About that dragon
Ever wonder why Saint George is almost always shown riding a white horse, driving a spear through a dragon?
Most people think that’s the story of Saint George, but it isn’t.
The dragon represents evil, sin, and the spiritual battles every Christian faces. The white horse symbolises purity, courage, and victory through faith.
Who he actually was
The real Saint George was an elite Roman soldier, born into a Christian family and respected for his courage. As he rose through the ranks of the Roman army, Emperor Diocletian ordered Christians to renounce their faith or face death.
George refused.
He gave away his wealth, publicly confessed Christ, endured brutal torture, and was eventually beheaded around the year 303.
His victory wasn’t over a dragon — it was over fear. That is why the Church remembers him as one of Christianity’s greatest martyrs, and why the dragon became the perfect symbol of the evil he overcame through unwavering faith.
Γίνου πιστὸς ἄχρι θανάτου,
καὶ δώσω σοι τὸν στέφανον τῆς ζωῆς.
“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Revelation 2:10 · the words carried on Drop 001
Why Trophy-bearer
The Church gave him two names. Μεγαλομάρτυς (Megalomartys, Great Martyr) and Τροπαιοφόρος (Tropaioforos, trophy-bearer).
A τρόπαιον was a Roman monument. When an enemy line broke and turned, the army raised one on the exact ground where it happened — the captured armour hung on a post, left standing so everyone would know what had been decided there.
By every measure Rome understood, George lost. He was disarmed, condemned and killed by his own side. The Church looked at that and called him the one who carried the trophy home. That inversion is the entire faith, compressed into one word.
How the Church has pictured him
A prayer to Saint George
This is the hymn the Church sings on his feast, the 23rd of April. It is the oldest way we have of asking him to pray for us.
Apolytikion · Tone 4
Ὡς τῶν αἰχμαλώτων ἐλευθερωτής, καὶ τῶν πτωχῶν ὑπερασπιστής, ἀσθενούντων ἰατρός, βασιλέων ὑπέρμαχος, Τροπαιοφόρε Μεγαλομάρτυς Γεώργιε, πρέσβευε Χριστῷ τῷ Θεῷ, σωθῆναι τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν.
Liberator of captives and defender of the poor, physician of the sick and champion of kings: O Great Martyr George, trophy-bearer, intercede with Christ God that our souls may be saved.
The Greek is the traditional dismissal hymn (apolytikion, sung as the service closes). The English is our own rendering. To intercede is to pray on someone else’s behalf — you ask the saint, the saint asks Christ.
Why people ask his prayers
- Courage under pressure. He was asked to deny Christ and would not. People facing something they have to stand alone in have always come to him first.
- Soldiers, and anyone in danger. He was a soldier himself, and has been the patron of soldiers for seventeen centuries.
- The land and the harvest. His name, Γεώργιος (Georgios), means worker of the earth. Farmers have kept his feast as a marker of the season for as long as it has been kept.
- Protection. Patron of Georgia, Greece, England, Palestine, Ethiopia, Portugal and Moscow — places that asked him to stand over them and never stopped asking.
Dates
Read further
- Orthodox Church in America — his lifeoca.org
- Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America — the feastgoarch.org
- OrthodoxWiki — George the Trophy-bearerorthodoxwiki.org
Drop 001 · Opens 8 October
Heavyweight hoodie, numbered first run, carrying this icon and his words from Revelation.
Reserve yours