St. George was cannonized for killing a dragon. How can this be true?

Question

Dragons do not exist, and never have. I propose that St.George found some dinosaur bones and took credit for killing a "dragon" that died thousands of years before he was born. He was a liar and a fraud not only to lie to everyone, but to let them make him a saint as well. How can people still pray to him and consider him the patron saint of England? They need to change it.

Answer 1

According to the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine, the story of Saint George and the Dragon took place in a place he called "Silene," in Libya. There was no such place, the name being perhaps a corruption of Cyrene. The Golden Legend is the first to place this tale in Libya, as a sufficiently exotic locale, where a dragon might be imagined. A translation of the original text of Jacobus de Voragine is linked below.

This town had a pond large as a lake where a plague-bearing dragon dwelled. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene used to feed it a sheep and a virgin every day, the virgin chosen by lottery.

It happened that the lot fell on the princess of Silene. The king, distraught with grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, decked out as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.

Saint George heard of this state of affairs, and travelled on horseback to the lake. The princess, trembling, sought to send him away, but George vowed to remain and fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross. (In the earliest version, where the dragon is more clearly a representation of paganism, or at least infernal power, the sign of the Cross itself was sufficient to defeat the dragon.)

The dragon reared out of the lake while they were conversing. Saint George charged it on horseback with his lance and gave it a grievous wound. Then he called to the princess to throw him her girdle and put it around the dragon's neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a dog on a leash. She and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the people at its approach. But Saint George called out to them, saying that if they consented to become Christians and be baptised, he would slay the dragon before them.

Traditionally, the lance with which St George slew the dragon was called Ascalon, named after the city of Ashkelon in the middle east. From this tradition, the name Ascalon was used by Winston Churchill for his personal aircraft during WW2 (records at Bletchley Park), since St. George is the Patron Saint of England.

The king and the people of Silene, seeing this was an offer they could not refuse, converted to Christianity. George then drew his sword and dispatched the dragon. On the site where the dragon died, the king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George, and from its altar a spring arose whose waters cured all diseases.

Many historians consider the roots of this story to be older than Christianity itself. They note that the origin of the saint is said to be partly from Cappadocia in Asia Minor, and that Asia Minor was among the earliest regions to adopt the popular veneration of the saint. The region had long venerated other religious figures. These historians deem it likely that certain elements of their ancient worship could have passed to their Christian successors. Notable among these ancient deities was Sabazios, the Sky Father of the Phrygians and known as Sabazius to the Romans. This god was traditionally depicted riding on horseback. The iconic image of St. George on horseback trampling the serpent-dragon beneath him is considered to be similar to these pre-Christian representations of Sabazios. This myth in turn may derive from an earlier Hittite myth concerning the battle between the Storm God Tarhun and the dragon Illuyankas. The story also has counterparts in other Indo-European mythologies: The slaying of the serpent Vritra by Indra in Vedic religion, the battle between Thor and Jörmungandr in the Germanic story of Ragnarok, the Greek account of the defeat of the Titan Typhon by Zeus[1]. Parallels also exist outside of Indo-European mythology, for example the Babylonian myths of Marduk slaying the dragon Tiamat.

Answer 2

Actually he wasnt cannonized for killing a dragon, that is a legend, a story. But George was a real person:
According to the apocryphal Acts of St George current in various versions in the Eastern Church from the fifth century, George held the rank of tribune in the Roman army and was beheaded by Diocletian for protesting against the Emperor's persecution of Christians. George rapidly became venerated throughout Christendom as an example of bravery in defence of the poor and the defenceless and of the Christian faith.
Check out this link:
http://www.britannia.com/history/stgeorge.html

Answer 3

The concept that dinosaurs only lived millions of years ago is the lie. There are accounts of dinosaurs..often called dragons by various societies and cultures all the way up into the 13th and 14th centuries..including in Biblical times as referenced by the book of Job. The term Dinosaur wasn't created to describe reptiles of great size until the early 18th century when the bones were beginning to be discovered. Don't believe everything they teach you in 5th grade science class. Love in Christ, ~J~ <><

