Christian myth. St. George and dragon.

St. George delivers a princess from a monster, who is about to devour her. According to another version, the dragon guards the spring of water, and the country is languishing for want of water; St. George restores to the land the use of the spring by slaying the dragon.

This table might have been considerably extended by including Keltic and Sclavonic fables, but it is sufficiently complete to show that the legend of St. George and the dragon forms part of one of the sacred myths of the Aryan family, and it is impossible not to grasp its signification in the light cast upon it by the Vedic poems.

And when we perceive how popular this venerable myth was in heathen nations of Europe, it is not surprising that it should perpetuate itself under Christianity, and that, when once transferred to a hero of the new creed, it should make that hero one of the most venerated and popular of all the saints in the calendar.

In the reign of Constantine the Great, there existed a great and beautiful church between Ramula, the ancient Arimathæa, and Lydda or Decapolis, dedicated by the Emperor to St. George, over his tomb. Ramula also bore the name of Georgia, and the inhabitants pretended

that the warrior-saint was a native of their town. A temple of Juno at Constantinople was converted into a church, with the same dedication, by the first Christian Emperor, and according to one tradition, the bones of the martyr were translated from his tomb near Lydda, to the church in the great city of Constantine. At an early date his head was in Rome, or at all events one of his heads, for another found its way to the church of MaresMoutier, in Picardy, after the capture of Byzantium by the Turks, when it was taken from a church erected by Constantine Monomachus, dedicated to the saint. The Roman head, long forgotten, was rediscovered in 751, with an inscription on it which identified it with St. George. In 1600 it was given to the church of Ferrara. In Rome, at Palermo, and at Naples there were churches at a very early date, consecrated to the martyr. In 509 Clotilda founded a nunnery at Chelles in his honor; and Clovis II. placed a convent at Barala under his invocation. In this religious house was preserved an arm of St. George, which in the ninth century was transported to Cambray; and fifty years later St. Germain dedicated an altar in Paris to the champion. In the sixth century a church was erected to his honor at Mayence; Clothaire in the following century dedicated one at Nimègue, and

his brother another in Alsace, George had a monastery dedicated to him at Thetford, founded in the reign of Canute; a collegiate church in Oxford placed under his. invocation in the reign of the Conqueror, St. George's, Southwark, dates from before the Norman invasion, The priory church of Griesly in Derbyshire was dedicated to Saints Mary and George, in the reign of Henry I. The Crusades gave an impetus to the worship of our patron, He appeared in light on the walls of Jerusalem, waving his sword, and led the victorious assault on the Holy City. Unobtrusively he and St. Michael slipped into the offices, and exercised the functions, of the Dioscuri. Robert of Flanders, on his return from the Holy Land, presented part of an arm of the saint to the city of Toulouse, and other portions to the Countess Matilda and to the abbey of Auchin. Another arm of St. George fell miraculously from heaven upon the altar of St. Pantaleon at Cologne, and in honor of it Bishop Anno founded a church.

The church of Villers-Saint-Leu contains relics of the saint, which were given to it in 1101 by Alexander, chaplain of Count Ernest, who had received them from Baldwin at Jerusalem.

The enthusiasm of the Crusaders for the Eastern soldier-saint who led them to battle, soon raised St.

George to the highest pitch of popularity among the nobles and fighting-men of Europe. England, Aragon, and Portugal assumed him as their patron, as well as most chivalrous orders founded at the date of these wars. In 1245, on St. George's Day, Frederic of Austria instituted an order of knighthood under his patronage; and its banner, white charged with a blood-red cross, in battle floated alongside of that of the empire. When the emperor entered the castle of St. Angelo at Rome, these two banners were carried before him. The custody of the sacred standard of St. George was confided to the Swabian knights. In the early part of the thirteenth century there existed a military order under the protection of St. George at Genoa, and in 1201 an order was founded in Aragon, with the title of knights of St. George of Alfama.

In 1348 King Edward III. founded St. George's Chapel, Windsor. In the following year he was besieging Calais. Moved by a sudden impulse, says Thomas of Walsingham, he drew his sword with the exclamation "Ha! Saint Edward! Ha! Saint George! The words and action communicated spirit to his soldiers: they fell with vigor on the French, and routed them with a slaughter of two hundred soldiers. From that time St. George replaced Edward the Confessor as patron of England.

In 1350 the celebrated order was instituted. In 1415, by the Constitutions of Archbishop Chichely, St. George's Day was made a major double feast, and ordered to be observed the same as Christmas Day, all labor ceasing; and he received the title of spiritual patron of the English soldiery.

In 1545 St. George's Day was observed as a red letter day, with proper Collect, Epistle, and Gospel; but in the reign of Edward VI. it was swept away, and the holding of the chapter of the Garter on St. George's Day was transferred to Whitsun Eve, Whitsun Day, and Whitsun Monday. Next year, the first of Queen Mary, the enactment was reversed, and since then the ancient custom has obtained, and the chapter is held annually on the feast of the patron.

In concluding this paper, it remains only to point out the graceful allegory which lies beneath the Western fable. St. George is any Christian who is sealed at his baptism to be "Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end," and armed with the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of the faith, marked with its blood-red cross, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word or power of God.

The hideous monster against whom the Christian sol