Glossary

St George

Saint George is a Christian martyr known chiefly through the legend of the dragon, and — in Brazil — through his syncretism with the Orixá Ogum, which links directly to Santo Daime's own alliance with the Umbanda line.

A soldier and a legend

Historically, George is remembered as a Roman soldier, born in the region of Cappadocia around 275–280 AD, who served under the emperor Diocletian and was executed for his Christian faith around 303. The dragon-slaying story that later attached to his name is a medieval legendary addition rather than part of the earliest accounts, and George became patron saint of England in 1415, after English soldiers invoked him at the Battle of Agincourt; King Edward III had already founded the Order of the Garter in his honor, together with the Virgin Mary and Edward the Confessor, in 1348.

Ogum, and Santo Daime's alliance with Umbanda

In Brazil, popular devotion to Saint George merged with reverence for Ogum, the warrior Orixá of Candomblé and Umbanda, producing one of Brazilian religion's best-known syncretisms. Within Santo Daime, this connection took on institutional weight in the 1980s: Padrinho Alfredo's hinário included a formal call to unite with the Umbanda line, and in 1986 Padrinho Sebastião visited the community of Céu da Montanha and met the medium Baixinha, sealing a spiritual alliance between Santo Daime and Umbanda that practitioners describe as still active today. At Céu do Mapiá, Saint George's feast day is marked each year with a large gira, an Umbanda-style ceremonial gathering, held in his honor.