Celebrating St George in style

An image of St George taken from the Book of Hours, use of Sarum, Pink Canopies Group, Bruges, circa 1390-1400, 197 x 123 mm, Sloane MS 2683, f. 14v
Copyright © The British Library Board

Today is the feast of St George, a saint whose aid I invoke daily. Looking on the Internet for illustrations of him one is struck by just how popular his cult has been certainly since the later middle ages and how artists have responded to the challenges and possibilities of depicting him as dragon slayer par excellence.

I have been able to celebrate the day with the 8am Oxford Mass Extraordinary Form livestream. At 12.10pm I was able to watch the Warrington Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form from the FSSP. At 6.30pm I shall return to the Oxford Oratory for Benediction.

The Warrington homily referred to the Google search page for today and which I had thought myself earlier on this morning to be curious. It shows St George and the Dragon sitting and relaxing together with the saint proffering slices of bread on his sword over a fire which the Dragon obligingly feeds with his breath. Fun and charming indeed, but it does quite completely miss the point of the story of St George and the Dragon and what it is telling the viewer about the necessity for the Christian to resist and defeat evil.