Saint George

Saint George was returned to the Moscow coat of arms by mayoral decree ten years ago, on November 23, 1993. The emblem depicts St. George on a silver horse, wearing a blue cape and silver armor, killing a black dragon with a golden spear.

The custom of having the portrait of a prince and his saint on coats of arms came to Russia from Byzantium, at the end of the 10th century. St. George appeared on Russian coins and seals for the first time during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (11th century). Under Ivan III, the depiction of a horseman slaying a dragon became the Moscow principality’s coat of arms. This change coincided with the gathering of Russian lands around Moscow.

In the 16th century, the Russian State Seal featured a double-headed eagle and the breast-shield carried the symbol of Moscow — a horseman killing a dragon. In 1663, the horseman on this breast-shield was made to resemble Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and later Peter the Great. It was Peter I who was the first to define the horseman on the Arms of Moscow as St. George, though during Peter’s
reign it was still a lay horseman who wore a jacket and a hat.

Since 1730, the horseman on the coat of arms was officially identified as St. George. A 1781 decree described the emblem as St. George riding a white horse and slaying a black dragon; the color of the shield was red.

In 1883, Nikolai I decreed a change to Moscow’s coat of arms. According to the rules of West European heraldry, characters on coats of arms should face toward the viewers’ left, whereas on Moscow emblem, they faced right. The European rule was set in order that a knight or horseman not seem to be fleeing the enemy. Nikolai’s decree also changed St. George’s cape from yellow to blue, so that the emblem now integrated all three colors of the Russian flag.

After the 1917 October Revolution, Moscow’s coat of arms was changed to feature a five-pointed star, a hammer and sickle, a cog-wheel and rye.

The Story of St. George

The Christian legend of St.George has many versions, but one is more widespread than others. In 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian started persecuting Christians. When George, a young military tribune, declared himself a Christian, the Emperor tried to force him to renounce his faith. All the Emperor’s attempts failed, so he ordered George to be tortured. Between his many tortures, George performed miracles, healing people and raising people from the dead. This purportedly prompted the Emperor’s wife and some of the Emperor’s retainers to convert to Christianity. Nevertheless, George was executed. 

“St. George’s Miracle of the Dragon” was initially a separate legend, not included in his life story. The legend tells of a terrible dragon that settled in the lake outside a certain eastern town, and started to devour the locals. When the dragon was going to eat the princess, who was Christian, George, a handsome young man on a white horse, came and, through prayer alone, made the dragon bow down. The Princess tied her sash round the dragon’s neck and led him to the town. 

As in many other mythological tales, the dragon in this legend symbolizes evil and paganism, and St. George personifies light and kindness. The plot of the Russian bylina (a Russian epic) telling the story of Dobrynya Nikitich, a man of great strength, killing Zmei Gorynych (Snake Gorynych) in order to save a princess is quite similar to this ancient legend.

There have been many attempts to find the real historical prototype for St. George (see Russian Life, August 1997, where we visited the purported grave of St. George, in Dzhalgan, Dagestan). St. Yury (George) the Sufferer and Conqueror was a powerful saint in Europe, the Middle East and Great Britain. St. George was also a popular figure in chivalry and heraldry. In Western Europe, he was considered a patron saint of knights. But in Slavic lands he was considered not only a warrior but also a patron saint of farming. In Russia, the legend of St. George spread after the adoption of Christianity and it came not from Western Europe, but directly from Byzantium.