as some Muslims as a martyr of monotheistic faith. In hagiography , as one of

440-399: A national saint, George was aided by the very fact that the saint had no legendary connection with England, and no specifically localised shrine, as that of Thomas Becket at Canterbury: "Consequently, numerous shrines were established during the late fifteenth century," Muriel C. McClendon has written, "and his did not become closely identified with a particular occupation or with the cure of

528-461: A piece of dry wood brought by a woman and turned it green, with varieties of fruits and vegetables growing from it. After his fourth death, the city was burnt along with him. Ibn al-Athir 's account of one of his deaths is parallel to the crucifixion of Jesus , stating, "When he died, God sent stormy winds and thunder and lightning and dark clouds, so that darkness fell between heaven and earth, and people were in great wonderment." The account adds that

616-434: A prophetic figure. The Islamic sources state that he lived among a group of believers who were in direct contact with the last apostles of Jesus . He is described as a rich merchant who opposed erection of Apollo 's statue by Mosul 's king Dadan. After confronting the king, George was tortured many times to no effect, was imprisoned and was aided by the angels. Eventually, he exposed that the idols were possessed by Satan, but

704-490: A sarcophagus traditionally believed to contain St. George's remains. Very little is known about George's life. It is thought that he was a Roman military officer of Cappadocian Greek descent, who was martyred under Roman emperor Diocletian in one of the pre-Constantinian persecutions of the 3rd or early 4th century. Beyond this, early sources give conflicting information. Edward Gibbon argued that George, or at least

792-521: A soldier for the Roman army ; but, because of his Christian faith, he was arrested and tortured, "at or near Lydda, also called Diospolis "; on the following day, he was paraded and then beheaded, and his body was buried in Lydda. According to other sources, after his mother's death, George travelled to the eastern imperial capital, Nicomedia , where he was persecuted by one Dadianus . In later versions of

880-652: A specific malady." In the wake of the Crusades, George became a model of chivalry in works of literature, including medieval romances . In the 13th century, Jacobus de Voragine , Archbishop of Genoa, compiled the Legenda Sanctorum , ( Readings of the Saints ) also known as Legenda Aurea (the Golden Legend ). Its 177 chapters (182 in some editions) include the story of George, among many others. After

968-678: A translation into Syriac from about 600. From text fragments preserved in the British Library , a translation into English was published in 1925. In the Greek tradition, George was born to noble Christian parents, in Cappadocia . After his father died, his mother, who was originally from Lydda , in Syria Palaestina (a part of the Byzantine Empire), returned with George to her hometown. He went on to become

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1056-758: Is remembered in the Church of England with a Festival on 23 April. Catholic Church feast days: Parascheva of the Balkans Paraskeva of the Balkans was an ascetic female saint of the 11th century. She was born in Epivates , near present-day Istanbul , and had visions of the Virgin Mary . After living in Chalcedon and Heraclea Pontica , she settled in a convent in the desert near

1144-502: Is a complete separation between the 10th-century Saint Parascheva the New, and Saint Paraskevi of Iconium, as well as the folk character derived from pre-Christian mystical beliefs. A severe drought in 1946-47 affected Moldavia, adding to the misery left by the war . Metropolitan Justinian Marina permitted the first procession featuring the coffin containing the relics of Paraskeva, kept at Iaşi until then. The relics winded their way through

1232-438: Is all that can be reasonably surmised about him. The saint's veneration dates to the 5th century with some certainty, and possibly even to the 4th, while the collection of his miracles gradually began during the medieval times. The story of the defeat of the dragon is not part of Saint George's earliest hagiographies, and seems to have been a later addition. The earliest text which preserves fragments of George's narrative

1320-451: Is celebrated on Easter Monday , instead. The Russian Orthodox Church also celebrates two additional feasts in honour of George. One is on 3 November, commemorating the consecration of a cathedral dedicated to him in Lydda during the reign of Constantine the Great (305–37). When the church was consecrated, the relics of George were transferred there. The other feast is on 26 November for

1408-547: Is celebrated on 6 May, and is a common slava (patron saint day) among ethnic Serbs . In Egypt , the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria refers to George ( Coptic : Ⲡⲓⲇⲅⲓⲟⲥ Ⲅⲉⲟⲣⲅⲓⲟⲥ or ⲅⲉⲱⲣⲅⲓⲟⲥ ) as the "Prince of Martyrs" and celebrates his martyrdom on the 23rd of Paremhat of the Coptic calendar , equivalent to 1 May. The Copts also celebrate the consecration of the first church dedicated to him on

