written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Saturday 8 August 2020

Enslavement And Emancipation

Question the past, interrogate the narrative, but be mindful of the frame of reference and try to avoid becoming enslaved to an ideology. Easier said than done, I know. I'm not an historian and in these matters I'm probably closer to the journalist than the academic; but I believe it pays to undertake proper research with an open mind, to double-check sources, to arrive at educated conclusions where possible and above all to avoid laziness. The truth should be liberating.

Our current prime-minister, Eton and Oxford educated, but not best known for his graft or attention to detail, once stated in a preface he contributed to a book about St. George: "According to Gibbon, he had nothing to do with a dragon, but was a Cappadocian merchant who made a fortune selling bacon to the Roman army. What could be more appropriate? Napoleon said the English were a nation of shopkeepers. He meant it as an insult. We take it as a compliment. It is that spirit of small- business entrepreneurship that encouraged St. George to flog his bacon to the Romans and will lead this country out of recession... Cry God for Harry, England and St. George the seller of bacon!"

I don't know whether tears or laughter are more appropriate in reaction to that load of bombastic bullshit. By the way, did I say this blog is going to be about St. George, England's patron saint? It is.  And a fascinating tale it will prove (I hope).

First off, we have to debunk the notion of the bacon-selling merchant. If that lazy BoJo (a classics graduate allegedly) had been half-way studious, he would have known that Gibbon got the wrong George! His candidate for St. George (according to The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ) was George, Bishop of Alexandria, a corrupt and immoral figure who amassed a personal fortune from collecting taxes and - yes - selling dodgy meat to the Roman army. Bishop George was actually a bit of a heretic and persecuted orthodox Christians until the Alexandrians rebelled against him, killed him and threw his body into the sea in 362 A.D.

As for the real St. George, he'd already been dead for over half a century. Regarding the man behind the considerable myth, most credible scholarly researches suggest the following...

Agios Georgios (Saint George)
He was born around 270 A.D. at Militene in Cappadocia (part of modern-day Turkey) to Christian parents. His father was Greek, son of the governor of the province, and his mother was from Syria. George became a knight in the (heathen) Imperial Roman Army and his religion was not an issue until the turn of the century when Emperor Diocletian, responding to reports of disaffection in some quarters of the army decided that Christians were to blame. He ordered them to renounce their religion and worship the Roman gods instead, on pain of dismissal or death. George refused to renounce his faith. More than that apparently, for while pledging secular allegiance to Rome, he made rather public play of everyone's rights to freedom of faith in religious matters. Because he was of quite high standing, this put him on a collision course with the authorities and when he wouldn't recant in the face of brutal torture, he was executed (apparently on 23rd April) in 303 A.D. He became in the process of the next couple of centuries one of the most venerated of Christian martyrs and all sorts of legends sprang up about his acts of chivalry. Most elements of these legends are apocryphal, of course, staged to serve different religious or national agendas, though it is tempting to think there may be kernels of truth in a few.

Take the dragon and the virgin for instance. Allegedly George was stationed in Libya at some time in the late third century (quite plausible in fact, given the nature and reach of the Roman Empire) and was responsible for freeing a city from the grip of bandit warlords, for which the duke of the once beleaguered city gave his daughter in marriage in grateful thanks to George the liberator. It's not hard to see how that became the basis of the rather more colourful legend. What's particularly interesting about George is that he was and is equally venerated by Christianity and Islam, where he is revered as Al-Khidr. The raft of ideals he came to stand for - honesty, valour, emancipation, regeneration - mean that he finds himself patron saint of a swathe of countries (including Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Turkey) and occupations and organisations such as farmers, hospitals, shepherds and scouts.

How he came to be patron saint of England is interesting. He'd been revered as a saint and martyr for centuries by the Christian church, and as the soldier-saint had been a talisman for the various Crusades to the Holy Land (where incidentally he was supposed to have been buried at Lydda in Palestine) from the eleventh century on. But it was only during the reign of Edward III that he came to replace St. Edmund as England's official patron saint, with an official declaration in 1351 that "the English nation call upon St. George as being their special patron, particularly in war." Edward also instigated the chivalric Order of the Garter and incorporated the heraldic red cross (for blood) on a white ground (for purity) into royal insignia.

Subsequent to that many stories were written to retrofit St. George into the English chivalric tradition. One such even had him being born in Coventry! His saint day, April 23rd, was celebrated as a holy event by the church and he featured in miracle and morality plays that were put on annually by town guilds up and down the country. In such mummeries, the dragon became known as Snap, presumably because he had a hinged snout that could open and shut to noisy effect.

