While St George’s exact birthdate remains unclear but is likely to be 270 AD, we know that he was born in Cappadocia, part of modern day Turkey.
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Edward III, who reigned from 1327 to 1377 was influenced by the stories of returning crusaders telling of Saint George’s bravery.
So, when Edward founded the Order of the Garter, England’s order of knights, he made Saint George its patron.
By the 14th century Saint George was viewed as a special protector of the English.
St. George’s Fredericksburg, Virginia shares with this video of their food pantry that provides farm fresh produce:
Posted by John B. Chilton
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All our faith stories are myth and legend — they don’t speak of “facts” but of deeper meanings for our lives and acts. See Speaking to the Soul: Dragon Slaying.
Ann, I’m sure some of our faith stories — maybe even a majority of them — speak of “facts.” Of course, these are “facts” inextricably tied up in the strings of myth and the yarns of legend.
My question is: is “factuality” an essential prerequisite for believing in them? As a student of literature, I tend to think our obsession with whether something is “factual” obscures the more important matter of whether — as you say — it is “meaningful,” in our lives, our relationships, our thoughts, words, and deeds. Or meaningful in the lives of others with whom we seek to empathize.
I believe and find meaning in Lady Bracknell, Prince Hamlet, Pickwick, and Archdeacon Grantly; as much as I believe and find meaning in Jesus Christ. I happen to think that only one of them is, in fact, a “fact.” I even believe in the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, although that is not to suggest that I think one can encounter it in fact.
I wonder then whether our obsession should be with facts, as it too often is, or with truth. Facts are meaningless, truth is meaning itself. That, of course, is a load question in an age when truth-claims and qualitative judgments are already on trial and otherwise interchangeable.
I believe George smote a dragon and that Jesus was raised from the dead. One of those is, I think, factual; both of them are true.