1496-662: Is commemorated on October 14 in the Eastern Orthodox Church . Paraskeva was born in the town of Epivates (today's Selimpaşa , close to Istanbul ) on the shore of the Sea of Marmara . Her parents were wealthy landowners. Legend says that as a child, Paraskeva heard in a church the Lord 's words: "Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." ( Mark 8, 34 ). These words would determine her to give her rich clothes away to

1584-525: Is equivalent to saying he has been sent to a madhouse. It is singular that the Moslem Arabs adopted this veneration for St George, and send their mad people to be cured by him, as well as the Christians, but they commonly call him El Khudder – The Green – according to their favourite manner of using epithets instead of names. Why he should be called green, however, I cannot tell – unless it is from

1672-406: Is identified with Elijah, reports that childless Muslim women used to visit the shrine to pray for children. Per tradition, he was brought to his place of martyrdom in chains, thus priests of Church of St. George chain the sick especially the mentally ill to a chain for overnight or longer for healing. This is sought after by both Muslims and Christians. According to Elizabeth Anne Finn 's Home in

1760-493: Is in a Greek hagiography which is identified by Hippolyte Delehaye of the scholarly Bollandists to be a palimpsest of the 5th century. An earlier work by Eusebius , Church history , written in the 4th century, contributed to the legend but did not name George or provide significant detail. The work of the Bollandists Daniel Papebroch , Jean Bolland , and Godfrey Henschen in the 17th century

1848-521: Is now a neighbourhood in Eastern Thrace called Mimarsinan . According to Christian tradition, many years after Paraskeva's death, an old sinner was buried near her long-forgotten grave in Kallikrateia , after which Paraskeva appeared in a dream to a local monk and complained about the impure neighbour. The vision informed the monk where she had been buried; when the body was unearthed, it

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1936-594: Is on 23 April. In the Tridentine calendar of 1568, it was given the rank of "Semidouble". In Pope Pius XII 's 1955 calendar this rank was reduced to "Simple", and in Pope John XXIII 's 1960 calendar to a "Commemoration" . Since Pope Paul VI 's 1969 revision , it appears as an "optional memorial ". In some countries such as England, the rank is higher – it is a Solemnity (Roman Catholic) or Feast ( Church of England ): if it falls between Palm Sunday and

2024-582: Is seen as a guardian of the Druze community and a symbol of their enduring faith and resilience. Additionally, Saint George is regarded as a protector and healer in Druze tradition. The story of Saint George slaying the dragon is interpreted allegorically, representing the triumph of good over evil and the protection of the faithful from harm. In the General Roman Calendar , the feast of George

2112-472: Is the patron saint of Lebanese Christians , Palestinian Christians and Syrian Christians . William Dalrymple , who reviewed the literature in 1999, tells us that J. E. Hanauer in his 1907 book Folklore of the Holy Land: Muslim, Christian and Jewish "mentioned a shrine in the village of Beit Jala , beside Bethlehem , which at the time was frequented by Christians who regarded it as

2200-434: Is venerated by some Christians and Muslims because of his composite personality combining several biblical, Quranic and other ancient mythical heroes. In some sources he is identified with Elijah or Mar Elis, George or Mar Jirjus and in others as al-Khidr . The last epithet meaning the "green prophet", is common to Christian, Muslim, and Druze folk piety. Samuel Curtiss who visited an artificial cave dedicated to him where he

2288-466: 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

2376-455: The Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos , in 1275, resulting in the death of 26 monks. These included the igumen ( abbot ) Thomas, as well as the monks Barsanuphius, Cyril, Micah, Simon, Hilarion, James, Job, Cyprian, Sabbas, James, Martinian, Cosmas, Sergius, Paul, Menas, Ioasaph, Ioanicius, Anthony, Euthymius, Dometian, Parthenius, and four laymen. The reason for this attack was

2464-770: 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 , Bulgaria , Georgia , Ukraine , Malta , Ethiopia , the regions of Catalonia and Aragon , and the city of Moscow 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 , has

