Dedication of the Church of the Great-Martyr George at Lydda

Kept 3 November — The consecration of the basilica over the relics of George at Lydda (Diospolis)

On November 3 the Church commemorates the dedication (consecration) of the church raised over the relics of the Great-Martyr George at Lydda — the ancient Diospolis (Lod) in Palestine, George's own homeland, where his mother's house stood and where his body was brought for burial after his martyrdom at Nicomedia. The commemoration is a secondary feast of George, distinct from his principal feast on April 23: it keeps the anniversary of the consecration of his basilica, the first built in the sixth century, and in Russian usage it also honours the many churches dedicated to George throughout the Russian land.

Lydda (Diospolis, modern Lod), on the coastal plain of Palestine, was the native place of the Great-Martyr George — his mother's family came from there, and the tradition places his childhood in the town. George was a Roman soldier who suffered under Diocletian at Nicomedia at the beginning of the fourth century; after his martyrdom Christians carried his body back to his homeland and buried it at Lydda. Over his tomb a church was raised, and it became one of the great pilgrimage shrines of the Holy Land, the tomb-slab and the chain with which the martyr had been bound being kept and venerated there.

The first basilica at Lydda is assigned by the tradition to the sixth century. Like most of the sanctuaries of Palestine it suffered repeatedly through the centuries — damaged and rebuilt across the periods of Persian and Arab conquest, the Crusades, and after — until the present church was restored in 1872, a rebuilding accomplished in large part through donations gathered in Russia. The re-consecration of the restored church took place on November 3, 1872, chosen deliberately as the anniversary of the day on which the ancient church had first been consecrated; and it is this November 3 dedication that the Menaion keeps. In the Russian tradition the feast was received the more warmly for the Russian part in the restoration, and the day came also to honour the churches built and dedicated to Saint George across Russia, where he was among the most beloved of the martyrs. Lydda has a further scriptural memory attached to it: it was there that the Apostle Peter healed the paralytic Aeneas (Acts 9:32–35).

Because George's own principal feast falls on April 23, and because his relics, his martyrdom, and his broader cultus are proper to that day, this November 3 commemoration is treated here as a distinct dedication feast of his shrine rather than as a second full account of the martyr. The saint himself is not yet authored in this collection; his life belongs to his principal feast, to which this entry looks forward.

Feast and commemoration

November 3 (church date; Old Calendar civil November 16). The dedication is kept chiefly in the Russian tradition and appears in the Slavonic Menaion for the day, alongside the hieromartyrs Akepsimas, Joseph and Aithalas of Persia and the martyrs of Sebaste. It is served with the propers of the Great-Martyr George himself, no separate troparion being appointed to the dedication. On the Old Calendar the same church date falls on civil November 16.

Hymns

Troparion

As the deliverer of captives and defender of the poor, physician of the sick and champion of kings, O victorious Great-Martyr George, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

Original translation from the Greek

Appointed readings

Epistle — Hebrews 3:1–4

¹Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; ²Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. ³For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. ⁴For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

Gospel — Matthew 16:13–18

¹³When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? ¹⁴And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. ¹⁵He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? ¹⁶And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. ¹⁷And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. ¹⁸And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Iconography

The feast has no distinct iconography of its own; it is marked by the icon of the Great-Martyr George — the youthful soldier-martyr, most often mounted and slaying the dragon, or standing in armour with lance and shield — and, where a dedication scene is shown, by the consecration of his church at Lydda over the tomb that holds his relics. No storable pre-modern image proper to this dedication has been identified.