Answer 4

I can't say for certain that dragon's never existed, since they do exist in so many histories for so many cultures. What we think of as dragons today is Hollywood's idea of dragon for the most part. maybe we had a few giant lizards, or left over dinosaurs back then... Who knows?
By the way
St Patrick got his saint hood for "driving out all the snakes of Ireland".
You know that actually means that he eradicated a large portion of the Irish pagan culture don't you? Not REAL snakes, but people's ways & beliefs of the time.
So what (or who) was St. George's Dragon? Interesting historical anomollies like this exist in lots of places.

Answer 5

Aristotle can claim to be the first person to watch animals objectively. In his encyclopedia of zoology, Historia Animalium, he tried to find the connections between animals and described some of their behaviour. He appreciated the habits of animals from teh point of view of the animals themselves. This was revolutionary at the time and even in the 1900's would have still been considered revolutionary. Now it is the status quo. There were no dragons in his text. About 400 years after Aristotle's death, Pliny the Elder, wrote his own book, Historia Naturalis, which incorporated Aristotles work as well as many fanciful stories he came to hear from distant lands in his job as a Roman civil servant and cavalry officer. He seemed to believe everything he was told, according to his book, there was a country in Africa ruled by dog-headed people, Chinese dragons ate the sun, etc. Pliny's book was widely copied and formed the basis of the "Physiologus" written in the second or third centuries (CE). This included many more fanciful stories. During the 11th century, Physiologus was brought back into vogue by Christian monks (who were the ones who could copy books at the time) who changed the whole point of the books from animal behaviour to glorifying god's creation. Rather than doing the primary research, the monks used the older books described above and added elements based on their own imagination. These "bestiaries" were intended as holy books, being scrap books of God's handiwork. The bestiary confirms the existance of several sorts of fire-breathing dragons, the phoenix, etc. The bestiary also records the fact that dragons were the traditional sport of brave knights and valiant saints -- like St George. The bestiary goes on to describe animals in terms that would glorify God in the eyes of humans. For example, a lioness would give birth to dead cubs. Three days later, the male lion would come and breath life into the cubs, being a living reminder of the ressurrection of Jesus. It all started with Aristotles good science, then people added their own superstitions to it based on word of mouth. Then Christian monks took hold of it and added an unwarranted religious slant to both the fact and fiction of the earlier works, including dragons and St George.

Answer 6

Maybe he killed a komodo dragon or a crocodile? Think about it, back in Europe at the time, had any of them ever seen a crocodile or aligator? Of course, not, so I'm thinking it woulda looked a lot like a dragon to them. In either case, who the catholic church says is a saint means nothing. God does not take orders from the catholic church. Saints are made by God, not popes. Not to mention, praying to a saint??? Didn't Jesus make it quite clear that we are to pray to God, and God alone? No one should be praying to any man-made saints.

Answer 7

George was canonized for being a Christian martyr, not for slaying a dragon. The dragon aspect of his story is a myth tacked on in later years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George

George is the patron saint of England because of his chivalry, not for his ability to kill dragons.

Answer 8

You confuse between St. George and the artist who drew the picture? When the artist drew the picture he wanted to symbolize a saint's life in general with that of St. George as the latter sacrificed his life to defend his faith and church against the devils. So, in the painting, the dragon represents Satan, the lady and the building in the background of the painting represent faith and church, and finally St. George represents any believer who should act like a soldier to protect his faith and church from Satan.

Answer 9

People do not walk on water, rise from the dead, call up armies of angels, part oceans, heal blindness with mud, slay gorgons, balance the world on their shoulders, build boats that will carry two of each species, kill hydras, and the world has never been inundated above the mountaintops. If religions required truth in advertising there would be no religion.

Answer 10

It is hard for me to believe that dragons did not exist when there are so many diverse cultures that all share similar experiences with dragon like creatures. They may not have had wings, but I think there were "dragons" when people existed. But they are now called dinosaurs.