Although St. George never lost his position as patron saint of England, his popularity waned considerably once Henry VIII broke with Rome and the prevalence of the Catholic church with its idolatry and feast-days declined rapidly from the 16th century onwards. Additionally, once the union with Scotland (and later Northern Ireland) came into being, the cross of St. George became subsumed into the Union flag. Romantic attempts were made to revive interest in St. George during Victoria's reign but to little lasting effect. Union and Empire were the keynotes of her long reign and thus St. George became largely the preserve of the military and the nascent boy scout movement. When George VI wanted to reward gallantry in the second world war, he created the George Cross and the George Medal, not in his name but in the name and with the image of the soldier-saint.

The renaissance, if it can be termed such, has come only recently. For years, even St. Patrick's Day was more of a popular event in this country than St. George's Day but then in the last part of the last century, things began to change. It's almost as though some sections of English society went through some sort of national identity crisis. Shorn of its empire from the 1960s onwards, then becoming part of the European Economic Community in the 1970s, seeing a legitimate influx of peoples from the Commonwealth and then observing moves to devolved government for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, some Englishmen and women suddenly felt downsized, insignificant, wanting to be great again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be English and I think this country has a lot to be proud of. I'm patriotic but I'm not nationalistic about it. I'm also proud to be European and was happy to be part of the European Union as an international community. I never felt any less English for being in the EU, any more than the French feel less French or the Italians less Italian. I just don't get the insular mind-set. Anyhow, I digress.

A renewed desire to celebrate and recognise an English identity meant an upturn in popularity for St. George, his day and his red and white flag. Football fans and football culture had quite a bit to do with this (and rugby union to a lesser extent), football being one of the few sports in which England rather than Great Britain competes on the world stage. In 1966, the year in which England won the world cup, the flags being flown all around Wembley Stadium were Union flags. Thirty years later at Euro '96 the red and white of St. George had become predominant and continues to be so wherever England matches are played. In 2014 and 2016 came two celebration of William Shakespeare (who famously was born and died on 23rd April) to recognise 450 years since his birth and 400 since his death; and it was Shakespeare of course who wrote those lines in Henry V that BoJo was happy to quote: "Cry God for Harry, England and St. George."

The significant dark stain on all this longing for Englishness is the manner in which the far right extremists, be they the British National Party, England First Party or English Defence League, have co-opted the red and white cross as a standard and their sympathisers have chosen to parade it and wrap themselves in it as a symbol of white Englishness. As one Church of England spokesman put it recently: "It is time that St. George  was reclaimed from the dragon, from past associations with racism and the far Right." I'd go further than that and re-educate the people of England in the broader truth and relevance of their patron saint - not just a man of valour, but also a man of colour and one who rejected prejudice and died opposing intolerance. "In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility" (that's also Henry V).

'Snap' the dragon
I love the fact that the dragon in the traditional St. George pageants was known as Snap. I love even more the fact of him posing on his plinth in London, proudly holding the shield showing England's colours, with not a saint in sight. One might almost think Snap the dragon stands there victorious in his emancipation, freed at last from centuries of being the bad guy.

Here's my latest poem, brought to life in light of the recent Black Lives Matter marches and the various counter-demonstrations they triggered. It was bizarre and frankly frightening to see members and sympathisers of the English Defence League standing round statues in central London giving out Nazi salutes. That, coupled with the deluge of right-wing propaganda all over social media in recent weeks masquerading as 'concerned patriotism' prompted me to write this. I should also add that as a supporters' liaison officer at a professional football club, regrettably I have seen and heard the sort of racist comments that really should have no place in our lives anymore.

It's a bit clunky, perhaps still a work-in-progress, would probably get polished in performance only there isn't such a thing at the moment. My thanks go regardless to my fellow poets in Blackpool & the Fylde Stanza group for suggestions and feedback on an original, even clunkier, draft of the poem.

Off White
This one's for a certain breed of football lads.
They all know who they are; the ones who say
"There's too many blacks at our club, in our town,
in our country today. We're becoming a minority.
Share this message if you dare to agree."
And although a bit of poetry might not be their bag,
(even less likely now it's been dropped from GCSE),
because poems are for tossers, right? I felt impelled
to set these lines down anyway, just to shine a light.

What were you thinking, when you stood four-square
around our cenotaphs that Saturday afternoon in June,
there being neither football games or pubs to go to,
nor one single destroyer with defamation as his goal?
You criticised a popular campaign for 'virtue signalling',
the most pejorative of put-downs; and yet your tokenism
in defence of white tradition was precisely that, I'd say,
minus the virtue, and with the odd Nazi salute thrown in.

Our patron saint was neither very English nor exactly white.
Good St. George was born in what today is eastern Turkey.
I know, you voted 'leave' because the Turks were coming.
More Brexit lies, but that's now by the by. His father? Greek.
His mother? Syrian. I realise it's not getting any better for you,
this true history. What's more, we share our patron saint.
Ethiopia, Georgia, Moldova and Palestine invoke him too,
and he's equally revered by Christians and Muslims. So

bear in mind, next time you wrap yourselves in the flag
of good St. George, or sink a bellyful of foreign beers
to celebrate his national day, that what he truly represents
is the highest principle of valour in defence of diversity,
equality, and the moral right of all to live freely side by side;
the perfect patron saint for a proudly multicultural society,
something to aspire to. It's what he died for, after all.
NB. edit to add: as only 14% of England in 'non-white',
your loaded claims of becoming a minority look slight!









