How St. George Took the Place of Perun’s Son

Before they became Christians, Croats worshipped Mokoš, the mother of the moist earth. In the old belief, the earth was the mother and the sky the father. The fertile earth received the seed into its womb, making the image of the black earth a central part of the tradition.

After Christianization, Christian cults appeared at places once considered sacred in the older religion. St. George became associated with Perun, or with his son Jarilo. The saint’s battle with a dragon, described as a great serpent, helped the new tradition take root because it recalled Perun’s struggle with Veles.

According to the article, Croats readily embraced the legend of St. George when it emerged in the 13th century. St. George became a protector of livestock, crops and the land. He was also believed to help sick animals and protect people from epidemics, death at sea, war and trouble before the courts.

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There is no doubt that St. George replaced the fair-haired young man Jarilo, who, like his father Perun, kills the dragon or serpent.

In northwestern Croatia, St. George often took the place of the Slavic god Jarovit, or Jarilo, Perun’s son. Jarilo, an unmarried young man, returned each spring for a wedding or romantic meeting with Morana in a green grove, setting nature’s cycle and the fertility of the year in motion. Before reaching that meeting, however, Jarilo had to kill the dragon. Perun killed the serpent with lightning or a spear, Jarilo cut off its head with a sword, and St. George was said to defeat the dragon with either a spear or a sword.

A relief at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Žrnovnica shows a mounted spearman killing a dragon. Although it has sometimes been identified as St. Michael, archaeologists concluded that it depicts a pagan spearman, probably Perun or Jarilo. St. Elijah and St. Michael also came to represent Perun after Christianization. The article likewise connects the worship of the Virgin Mary with Mokoš, noting that churches and shrines dedicated to Mary continued this older religious attachment.

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return to mother earth