Sant Jordi’s Day

Sant Jordi (Saint George) is the patron saint of Catalonia. It’s a personage that mixes reality and legend.

The tradition says that Sant Jordi was a Christian martyr that was born in Cappadocia between 275 and 280. He was the son of a rural noble family. He died the 23th of April, possibly in Palestine.

To Sant Jordi had been attributed legends such as the liberation of the princes captured by the dragon in the village of Montblanc.

 The cult to Sant Jordi (Jordi in Greek means farm worker) was rapidly extended through the Orient and it was fixed in the 23th of April its celebration. The fact that this date was in spring and the meaning of his name promoted that it was considered the protector of the harvest.

In Catalonia the cult to Sant Jordi arrived in the 10th century. In 1022, abbot Oliva erected an altar in Ripoll in his honour.

The expansion f the cult to Sant Jordi in the rest of Europe took place from the 11th century with the crusades. It was invoked for the warriors in their fights against the Muslims while trying to conquer Holy Land back.

The fact that Sant Jordi is the patron saint of the knights is due to the help the king Pere I in 1094 received from the saint. He won a battle against the Saracen after praying to the saint. As an acknowledgement it was made the patron of knights and the Catalan nobility.

From the 13th century, the Catalan kings showed a great devotion to this saint. In 1202, Pere el Catòlic authorised the creation of the Order of Sant Jordi d’Alfama that veneered Sant Jordi and showed off its flag in Catalonia and Europe.

In the 15th it started to be celebrated the party of Sant Jordi in the Palau de la Generalitat coinciding with a fair of roses in the courtyard of the palace. Sant Jordi is the patron saint of Catalonia from the beginning of the 19th century.

The tradition: On Sant Jordi’s Day, a rose and a book

Sant Jordi is the patron saint of the lovers in Catalonia as an acknowledgement of his heroic deed of saving the princess from the dragon. The tradition of giving a rose as a gift to the loved girl seems to come from the 15th century with the “Fair of the lovers” that was celebrated in Barcelona. In the same century, it used to be given a rose to all the girls assisting to the mass celebrated in the chapel dedicated to Sant Jordi in the Palau de la Generalitat.

Others say that to celebrate Sant Jordi, in Barcelona, the nobility celebrated in the Born tournaments. There the ladies were gifted roses and other flowers. The tradition of giving a rose to the girlfriend as a gift was expanded till our days.

Also, 23th coincides with the festivity of the “Book Day”. This festivity started to be celebrated the 7th of October of 1926, thanks to the Valencian writer and editor living in Barcelona Vicent Clavel Andrés that proposed it to the Official Chamber of the Book of Barcelona to commemorate the birth of Miguel de Cervantes. The Spanish president, Miguel Primo de Rivera, accepted it. Also the king Alfons XIII signed the decree instituting “The Spanish Book Festivity”. In 1930 it was moved to the 23th of April, the date of the death of Miguel de Cervantes. In 1995, UNESCO declared this date, in which also died the writers William Shakespeare and Josep Pla (a famous Catalan writer), “International Day of the Book and the Writer Rights”.

The 23th of April in Girona, as in all Catalonia, is full of people buying roses and books in the Plaça Catalunya and Rambla.