Saint George the “Palestinian” and New England on the Black Sea

Here what is know about the actual Saint George (wiki): “It is likely that Saint George was born to a Christian noble family in Lod, Syria Palaestina during the late third century between about 275 AD and 285 AD, and he died in Nicomedia. His father, Gerontius, was a Roman army official from Cappadocia and his mother, Polychronia, was from Palestine. They were both Christians and from noble families of Anici, so by this the child was raised with Christian beliefs. They decided to call him Georgius (Latin) or Geōrgios (Greek), meaning “worker of the land”. At the age of 14, 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.” In short Georgius was perhaps of the Jewish extraction, at least on the side of his mother. Saint George was an officer in the Roman court of Diocletian. At some point Diocletian decided to purge his Christian officers. Saint George was allegedly tortured and killed. Significantly Saint George was brought back to his hometown in Lydda to be buried. Note there is no dragon in this story yet.

Diocletian was the same Roman emperor who imprisoned St.Nicholas of Myra, later known as the Santa Claus. The century before Christianity became the state religion was the time of heroism and also the time for the formation of many lasting christian legends. In those days Diocletian was the rare Roman emperor to retire, instead of being assassinated. Diocletian went back to his native Croatia and took up gardening around his palace in Split. During Diocletian’s rule Christianity was spreading among the Roman officers. So was the case of Constantine himself who came up through the army ranks and eventually made Christianity the state religion. “People begged Diocletian to return to the throne, to resolve the conflicts that had arisen through Constantine’s rise to power and Maxentius’ usurpation. Diocletian’s reply: “If you could show the cabbage that I planted with my own hands to your emperor, he definitely wouldn’t dare suggest that I replace the peace and happiness of this place with the storms of a never-satisfied greed.”

The Dragon

The dragon (or actually a crocodile) fable appeared almost ten centuries after the life of Saint George. It was brought back to Europe by the crusaders. There is an early painting on the cave walls of the famous Cappadocia in Turkey, it depicts Saint George on a horse, etc. In other words visually Saint George morphed into a crusader knight, often complete with armor, etc.

There are 365 Orthodox churches in Georgia named after Saint George. Hence in the early Middle Ages the French and the English started calling the country “Georgia”. The Georgian flag is the most accurate “living” replica of the Jerusalem Cross (below) which was the crusader flag of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was worn by Godfrey of Bouillon, the first crusader ruler of Kingdom of Jerusalem. It represents the five holy wounds of Christ. The variants of this red on white fag are typical for the Crusader orders, most notably for the famous Knight Templar order and the derivative and iconic Saint George flag of England.

In the 11th century there was a New England Colony on the Northern shore of the Black Sea (long before they discovered America), around the modern Crimean town of Anapa, on the border with modern Georgia (wiki): “New England (Nova Anglia) was a colony allegedly founded in the mid-to-late 11th century by English refugees fleeing William the Conqueror. Its existence is only attested in two sources, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries. Namely, the French Chronicon Universale Anonymi Laudunensis and the Icelandic Játvarðar Saga. They tell the story of a journey from England through the Mediterranean Sea that led to Constantinople, where the English refugees fought off a siege by “heathens” and were rewarded by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus. A group of them were given land in the north-east of the Black Sea, reconquering it and renaming their territory “New England”.

Perhaps there is a link between the Cross of St. George and the Jerusalem Cross of Georgia?

Tagged as: byzantine, death, history, israel, jerusalem, religion, rome