2552-689: The Jordan River . An angel told her to return to her homeland, and two years later she died at the age of 27. The cult of Saint Paraskeva began to spread in the 14th century from Bulgaria into the Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia . There was confusion over her identity and attributes because her Greek name Παρασκευή "Paraskeuḗ, Paraskevi" means "Friday," and translations in other languages, such as Romanian and Serbian, were "Saint Friday". Her cult continues to be celebrated in many Orthodox countries, and her feast day

2640-700: The Middle Ages , the monastery was generously supported by the Bulgarian rulers, such as Ivan Asen II and Ivan Alexander , since it was a matter of pride for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church to maintain a monastery on Athos. The Zograf Monastery has also received land endowments by Byzantine (the first donor being Leo VI the Wise ) and Serbian rulers. The Zograf Monastery was plundered and burnt down by Crusaders , working under orders from

2728-587: The Ružica Church . When Belgrade fell to Ottoman forces in 1521, the relics were transferred to Constantinople. In 1641, the relics were transferred to Trei Ierarhi Monastery , in Iaşi , Moldavia (nowadays, eastern part of Romania ). In 1888, they were transferred to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iaşi . The cult of Paraskeva of the Balkans became conflated with that of other saints with

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2816-600: The 14th century from Bulgaria into the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia . Any confusion was clarified once the Romanian Orthodox Church decided on 28 February 1950 to generalise the cult of Saint Parascheva the New . The generalisation of the cult was celebrated on 14 October 1955 in the Iaşi Cathedral in the presence of high-rank clerics from Bulgaria and Russia. Today, there

2904-462: The 16th century, while its present-day buildings date from the middle 18th century. The south wing was built in 1750, the east in 1758, the small church was erected in 1764 and the large one in 1801. The north and west wing are from the second half of the 19th century and large-scale construction ended in 1896 with the Saints Cyril and Methodius Church and the raising of the bell tower . Among

2992-551: The 1906 edition of Gibbon's The Decline and Fall , wrote "this theory of Gibbon's has nothing to be said for it". He adds that "the connection of St. George with a dragon-slaying legend does not relegate him to the region of the myth". Saint George in all likelihood was martyred before the year 290. There is little information on the early life of George. Herbert Thurston in The Catholic Encyclopedia states that, based upon an ancient cultus , narratives of

3080-426: The 3rd-century virgin martyr , Paraskevi of Iconium (Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa), and the 10th-century Paraskeva of the Balkans, were conflated with that of a Slavic deity associated with Friday, alternatively known as Petka, Pyatnitsa, or Zhiva. Attributes, such as the association with spinning, were also merged into the cult of these saints. The cult of Saint Paraskeva, also known as Saint Petka, began to spread in

3168-524: The Druzes appreciated the two saints for their bravery: Saint George because he confronted the dragon and Saint Elijah because he competed with the pagan priests of Baal and won over them. In both cases the explanations provided by Christians is that Druzes were attracted to warrior saints that resemble their own militarized society. George is described as a prophetic figure in Islamic sources. George

3256-708: The Eastern Orthodox Church. Mercenaries of the Catalan Grand Company raided the Holy Mountain for two years (1307–9), sacking many monasteries, plundering the treasures of Christendom, and terrorising the monks. Of the 300 monasteries on Athos at the beginning of the 14th century, only 35 were left by the end. But the monastery recovered quickly with the help of grants and support from the Palaeologue Emperors and

3344-532: The Empress Alexandra. When George finally died, the wicked Dacian was carried away in a whirlwind of fire. In later Latin versions, the persecutor is the Roman emperor Decius , or a Roman judge named Dacian serving under Diocletian. The earliest known record of the legend of Saint George and the Dragon occurs in the 11th century, in a Georgian source, reaching Catholic Europe in the 12th century. In

3432-639: The Gospel over them, or administering a whipping as the case demands." In the 1920s, according to Tawfiq Canaan 's Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine , nothing seemed to have changed, and all three communities were still visiting the shrine and praying together." Dalrymple himself visited the place in 1995. "I asked around in the Christian Quarter in Jerusalem , and discovered that

3520-634: The Greek legend, this name is rationalised to Diocletian , and George's martyrdom is placed in the Diocletian persecution of AD 303. The setting in Nicomedia is also secondary, and inconsistent with the earliest cults of the saint being located in Diospolis . George was executed by decapitation on 23 April 303. A witness of his suffering convinced Empress Alexandra of Rome to become a Christian as well, so she joined George in martyrdom. His body

