St George: The Man and the Myth

 Today we read about a confusing figure named St George in the book In Caelo et in Terra. He's confusing because it's hard to know where to draw the line between fact and fiction. Some would say that the man didn't even exist, but the church says that he did and that he was a Roman soldier who was martyred for being a Christian. In Caelo says that since he was a Roman soldier, he could have saved himself by simply denying that he was a Christian... but I mean, couldn't all Christians do that?

There are lots of stories about him, and he is the patron saint of MANY groups of people, including the Eastern European Romani people, whom we commonly call Gypsies. Stories, as in the pic above, of him slaying dragons and saving princesses and even coming back to life. On one hand, we're tempted to write all of that off as myth, but it's easy to call things myths just because we don't see them happen today. Too many people call Old Testament stories myths just because they happened long ago. 

So did St George slay a dragon? We don't know. Did he save a princess? Could be. He was known for being brave, and we know that's true because he was martyred. So let's learn from his example, even if we're not sure what exactly he did to exemplify bravery.

You can learn more about him here.

God, thanks for the example of this brave man. St George, pray for us.