Thanks for reading, and stay safe, S ;-)

21 comments:

Peter Fountain said...

Political poems, especially the didactic kind, are never the easiest to write and not just because of the contentious content. I tend to steer clear of attempting them for that reason, so well done to you for 'Off White'. Sometimes the content needs to take priority over the form. 👍

Celia M said...

Well done Steve. That was a fascinating account and a worthy poem. (I liked your dig at the dropping of poetry from the English syllabus.) I think coming around of the millennium had something to do with the revitaliing of St. George as well. You may not know this, but the Catholic church in England reinstated St. George's day as an observed holy day in 2000.

Mac Southey said...

I remember Billy Bragg campaigning some years ago for us to understand and embrace the true nature of our patron saint - a dark-skinned man from the Middle East who stood for freedom and tolerance - as a step towards slaying the dreadful dragon of our xenophobia :)

Tom Shaw said...

All new to me Steve and completely fascinating as a backdrop to the BLM protests and counter-protests. I had no idea who our patron saint is, so I looked it up. It's the Immaculate Conception apparently, Mary mother of Jesus. What's really weird though is apparently she is given that name not because Jesus was a virgin birth (the Christmas story we all grew up with) but because Mary herself was an immaculate conception in her own right from her mother Anna. It's hot Catholic dogma apparently. See what you've started now (LOL). Meanwhile we've just racked up 5 million coronavirus cases here in the US. Could have used some of that saintly patronage!

Anonymous said...

Keep sticking it to Boris Johnson the lazy, racist showboater. His grandparents came from Turkey too. You'd think he'd know better than to spout all that stuff about piccaninnies and letterboxes.

Ben Templeton said...

I watched the news this evening and saw that several of the protesters in Belarus were carrying flags of St. George. Is his help being invoked to emancipate Belarussians from the last dictator in Europe? It would be nice to think so. Great blog Steve and I thought your poem carried a powerful message.

Anonymous said...

Well that gives it both barrels, Mr R.

Nigella D said...

Fascinating Steve. That was an education. I always thought St. George was a white knight even though I knew the dragon stuff was just legend. This makes him far more interesting than I ever realised. Thank you.

Boz said...

Do any football lads read your blog? Apart from me obviously. Your poem does nail it though. Well done la.

Jon Cromwell said...

Wow. There's a lot to take in there. It's a long read but you represent a line on his background and fluctuating influence very clearly and I found it fascinating. The poem is a polemic and I suppose doesn't set out to demonstrate finesse but nothing wrong with that. It's meant to be powerful. I wouldn't call it clunky.

Sahra Carezel said...

Very interesting Steve. I must tell you two things: St George is also the patron saint of Gozo (the island of Malta my family originated from) and Malta was awarded the George Medal in WW2 for its resistance against the Italian invaders.

Anonymous said...

An edifying read (if that's the word).

Nigella D said...

I lobe Snap! ❤️

Mitch Carragher said...

I suspect most people will know those lines from Henry V from the Laurence Olivier film - made with the assistance of government funding during WW2 as a propaganda project to boost the national spirit, St. George being invoked in time of trouble. I suspect your poem will not be read by the people who might benefit from reading it.

Miriam Fife said...

Interesting Steve. I knew St. George was Greek but I didn't know all the details, so nicely summarised, thank you. Your poem strikes me as weighty but I wouldn't call it clunky. The reaction buttons don't appear to be working.

Deke Hughes said...

I wonder if that's where snapdragons (the common name for antirrhinums) comes from. I like the conversational tone of your poem and its message.

Simon Pickford said...

Good historical overview Steve. Patron saints are purely symbolic, aren't they, but let's try and keep the symbolism authentic. As an aside, I believe there are still millions of Christians (mostly in the USA one suspects) who are adamant that Jesus was white and refute the fact that he was Jewish! Mind you, they also credit Trump with god-like genius! Keep the blogs coming, they are always a pleasure to read.

Matt West said...

Thing is pal, the people who need to see this won't, but I understand why you felt you had to write it. 👍👍👍

Carey Jones said...

Typical of Boris to big up the wrong guy, and a flogger of bacon. Can he actually take anything seriously? I used to think his buffoonery was a sly tactic hiding a substantial objective but I think now that there's nothing substantial there at all and he can't help himself. Anyway, good blog Steve. Get your poem out there and rattle some bone boxes!

Colin Hawkswell said...

A good blog Steve. I didn't know much of that. So much of everything is interconnected, we just don't typically think of it that way. I'm one of those who voted for Brexit but wish now I hadn't and I don't like the attitude of this government at all.

WarriorZWordZ said...

Thanks for sharing!! Really good read!