La Vanguardia newspaper. printed edition. Victor M. Amela
I have 57 years. I'm from Rome and I live in Barcelona, I am a doctor in Romanesque philology and a medievalist historian. I have two sons, in Camilo (19) in a Bruno (17). Policy? I'm a naive anarchist. I have no religious beliefs. All of this has deepened my appreciation and appreciation for the holiday season, in depth the history of the myth of Sant Jordi.
.- Sant Jordi existed?
He was a martyr of the first Christianity, say the saints…
.- what do we know:
There is a tomb of Saint George venerated since the 6th century in Diòspolis, today Lod, a I’ actual Israel.
.- Who is buried there?
A holy man. According to tradition, a Roman tribe, military, born in Cappadocia and martyred in the time of the emperor Diocletian in the year 303.
.- And called Jordi?
Giorgos, Greek name meaning &’8220;protector of the fields”.
.- And why they martyred him?
He declared himself a Christian: this meant betraying obedience to the emperor to obey Christ!
.- What was the martyrdom??
They hang him from a cross, they scratch it with bramble thorns, his guts come out, they stretch his limbs, They throw salt in the wounds, he wears iron shoes and loves spikes…
.- I is not mor?
No: sign of the power of their God! With a hammer they bash his head until his brains come out of his ears. And they make him carry the weight d’ a large column in the chest…
.- And Jordi stays so wide?
And. A magician arrives who cuts a bull in half and brings it back to life… but Jordi manages to convert this magician to Christianity! Then they dismember Jordi and throw his remains into a well. But God resurrects him.
.- And the torturers, desperate…
They throw molten lead into his mouth, they drill into his skull with nails… He will die and be resurrected three times! Many pagans are converted on seeing it… But this story is pagan.
.- of owe?
It mixes non-biblical Jewish and Zoroastrian elements… which seem to point to Mani.
.- Mani?
Prophet born in Persia from a Jewish family, founder of Manichaeism, in the third century. Per nixo the Persian king Bahram had this heresiarch prophet martyred and killed.
.- And then it was picked up by Christianity?
As a legionary tribe, born a 23 d'abril (at nine in the morning): he gives the poor some money that was for the emperor Constantine, and frees slaves and declares himself a Christian: for this he was tortured and beheaded.
.- And slay a dragon?
The Christian church began as a pacifist, but when it becomes official and has power, temporarily militarized, and he will need an armed and warrior saint… It will be Sant Jordi.
.- It's okay, the transformation?
The bellicose Germanic people approach Christianity and make the eastern martyr a warrior leader… and protector of the people, "athlete of Christ", "warrior of Christ". He will end up being the patron saint of the Teutonic Knights
.- Where the cult of Sant Jordi is consolidated?
first crusade, XI century: Saint George appears on a white horse and helps the crusaders take Antioquia, decisive tape! From here, the dragon comes out in the story.
.- Com?
already Perseus, in Greek myth, he defeated a dragon to rescue Andromeda. Already Pope Sylvester subdued a dragon that demanded vestal virgins in sacrifice. And
Saint Theodosius killed dragons with his spear. Already Sigfrid kills a dragon and steals its treasure…
.- And what is the first plastic representation of Sant Jordi the dragon slayer?
A fresco from the beginning of the 11th century represents him at l’ church of Santa Bárbara and Sant Onofre in Cappadocia. And soon this story makes a fortune for all of Christendom…
.- You summarize it for me?
Near the city of Lácia, in Cappadocia, a living dragon and the marshes: kill with the tail, the teeth and’ on time. The king sends one army after another, and they all fail. To tame the dragon, begins to give him children…
.- human sacrifices?
The king ends up handing over his daughter, about to get married. The rod, dressed for the wedding, he sits and waits for his death. And Sant Jordi passes by there. She explains everything. He asks what god his father believes in. “In Jupiter”, she answers. Sant Jordi teaches him to entrust himself to Jesus Christ and subdues the dragon.
.- I don't kill him?
Tie it with princess ribbons, and they enter the city tamed… And they all get baptized! And then Sant Jordi decapitates the dragon.
.- I, work done, continue on your way.
Less so in a version painted by the Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti: the princess and Sant Jordi get married!
.- What does the dragon symbolize??
the threats, the devil… I’ enemy. A Sant Jordi "kills the Moors" helps take Husca to the Moors every year 1096.
.- And when Sant Jordi arrives in Catalonia?
The anthroponym Jordi has existed here since the 10th century… In the 11th century, altars were dedicated to Sant Jordi. And a Catalan military order is constituted the 1201: Sant Jordi d’ Alfama.
.- Saint George helped James I?
And, in the conquests of Mallorca and Valencia he appears riding the white horse.
.- What do you think Sant Jordi is telling us?. Today?
Sant Jordi has settled in our collective consciousness, and knows how to adapt to the values of each moment: now he is no longer a warrior and is a gallant knight, always our protector.
** Relat mil•lenari **
Cingolani has completed the first rigorous academic study on the history of the Saint George myth, its roots, its meaning, the evolution of the story and its plastic representations ("Saint George, a millennial legend", editorial Base), a process related to the implementation and spread of Christianity in Europe, of the Orient, in hostile circumstances… Catalonia adopted Sant Jordi during the Middle Ages: he imposed himself as a warrior patron against Islam, and today it could be our protector against the dragon of crisis: he is a very handsome gentleman who wants to convince us that our weapons of the present and future are no longer spears, but the books. Saint George!
