The Catalan Saint George - Sant Jordi
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The Christian knight, protector of Barcelona
Sant Jordi, the Catalan equivalent of Saint George, is a very popular figure in Catalonia. He is the Patron Saint of the region, and Catalonia even have a Saint George Day - El Día de Sant Jordi, on April 23rd. On this day the tradition says that the girls have
to give a book to the guys and the guys have to give roses to the girls.
The rose motif stems from the myth, since after Saint George killed the dragon, a rose came up where the dragon's blood was spilled. The book comes from the International Book Day: both Shakespeare and Cervantes died on April 23rd, both in 1616! |
Catalonia and Saint George
If you visit the Barrio Gòtico of Barcelona especially one figure is present no matter where you are. In paintings, sculptures, fountains, etc. It is a knight with his sword high in the air fighting an enormous dragon. The knight is of course Saint George and in the Catalan version his name is Sant Jordi. This is the patron saint of Barcelona's.
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The Catalan Sant Jordi
According to the myth about Saint George, the dragon was terrifying a small village called Montblanc in the south-west of Catalonia. When it had eaten all the animals the village had to draw a person to satisfy the hunger of the evil dragon. When the name of the young princess came up Saint George came riding and he killed the dragon with his sword in the last moment. This myth about Saint George can be found all over Europe (England, Georgia, Greece, etc.), but the Catalans have been drawn by the story to a higher degree than in most other places.
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Sant Jordi as Allegory
Maybe the reason is, that the Catalans see the myth as an allegorical story about their own history, and so pictures the evil dragon to be a symbol of Madrid and the Central Power through history and the local knight as the savior of the village.
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