Tomb of St. George, Israel ✚ Greek Orthodox Church & Crypt in Lydda (Lod) ✚ Holy Land Shrine

The Church of St. George was first built during the time of Constantine the Great (306-337 CE) but was dedicated to St. George a century or two later.
Apart from being mythologized as a professional dragon slayer, tradition holds George of Lydda to be a member of the Praetorian Guard in the service Roman emperor Diocletian, who was sentenced to death in the early 4th century for refusing to recant his Christian faith.

As a result of inspiring traditions associated with him and brought back with crusaders who returned from the Holy Land he is widely known as the dragon-slayer and patron saint of England. However, St. George of Lydda has quite a deeply rooted native tradition in the Levant and he is considered a prominent saint of Palestinian Christians, the city of Beirut, Malta and Ethiopia among other regions.

St. George's tomb and church in Lod is important not only to Christians, but to Muslims who have been associating him with al-Khadir, an enigmatic character alluded to in the Qur'an (Surah al-Kahf). The Muslim residents of the city of Lod venerate the saint at his tomb, even though it is a church.

The mutual veneration of St. George by both Christians and Muslims is rooted in his composite personality combining several Biblical, Qur'anic and possibly other ancient mythical heroes. In some sources the figure encompasses St. George, al-Khadir and the Prophet Elijah. In Islamic tradition based on the Qur'an, Moses searched for al-Khadir in order to learn from a servant of God known for his deep esoteric knowledge.

The church was destroyed by the Sassanians in 614 CE, rebuilt again, and destroyed in 1010 under the order of Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.

During the 12th century the Crusaders rebuilt the church again and also fortified it. In November 25, 1177 Saladin's forces laid siege to Lod but the Crusaders drove them back, but in September 24, 1191, during the Third Crusade, Saladin succeeded to destroy the church.

During the period of the Second Crusader Kingdom the church was rebuilt once more, but with the Mamluk occupation of Lod in 1260, Sultan Baibars destroyed it and left a small part of it.
Baibars ordered the construction of a mosque (al-Omari) in the area of the church he destroyed, and in its construction the Mamluks reused stones and pillars from the ruined church. These remains are still found in the mosque, which is right next to the church that was rebuilt in the 19th century.

Attribution:

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Location map by PAT

Historical drawings, public domain available at:

1874 drawing Courtesy of the Palestine Exploration Fund

Flags, public domain, available at:

© 2021 Dan Shachar. All rights reserved.

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