Holy Roman Empire Association - HREA

The Order of Saint George In Carinthia - The Order was established by Emperor designate Rudolph I of Habsburg (1273-1291) in 1273 to continue the Order of Saint George of Austria. It was re-established on Christmas  night in Rome in the year 1468 by Emperor Frederick III (1452-1493) as lay and religious, military and civil Dynastic Order. 

The Order was approved on 1st January 1469 by Paul II (1464-1471) and again in 1472 by Sixtus IV (1471-1484). It was amplified by Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519) and approved Alexander VI (1492-1503) in 1493 together with the Confraternity of St. George in Carinthia, to which he asked to be admitted as a member together with the Sacred College. 

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Order was described as one  of the most important of the Holy Roman Empire. It had taken the form of  a religious military order in Germany. The first thirteen Prince Grand  Masters of the Order were all from the House of Habsburg and were  descended from the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I. 

The monastery of Millstatt became the seat of the Order and was expanded to become the residence of the Grand Master. The church contains the epitaphs of the Grand Master Johann Sieben-Hirter (†1508) and his successor, Johann Geumann (†1533). 

Emperor Maximilian (1459-1519) was a great supporter of the Order of St George founded by his father. In 1493 he founded the Brotherhood of St. George in Innsbruck, a secular fraternity that was to be affiliated with the Order. When Maximilian died, he ordered that he be buried in the regalia of a Knight of St. George. His effigy, today in the Joanneum in Graz, shows his body wrapped in black satin with the cross of St. George on it. 

Under Maximilian‘s successor, Emperor Charles V, the Golden Fleece became the pride of the Habsburgs, and at the same time interest in the Order of St. George waned. After the death of the third Grand Master Wolfgang Prandtner in 1541, no successor was appointed. 

In 1573, the proceeds of the Order‘s properties were used for the newly founded Jesuit College in Graz, and in 1598 the entire property of the Order was handed over to it. What remained, however, was the veneration of St. George. Emperor Maximilian had declared him the patron saint of the House of Habsburg.

George the Martyr is one of the most popular saints in Christianity; his day of remembrance is 23 April. George is the patron saint of  England, Georgia, Ethiopia, Greece, Serbia, Aragon and Catalonia and - together with St. Joseph – the patron saint of Tyrol. He is one of the 14 emergency helpers and is regarded as a protector against the danger of war, plague and fever. He is the patron saint of soldiers, farmers, horsemen, miners, blacksmiths and prisoners.

Little is known about the historical George. He died as a martyr in  Nicomedia, today‘s Izmir – according to other legends in Lydda, today‘s  Lod in Israel – at the beginning of the persecution of Christians under  Diocletian. 

His veneration began as early as the 4th century, so there is probably no reason to doubt his existence. According to legend, he was born to a wealthy family in Cappadocia, his mother Polychronia was a  Christian and had him baptised too. George was a soldier in the Roman  army and was decorated for his courage.

The figure of the saint is associated with numerous legends, the most  famous being his fight with the dragon. In the „Legenda Aurea“ from the  13th century, it is reported that the Knight George came to the city of  Silena in Libya. 

The veneration of the saint spread throughout Christendom at an early stage. In Byzantium, he was venerated as a soldier and noble saint from 525 onwards, and from the year 1000 onwards the dragon legend became established in the Eastern churches, and in the West at the time of the Crusades. In 1099, George, riding on a white horse, is said to have helped the Crusaders to victory over the Saracens at Antioch. 

Richard the Lionheart made him his personal patron saint, and at the Synod of Oxford in 1222 the saint‘s name day became a national holiday.

George was regarded as the patron saint of the Knights of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Teutonic Order, founded in 1190 before Acre, also promoted his veneration. Around 1250, commissioned by the Bavarian Duke Otto II the Illustrious of the House of Wittelsbach, Reinbot von Durne wrote the George Novel, a verse poem about the saint, which was one of the most widespread books of the Middle Ages and praised St. George as a model of the Christian Knight.