3608-536: The Holy land (1866): St George killed the dragon in this country; and the place is shown close to Beyroot . Many churches and convents are named after him. The church at Lydda is dedicated to George; so is a convent near Bethlehem , and another small one just opposite the Jaffa gate , and others beside. The Arabs believe that George can restore mad people to their senses, and to say a person has been sent to St. George's

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3696-602: The Second Sunday of Easter inclusive, it is transferred to the Monday after the Second Sunday of Easter. George is very much honoured by the Eastern Orthodox Church, wherein he is referred to as a "Great Martyr", and in Oriental Orthodoxy overall. His major feast day is on 23 April (Julian calendar 23 April currently corresponds to Gregorian calendar 6 May). If, however, the feast occurs before Easter , it

3784-596: The Seljuk Sultan Mesud II and Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II are also named in the inscriptions. A shrine attributed to prophet George can be found in Diyarbakır , Turkey. Evliya Çelebi states in his Seyahatname that he visited the tombs of prophet Jonah and prophet George in the city. The reverence for Saint George, who is often identified with Al-Khidr, is deeply integrated into various aspects of Druze culture and religious practices. He

3872-792: The Zograf Charter and the Rila Charter, were discovered in the monastery's library. Zograf Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands , Antarctica is named after the Zograf Monastery. The monastery and its seal are depicted on the obverse of the Bulgarian 2 levs banknote, issued in 1999 and 2005. On March 21, 2011, the Bulgarian National Bank issued a commemorative silver coin with nominal value of 10 levs featuring

3960-537: The birthplace of George and some Jews who regarded it as the burial place of the Prophet Elias . According to Hanauer, in his day the monastery was "a sort of madhouse. Deranged persons of all the three faiths are taken thither and chained in the court of the chapel, where they are kept for forty days on bread and water, the Eastern Orthodox priest at the head of the establishment now and then reading

4048-556: The church. Intercession to George of Edathua is believed to be efficacious in repelling snakes and in curing mental ailments. The sacred relics of George were brought to Antioch from Mardin in 900 and were taken to Kerala, India, from Antioch in 1912 by Mar Dionysius of Vattasseril and kept in the Orthodox seminary at Kundara, Kerala. H.H. Mathews II Catholicos had given the relics to St. George churches at Puthupally, Kottayam District, and Chandanappally, Pathanamthitta district. George

4136-983: The colour of his horse. Gray horses are called green in Arabic. The mosque of Nabi Jurjis, which was restored by Timur in the 14th century, was located in Mosul and supposedly contained the tomb of George. It was however destroyed in July 2014 by the occupying Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant , who also destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Sheeth ( Seth ) and the Mosque of the Prophet Younis ( Jonah ). The militants claimed that such mosques have become places for apostasy instead of prayer. George or Hazrat Jurjays

4224-492: The darkness was lifted after his resurrection. A titular church built in Lydda during the reign of Constantine the Great (reigned 306–337) was consecrated to "a man of the highest distinction", according to the church history of Eusebius ; the name of the titulus "patron" was not indicated. The Church of Saint George and Mosque of Al-Khadr located in the city is believed to have housed his remains. The veneration of George spread from Syria Palaestina through Lebanon to

4312-405: The day across late medieval and early modern England, and no uniform "national" celebration elsewhere, a token of the popular and vernacular nature of George's cultus and its local horizons, supported by a local guild or confraternity under George's protection, or the dedication of a local church. When the English Reformation severely curtailed the saints' days in the calendar, Saint George's Day

4400-420: 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. George ( Arabic : جرجس , Jirjis or Girgus ) is included in some Muslim texts as

4488-405: The drought-deserted villages of Iaşi , Vaslui , Roman , Bacău , Putna , Neamţ , Baia and Botoşani County|Botoşani Counties. The offerings collected on this occasion were distributed, based on Metropolitan Justinian's decisions, to orphans, widows, invalids, school cafeterias, churches under construction, and to monasteries in order to feed the sick, and old or feeble monks. Pilgrimage at

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4576-415: The early pilgrims, and the early dedications of churches to George, going back to the fourth century, "there seems, therefore, no ground for doubting the historical existence of St. George", although no faith can be placed in either the details of his history or his alleged exploits. The Diocletianic Persecution of 303, associated with military saints because the persecution was aimed at Christians among

