Description
This book gives a careful account of the life of Saint George, hero and Martyr, not as a mere legendary figure, but as living man in conflict with the forces of evil, and as a victorious defender of early Christianity. It presents the best authenticated record of the history of the Knights of St. George and Britains great Order of the Garter, instituted in his memory. In the first section of this study the author makes the most of the scanty materials dealing with the life of St. George as it’s first chapter begins with the following: The story of St. George comes to us from Palestine, where the memory of the Champion of Religious Liberty is venerated to this day by Christian and Moslem alike. The Greek Orthodox Church honours St. George as the “Great Martyr,” “Captain of the Noble Army of Martyrs” and the majority of the monasteries in the East are dedicated to the “Victorious One”, or “Trophy Bearer”. . . . In Jerusalem the ancient Coptic Church has a monastery of St. George, and the Greek Church has not only a monastery of St. George, but monasteries also of St. Helena and Constantine, the British Empress and her illustrious son the first Christian Emperor, who, soon after he assumed the purple, publicly recognized the merits of the Soldier-Martyr by proclaiming St.George the patron and pattern of soldiers and “Champion of Christendom”. The second portion deals with the commemoration of the Saint, in Church Liturgies and National Institutions; the third with the celebrated Knights of St. George from the sixteenth to the twentieth century; the fourth and last with St. George in Art, Hostels, Customs and Traditions. His memory is perpetuated in the British national flag of which the red cross of St. George is the foundation, and which is overlaid with the cross of St. Andrew of Scotland, and the cross of St. Patrick of Ireland.
