GEORGE, ST., surnamed OF Cereal:loofa, was a native of Epb phaneia in Cilicia, and is said to have been born in a fuller's shop.
From this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite, and the patrons whom he flattered procured for him a lucrative commission or contract to supply the army with bacon. He accumulated wealth in this employment by fraud, and his depre dations on the public purse at last became so notorious, that be was compelled to fly from the pursuit of justice to Alexandria, where he embraced, with real or affected zeal, the profession of Arianism. Here ho formed a valuable library of history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, which the emperor Julian, after St. George's death, appro priated to himself. So great had the influence of George of Cappa docia become amongst the disciples and followers of Arius, that when Athanasins was driven from Alexandria the prevailing faction elevated him to the vacant episcopal throne. Gibbon has enlarged upou the avarice and tyranny of his character whilst primate of Egypt. The Pagans, who had been flattered with the hopes of freedom and tolera tion, excited his avarice ; and the rich temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate, who exclaimed in a loud and threatening tone, " How long will these sepulchres be per mitted to stand 1" Under the reign of Constantius he was expelled by the people; and it was not without a violent struggle that the civil and military powers of the state could restore his authority.
The messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian, in 361, announced the dowafal of the archbishop. George, with two of his miuisters, Count Diodorua, and Dracoutius, master of the mint, were dragged in chains to the public prison. At the cud of twenty. four days the prison was forced open by the rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The archbishop and his minister were murdered by the populace, and their lifeless bodies were carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel. Their remains were thrown into the sea ; the popular
leaders of the tumult declaring their resolution to disappoint the devo tion of the Christians, and to intercept the future honours of these martyrs, who had been punished, like their predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. The date of the canonisation of St. George is un certain ; but he was recognised as a saint by Pope Gelasius in 494. Some Roman Catholic and Anglican writers however deny, or doubt, the identity of the St. George of the calendar with George of Cappadocia.
The reader who would enter into the history of SL George of Cappa docia as the patron saint of England may consult The Historic of that most famous Saint and Souldier of Christ Jesus, St. George of Cappa docia, asserted from the fictions of the middle ages of the Church and opposition of the present,' by Dr. Peter Heylyn, 4to, Lend., 1631 and 1633 ; A Dissertation on the Original of the Equestrian Figure of the George and of the Garter, ensigns of the most noble order of that name,' by John Pettingall, 4to, Lend., 1753; and Dr. Pegge's Observations on the History of St. George, the Patron Saint of England,' in the Archreologia,' voL v., p.1-32.
When the English Crusaders went to the East in 1096, they found St. George received among the Christiana as a warrior-saint, with the peculiar appellation of ` Tropmophoros (TparatoluSpos) tho victorious.' They had some knowledge of him before as a saint and martyr, having read of him in that capacity in their Calendars and Martyrologies; and, after the succour which he was supposed to have afforded them at the siege of Antioch, they adopted him as the patron of soldiers. As such, Edward IIL made him patron of the Order of the Garter ; and he thus gradually became considered as the patron of chivalry, and the tutelar saint of England.
(Moreri, Diet. Hist., tom. v., folio, Paris, 1759: G., pp. 152, 153; Gibbon, Decline and Pall, chap. xxiii.; and the Acta Sanctorurn of the Bollandists, Month of April, tom. iii., p. 100-163; De S. Georgio Megalo-lfartyre, &c.)