4664-415: The former Prince of Moldo-Wallahia , Alexander Kallimachi . In 1885 the Community demolished the old church in order to construct a much bigger one on the same site. The building, completed after 6 years, re-used parts of the 1327–1341 Byzantine tower of Duke Alexis Apokaukos as building material. It was the biggest church in the whole of Eastern Thrace (16 m in height, 26 m in width and 30 m in length),

4752-426: The gates of Lydda used to be called the Gate of Dagon." Due to the Christian influence on the Druze faith , two Christian saints have become amongst the Druze 's most venerated figures: Saint George and Saint Elijah . Thus, in all the villages inhabited by Druze and Christians in central Mount Lebanon a Christian church or Druze maqam is dedicated to either one of them. According to scholar Ray Jabre Mouawad

4840-437: The invention of the printing press, the book became a best seller. The establishment of George as a popular saint and protective giant in the West, that had captured the medieval imagination, was codified by the official elevation of his feast to a festum duplex at a church council in 1415, on the date that had become associated with his martyrdom, 23 April. There was wide latitude from community to community in celebration of

4928-408: The legend from which the above is distilled, is based on George of Cappadocia , a notorious 4th-century Arian bishop who was Athanasius of Alexandria 's most bitter rival, and that it was he who in time became George of England. This identification is seen as highly improbable. Bishop George was slain by Gentile Greeks for exacting onerous taxes, especially inheritance taxes. J. B. Bury , who edited

5016-409: The monastery. Saint George This is an accepted version of this page Saint George ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Γεώργιος , translit.   Geṓrgios ; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda , was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity . According to tradition, he was a soldier in the Roman army . Of Cappadocian Greek origin, he became

5104-420: The numerous relics and other holy objects treasured at the monastery is the Wonderworking Icon of the Theotokos "Of the Akathist ," the feast day of which is celebrated on October 10. Since Mount Athos uses the traditional Julian Calendar , the day they celebrate as October 10 currently falls on October 23 of the modern Gregorian Calendar . Today the Monastery has 15 monks. The Zograf Monastery houses

5192-399: The opposition of the Athonite monks to the Union of Lyons , which the Emperor had supported for political reasons. Having hanged the Protos (the elected president of Mount Athos), and having killed many monks in Vatopedi , Iveron and other monasteries, the Latins attacked Zographou. Their martyrdom is commemorated annually on October 10 (October 23 on the Gregorian Calendar ) throughout

5280-426: The place was very much alive. With all the greatest shrines in the Christian world to choose from, it seemed that when the local Arab Christians had a problem – an illness, or something more complicated – they preferred to seek the intercession of George in his grubby little shrine at Beit Jala rather than praying at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem ." He asked

5368-432: The poor and to flee to Constantinople . Her parents, who did not support her decision to follow an ascetic, religious life, looked for her in various cities. Paraskeva fled to Chalcedon in Asia Minor , and afterwards lived at the church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Heraclea Pontica in Bithynia . She led an austere life, experiencing visions of the Virgin Mary . Her travels took her to Jerusalem ; she wished to spend

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5456-414: The poor. The people of the city were so amazed at what they had witnessed that they all became Christians and were baptized. Saint George's encounter with a dragon , as narrated in the Golden Legend , would go on to become very influential, as it remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxton 's 15th-century translation. In the medieval romances, the lance with which George slew

5544-411: The priest at the shrine "Do you get many Muslims coming here?" The priest replied, "We get hundreds! Almost as many as the Christian pilgrims. Often, when I come in here, I find Muslims all over the floor, in the aisles, up and down." The Encyclopædia Britannica quotes G. A. Smith in his Historic Geography of the Holy Land , p. 164, saying: "The Mahommedans who usually identify St. George with

5632-414: The princes of the Moldavian and Wallachian Principalities. The buildings were reconstructed in the late 13th century with the financial aid of Byzantine Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus . The monastery was also given numerous metochia (properties) in parts of Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, and modern-day Turkey, but retains today only those in Greece. The monastery exists in its modern appearance since

5720-413: The professional soldiers of the Roman army , is of undisputed historicity. According to Donald Attwater , No historical particulars of his life have survived, ... The widespread veneration for St George as a soldier saint from early times had its centre in Palestine at Diospolis, now Lydda . St George was apparently martyred there, at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century; that

