Saint George and the Dragon: Cult, Culture, and Foundation of the City

Sacrificium civitas est.

St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei.

Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis, et conculcabis leonem et draconem.

Psalm 90

The figure of St. George fighting the dragon is an icon in the Eastern and Western world: the topos of the glorious and sacred image, the Saint on horseback with shield and spear, opposite to the winged monster, comes from ancient times and places, subject to devotion and dedication. From Palestine to England, from the Balkans—according to the sources, George was born in Cappadocia—to Catalonia (San Jordi), the figure of the saint defines, morphologically, one of the most important martyrological cults in the Mediterranean area. Following the insights of René Girard, which describe the violent origins of human culture, I propose to analyze, through the traditional image of St. George, the foundation of the "enclosed city" ¹ model of the Mediterranean city during the Middle Ages, with particular reference to the sacrificial origins of living space. The term "enclosed city" refers, specifically, to the earliest institution of the Mediterranean city in the Christian sacral area. We recall, among other things, that the culture of the people who cultivate and the civilization of those who build the city limits are linked by common reference to the cult, and not just etymologically. Worship, cult, and culture are, in fact, invested even in the mythical-ritual moments of a single human being on earth, in their anthropological, historical and institutional, and political-symbolic modes. The continuity between the ancient world, medieval, and the modern can be analyzed and understood through the cults, the stories, and the legends of patron saints and the rituals related to the different moments of the organization of the medieval city space, and their politico-religious persistence in the modern city. From the time of the ancient rite of moenia signare aratro, in which there was no distinction between the ruling figure as supreme military chief, king, or priest, the first form of a built space has defined, ambiguously, the peaceful order that, within walls, exercises control over undifferentiated nature. With Romano Guardini, we can see the character of an area that needs to be put into shape, connecting the physis to nature on the one hand, and blind to the power inherent in cratos on the other. This connects, therefore, the themes of the city and of fear as a political feeling. Here culture is changing nature, and maintaining an antinomian dimension in which culture intersects with nature. Romano Guardini's thought allows us to suggest a possible morphology of the city. "Pure culture would be absence of place, artificiality, it would be the cessation of instinct, corruption of blood, separation from the land, disease and destruction. Pure Nature, by contrast, is opacity, servitude, lost in impulse and construction." ²

The City

In Judeo-Christian tradition, the city is considered as a negative reality. The first mention of the city that we find in the Bible is in the story of Cain and Abel, where Cain is described as a builder of cities. ³ After his crime, Cain is presented as the ultimate wanderer who tries to mend his ties with the earth and the human community that have been severed by his violent act. ⁴ Instead of being considered the place where humans reside, the city is presented as an artificial product, made by humans to protect themselves, following a transgression that has destroyed the organic bonds of community. This view becomes explicit in successive references to biblical cities. In the figures of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9) and the city of Sodom (Gen. 18-19), we have a situation similar to the story of the Garden of Eden, in which human beings aspire to build their fate entirely by themselves, hence moving away from the precepts of the Lord. Later, another city makes its appearance. This is Jerusalem, the city of God, based not on human wisdom but on the divine promise. But even here, in the practice of injustice, the holy city can become a prostitute, just as...