GEORGE, St, one of the Bermudas, and also a town there. See BERMUDA.
GEORGE of Cappadocia, or St GEORGE, the patron saint of England, was born about the beginning of the fourth century—according to some accounts, at Epiphania, in Cilicia; according to others, in Cappadocia. His father was a fuller; and the future saint himself had long a severe struggle to maintain against the disadvantages of his humble birth. According to Gregory of Nazianzen, George distinguished himself in his early career as a parasite of so mean a type that he would sell himself for a cake. By these arts he obtained the contract for supplying bacon to the troops; but he fulfilled its terms so ill, that he with difficulty escaped death at the hands of the indignant soldiers. He then fled to Alexandria, where he entered the public service, embraced Christianity, and finally became bishop of the city. Arianism was at that time rampant, and George became an Arian. Indeed, he owed his episcopate to the piety of his conscience, and the readiness with which he lent himself to further the political views of the court. On taking possession of his see, he found a fierce persecution going on against the Trinitarians. Instead of mitigating this evil, he carried it to such an extreme as at length to raise a rebellion against him. He fled for his life; but being soon after re-instated by the court, he returned to Egypt and signalized himself by redoubled cruelties. As might have been expected, his conduct raised up numerous
enemies against him, even among his own partizans. His downfall could not be long delayed. A tyrannical act which he perpetrated towards the heathens in his diocese, shortly after the accession of Julian, irritated the people so keenly that they rose up en masse, dragged him out of the prison to which he had retired for safety, paraded him through the streets on the back of a camel, and after tearing him to pieces, burnt his remains. It is a mystery how this George was ever admitted into the calendar at all. Some writers, such as Papebroche and Heylyn, deny altogether that the patron saint of England is the same person as the bishop of Alexandria. Other stories, however, give a version of George's history which explain to a certain extent the honour in which he is now held. One of these makes him a soldier in the service of Diocletian, in whose reign he suffered martyrdom along with many other thousands of Christians. Among the Greeks St George became known as the Victorious; and in England his renown gradually increased after the era of the Crusades to such an extent, that by the time of Edward III. he had become the patron saint of the kingdom. (Acta Sanctorum; Heylyn, History of St George; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xxi, &c.)
Cross of St GEORGE, a red cross in a field argent, forming part of the British standard. See HERALDRY.
Knights of St GEORGE. See GARTER. There have been various other orders of this denomination, most of which are now extinct. Among these may be noticed one founded by the Emperor Frederick III., in 1470, to guard the frontiers of Bohemia and Hungary against the Turks; that of St George of Alfama, founded by the kings of
Aragon; and another in Austria and Carinthia. (See Ashmole On the Garter, &c.)
Religious Orders of St George. Of these there were different orders and congregations, particularly canons regular of St George in Alga, at Venice, established by authority of Pope Boniface IX. in 1404. The foundation of this order was laid by Bartolomeo Colonna, who preached in 1396 at Padua and some other places in the state of Venice. Pope Pius V., in 1570, gave these canons precedence over all other religious orders.