5808-450: The prophet Elijah, at Lydda confound his legend with one about Christ himself. Their name for Antichrist is Dajjal , and they have a tradition that Jesus will slay Antichrist by the gate of Lydda. The notion sprang from an ancient bas-relief of George and the Dragon on the Lydda church. But Dajjal may be derived, by a very common confusion between n and l , from Dagon , whose name two neighbouring villages bear to this day, while one of

5896-420: The rest of her life there. After seeing Jerusalem, she settled in a convent in the desert near the Jordan River . When she was 25, an angel appeared, telling her to return to her homeland. She returned to Constantinople and then settled down a short distance west, living the last two years of her life in the village of Kallikrateia, in the church of the Holy Apostles, where she died age 27. The former village

5984-408: The rest of the Byzantine Empire – though the martyr is not mentioned in the Syriac Breviarium – and the region east of the Black Sea . By the 5th century, the veneration of George had reached the Christian Western Roman Empire , as well: in 494, George was canonized as a saint by Pope Gelasius I , among those "which are known better to God than to human beings." The early cult of the saint

6072-453: The same name as well as pre-Christian deities of the Slavs , leading to confusion about Paraskeva's identity and attributes. The confusion occurred in part because the original Greek name of Paraskeva was Παρασκευή, meaning "preparation [of the Sabbath ]," understood as "Friday," and was literally translated to various languages as "Saint Friday" (such as "Sveta Petka" in Serbian, "Sfânta Vineri" in Romanian). Scholars sometimes misunderstood

6160-441: The seventh of the month of Hatour of the Coptic calendar usually equivalent to 17 November. In India, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church , one of the oriental catholic churches ( Eastern Catholic Churches ), and Malankara Orthodox Church venerate George. The main pilgrim centres of the saint in India are at Aruvithura and Puthuppally in Kottayam District, Edathua in Alappuzha district, and Edappally in Ernakulam district of

6248-408: The sheep were not enough they were forced to sacrifice humans, elected by the city's own people. Eventually, the king's daughter was chosen to be sacrificed, and 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 insisted he give them to

6336-583: The shrines located in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași has become one of the major religious events in Romania. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims gather each year in Iași in the second weekend of October to commemorate Saint Parascheva, while the city itself established its Celebration Days at the same time. In the 14th century, Bishop Euthymius of Tarnovo (1332-1402) wrote a notable biography of Paraskeva - "Hagiography of Saint Petka of Tarnovo". The bishop's work

6424-422: The southern state of Kerala . The saint is commemorated each year from 27 April to 14 May at Edathua. On 27 April after the flag hoisting ceremony by the parish priest, the statue of the saint is taken from one of the altars and placed at the extension of the church to be venerated by devotees till 14 May. The main feast day is 7 May, when the statue of the saint along with other saints is taken in procession around

6512-620: The translated name and connected it with a certain character from folk tales having a similar name. As one scholar asked: Was Parasceve, or Paraskeva, an early Christian maiden named in honor of the day of the Crucifixion ? Or was she a personification of that day, pictured cross in hand to assist the fervor of the faithful? And was the Paraskeva of the South Slavs the same who made her appearance in northern Russia ? The cults of

6600-462: The veneration of the relics of the saint in Cappadocia. By the time of the early Muslim conquests of the mostly Christian and Zoroastrian Middle East, a basilica in Lydda dedicated to George existed. A new church was erected in 1872 and is still standing, where the feast of the translation of the relics of Saint George to that location is celebrated on 3 November each year. In England, he

6688-422: The world is covered by darkness which is lifted only when he is resurrected. He is able to convert the queen but she is put to death. He then prays to God to allow him to die, which is granted. Al-Thaʿlabi states that George was from Palestine and lived in the times of some disciples of Jesus . He was killed many times by the king of Mosul, and resurrected each time. When the king tried to starve him, he touched

6776-704: Was among the holidays that continued to be observed. In April 2019, the parish church of São Jorge, in São Jorge , Madeira Island , Portugal, solemnly received the relics of George, patron saint of the parish. During the celebrations the 504th anniversary of its foundation, the relics were brought by the new Bishop of Funchal, D. Nuno Brás . George is renowned throughout the Middle East, as both saint and prophet. His veneration by Christians and Muslims lies in his composite personality combining several biblical, Quranic and other ancient mythical heroes. Saint George

