Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 George the Saint, England the Nation
- 2 The Cult of St. George: Origins, Development, and Arrival in England
- 3 Royal St. George, 1272–1509
- 4 Popular St. George in Late Medieval England
- 5 St. George’s Post-Medieval Career
- Appendix: Records of St. George in Medieval England
- Bibiography
- Index
1 - George the Saint, England the Nation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 George the Saint, England the Nation
- 2 The Cult of St. George: Origins, Development, and Arrival in England
- 3 Royal St. George, 1272–1509
- 4 Popular St. George in Late Medieval England
- 5 St. George’s Post-Medieval Career
- Appendix: Records of St. George in Medieval England
- Bibiography
- Index
Summary
The process by which St. George came to be the patron saint of England was convoluted and owed a great deal to chance. It also came relatively late in the day: other European polities had their patrons from as early as the tenth century, but the earliest possible mention of St. George being the “special protector” of the English came in 1351, and he did not replace any other saint in this category. In order to discuss why this was the case, some preliminary discussion of sainthood, and nationhood, in the late Middle Ages will be useful.
Although popular, St. George was by no means the only saint in late medieval England. To a degree difficult to imagine today, saints were ubiquitous: their names bestowed on children, churches, ships, and even bells; their feasts commemorated throughout the liturgical year; their shrines the object of pilgrimage; their images sculpted and painted in churches and homes; their stories told and retold, publicly and privately. From the second century AD, Christians had held certain deceased members of their faith in particular esteem. The posthumous title “holy” (Latin sanctus, hence “saint”) was originally reserved for those who had maintained their faith in the face of torture and execution, although with the conversion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century the category of saint was expanded to include ascetic holy men and women, learned or well-loved ecclesiastics, and successful missionaries and other servants of the faith, and was retroactively attributed to most people in the New Testament who had had direct contact with Jesus. A day was set aside to commemorate the saint, usually the date of his or her death (i.e. “heavenly birth”) although saints’ days could be strategically placed to compete with pagan holidays. Originally a saint was acclaimed locally, and even after the papacy reserved for itself the sole right to canonize saints in the eleventh century, the sustained enthusiasm of a local cult was an essential ingredient in a successful drive for canonization. Saints served as moral examples for living Christians, and the various genres of hagiography produced about them attested to their holiness in life and steadfastness in the face of death.
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- The Cult of St George in Medieval England , pp. 1 - 20Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009