Apocalypse 12.10-12; Psalm 125; Hebrews 10.32-36; John 15.18-21
St George’s Day interrupts our sequence of readings, but the legend of his slaying of the dragon cannot but remind us of the work of Christ who by his death on the cross brought down the ancient foe of humankind. The dragon’s voracious appetite is described in the
13th Century Golden Legend: though lambs were brought to him, he insisted on a feast of children, until George’s bravery closed his maw for ever.
George was a soldier in Diocletian’s army who came to believe in Christ and was punished for this apostasy by decapitation on this day in the year 303. Some forty thousand, including the Empress Alexandra, were said to have been converted by his martyrdom, a real witness to his trust in the God who delivers his servants from bondage to death.