6864-542: Was built in Epivates (present-day Selimpaşa ) on the spot where her house of birth once stood. The oldest testimony regarding the church - written by the Russian traveller Anthony of Novgorod (who later became Archbishop of Novgorod ) - dates back to the early-13th century. In August 1817 a great fire completely destroyed the church; it was rebuilt in 1820 with the financial support of the citizens of Constantinople and of

6952-612: Was buried in Lydda , where Christians soon came to honour him as a martyr. The Latin Passio Sancti Georgii (6th century) follows the general course of the Greek legend, but Diocletian here becomes Dacian, Emperor of the Persians . His martyrdom was greatly extended to more than twenty separate tortures over the course of seven years. Over the course of his martyrdom, 40,900 pagans were converted to Christianity, including

7040-706: Was established by king Peter the Catholic from the Crown of Aragon in 1201, Republic of Genoa , Kingdom of Hungary (1326), and by Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor . Edward III of England put his Order of the Garter under the banner of George, probably in 1348. The chronicler Jean Froissart observed the English invoking George as a battle cry on several occasions during the Hundred Years' War . In his rise as

7128-660: Was found to be incorrupt . The relics were translated to the church of the Holy Apostles in Kallikrateia. In subsequent years, Paraskeva's relics were transferred to various churches in the region. In 1238, the relics were transferred from Kallikrateia to Veliko Tarnovo , capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire . In Bulgaria she is venerated as Sveta Petka Tarnovska, "of Tarnovo". In 1393, they were transferred to Belgrade , specifically

7216-735: Was inspired from the Greek vita of Saint Paraskeva of the Balkans, written by deacon Basilikos in 1150 on the request of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nicholas IV Mouzelon . Hagiographies were also written by Metropolitan Mattheos of Mira in 1605, Metropolitan Varlaam of Moldavia in 1643, Nikodimos the Athonite (19th century), and Romanian bishop Melchisedec of Roman in 1889. Some modern Romanian theologians published studies about Paraskeva: Gheorghe Păvăloiu (1935), Arhimandrite Varahil Jitaru (1942), D. Stănescu (1938), M. Țesan (1955), Scarlat Porcescu, and Mircea Păcurariu. A church dedicated to her

7304-409: Was localized in Diospolis (Lydda) , in Palestine. The first description of Lydda as a pilgrimage site where George's relics were venerated is De Situ Terrae Sanctae by the archdeacon Theodosius, written between 518 and 530. By the end of the 6th century, the center of his veneration appears to have shifted to Cappadocia . The Life of Saint Theodore of Sykeon , written in the 7th century, mentions

7392-518: Was martyred when the city was destroyed by God in a rain of fire. Muslim scholars had tried to find a historical connection of the saint due to his popularity. According to Muslim legend, he was martyred under the rule of Diocletian and was killed three times but resurrected every time. The legend is more developed in the Persian version of al-Tabari wherein he resurrects the dead, makes trees sprout and pillars bear flowers. After one of his deaths,

7480-533: Was mentioned among the martyrs by the 8th-century monk Bede . The Georgslied is an adaptation of his legend in Old High German , composed in the late 9th century. The earliest dedication to the saint in England is a church at Fordington, Dorset , that is mentioned in the will of Alfred the Great . George did not rise to the position of "patron saint" of England, however, until the 14th century, and he

7568-496: Was one of the first pieces of scholarly research to establish the saint's historicity, via their publications in Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca . Pope Gelasius I stated in 494 that George was among those saints "whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose actions are known only to God." The most complete version, based upon the fifth-century Greek text but in a later form, survives in

7656-666: Was still obscured by Edward the Confessor , the traditional patron saint of England, until in 1552 during the reign of Edward VI all saints' banners other than George's were abolished in the English Reformation . Belief in an apparition of George heartened the Franks at the Battle of Antioch in 1098, and a similar appearance occurred the following year at Jerusalem. The chivalric military Order of Sant Jordi d'Alfama

7744-462: Was the patron saint of Mosul. Along with Theodosius , he was revered by both Christian and Muslim communities of Jazira and Anatolia . The wall paintings of Kırk Dam Altı Kilise at Belisırma dedicated to him are dated between 1282 and 1304. These paintings depict him as a mounted knight appearing between donors including a Georgian lady called Thamar and her husband, the Emir and Consul Basil, while

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