Name:  Church of St. George in Lod
Religion:  Christian
Denomination/Stream:  Greek Orthodox
Responsible:  Archimandrite-Stephanos
Address (1):  POB 230
Work Telephone:  (08)9222023

Full Description: 

The image of St. George mounted on his mighty steed, slaying the threatening dragon, is familiar throughout much of the Western world, and especially in England, which adopted the popular hero-figure as its patron saint sometime in the thirteenth century. Few in the West, however, are aware that the cult of St. George originated in the Middle East, among Eastern Christians in the Holy Land. Except for Mary and the apostles, no saint has been more central to the lives and spirituality of indigenous Christians than St. George. Dozens of monasteries and parish churches are named after the illustrious fourth-century martyr, among them the church in his traditional hometown of Lydda (as the Greeks renamed the city known both in biblical times and today as Lod).

The ancient cult of St. George is associated with healing and deliverance from danger; the saint’s protective power is recalled in the icons and medallions of St. George that adorn many Arab Christian homes and vehicles. Throughout the ages, St. George, the great liberator, has been a source of solace and succor for the marginalized Christian minorities in the Holy Land, particularly in times of crises. In Eastern Orthodox theology, the iconographic representation of George slaying the dragon is understood as an image of the cosmic drama, in which the spiritual might of the mystic restores order to the universe by taming and subduing the brute forces that would reduce it to chaos.

St. George was a real person, but it is difficult to peel away the many mythical accretions to his biography, such as the slaying of the dragon. A distinguished and loyal Roman officer in the days of Emperor Diocletian, in 303 he petitioned the emperor to rescind his infamous edict against the Christians. After George was martyred for refusing to recant his Christian faith, his remains were brought back to the Holy Land and buried in Lydda. The annual feast of the transfer of his relics to Lydda soon became a major local Christian festival; today it is also celebrated by Muslims, for whom George is al-Khader, the “green” or “living” one.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem received permission from the Turkish authorities to build a church on the site of previous shrines in honor of the illustrious saint. The authorization stipulated, however, that part of the plot be made available for a mosque. Consequently the current Church of St. George incorporates only the northeast corner of the Crusader edifice. The prayer hall of the adjacent mosque contains a column that once stood in the nave of the Byzantine basilica. Both in the church in Lod and in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in the village of al-Khader, near Bethlehem, there is an iron chain hanging on the wall. In times past it was customary to shackle insane persons in these churches, in the belief that the saint’s therapeutic powers would free them from the bonds of their madness.