Cyprus: Historical and DescriptiveLöher, Franz von
History
Cyprus: Historical and Descriptive
Löher, Franz von
Cyprus -- Description and travel; Cyprus -- History
The legend of the saint is as follows: St. George, who was born in
Cappadocia, went with his mother to Palestine, of which country she
was a native, and where she had considerable estates. These fell to
her son, who was a soldier, and became a tribune, and was further
promoted by the Emperor Diocletian, to whom, however, he resigned his
commission when that emperor made war against the Christian religion.
He was thrown into prison for remonstrating against bloody edicts, and
was afterwards beheaded at Nicomedia. St. George became the patron of
the soldiers who fought for the faith, and his apparition is said to
have encouraged the Christian army in the Holy War, before the battle
of Antioch, which proved fortunate under Godfrey of Bouillon, and he is
also said to have appeared and inspirited Richard Cœur de Lion, in his
expedition against the Saracens. St. George is usually represented in
pictures as on horseback, slaying a dragon; but this is no more than
an emblematical figure, purporting that by his faith and Christian
fortitude, he had overcome the devil.
The great majority of the population of Larnaka, as of the rest of the
island, are members of the Greek Church.
The chief points of difference between the Greek Church and that of
Rome, are the following:
The Greek Church does not admit: First. The supremacy of Rome.
Secondly. The Filioque clause in the creed.
Thirdly. The enforced celibacy of the parochial clergy (the reason
of this being that although the monastic system had begun before the
schism, the celibacy of the regular clergy had not been enforced till a
later period, and this was adopted by the Greek Church).
Fourthly. The doctrine of transubstantiation, in the Papal sense of
that term, is not held by the Greek Church; (Rome itself did not adopt
this strange tenet till the Council of Lateran in 1215).
Fifthly. The dogmas of purgatory and penance, as taught by Rome, are
not held by the Greek Church, yet some of their views bear a close
resemblance to the papal theories on these points.
Sixthly. The Greek Church disagrees with that of Rome about the use
of leaven in the Eucharist. In almost all other respects there is
little difference between the churches. The Greek Church is thoroughly
hierarchical, holds the monastic system, worships pictures (although it
rejects the worship of images), and gives to the Virgin Mary as high a
degree of worship as even Rome can do; its theory of the Panagia being
scarcely distinguishable from that of the Immaculate Conception.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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